John Goodman thanks his co-star for saving him from nearly drowning in the Thames
John Goodman has thanked his co-star Michaela Coel for saving him from nearly drowning while filming a TV show in London.
The Roseanne star has revealed that he was shooting BBC drama Black Earth Rising with Michaela Coel on the banks of the Thames when he lost his footing.
Though he was trying to haul himself back to safety, the river kept dragging him back in, until Coel intervened.
“She was so fit she saved my life,” he said during an interview for the SAG-AFTRA Conversations series.
“We had to do a scene at the Thames where I was trying to save her character. We were only supposed to go in up to our knees.
“I slipped and God knows what’s on those stones under the water. The footing was so slick and I couldn’t get out and kept getting sucked back in.
“She saved my life and pulled me out of the river!”
However, the harrowing experience appeared not to have put him off the city.
“I was over-tired and burned out but I got this role and it invigorated me,” he explains. “Working in London does something for me as well. I just love it over there.
“I looked forward to going to work every day. I got to feel like I was a proper actor again.
“If I’m left to my own devices, I will bore myself and choose roles that aren’t so interesting, for money. I’m trying to learn to be more present.
“The work is better when you’re not dreaming about what are you gonna do after work! Just being less lazy. I wouldn’t mind having another crack at classical theatre some time. I just talk myself out of it, but if I fall on my face, at least I’m falling forward.”
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