Roseanne Barr, Candace Cameron Bure, Liam Neeson: Celebrities overcome cancel culture

Celebrities who at one point were "canceled" are finding ways to overcome the exile and either find their way back to the spotlight or work through it. 

Stars like Roseanne Barr, Candace Cameron Bure, Liam Neeson and more have faced backlash over comments deemed controversial or inappropriate by the public. However, in different ways, they are finding themselves still working.

"We're at a critical inflection point culturally, where people have seen enough, and they're tired of it," Doug Eldridge of Achilles PR told Fox News Digital.

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"Over the last year, there have been two key factors driving a cultural push-back by the once helpless and hapless masses; for the accused, we've seen resolve overtake attrition; for the proverbial 'jury of your peers' who were forced to bear witness to the cancelations, apathy has overtaken outrage. Instead of raising their hands and getting on their knees, the accused are now standing up, balling their fists, and fighting back," Eldridge said.

He continued, "At the same time, the once captive, passive audience no longer has interest or outrage in seeing an imprecise 'pound of flesh' being exacted over and over." 

Here are some of the stars who have overcome their status as "canceled" and revived their careers.

Roseanne Barr

Barr made a name for herselft in the 80s and 90s as a brash and bold stand-up comedian, which led to her self-titled sitcom "Roseanne" on ABC.

The show, which ran from 1988 to 1997, resonated with blue-collar and working-class families. The long-lasting popularity helped the show earn a revival in 2018, also titled "Roseanne," starring the original cast, including John Goodman, Sara Gilbert and Laurie Metcalf.

Shortly into the revival’s run, Barr posted a racist tweet about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett whom Barr insisted from the beginning she believed was not a woman of color.

Despite the apology, the rebooted "Roseanne" was canceled, and Barr was dropped from her agency at the time, ICM Partners.

A spin-off of the show began airing later that year, titled "The Conners." It featured the remaining family members and revealed in the first episode that Barr’s character had been killed off by an overdose of prescription opioids. The show is now in its fifth season.

Barr’s career suffered after the cancelation and the comedian ended up deleting her Twitter account. 

In an interview with Tucker Carlson on his Fox Nation series "Tucker Carlson Today," the 70-year-old shared the toll the cancelation took on her.

"I fell in bed and people were calling me and I couldn't even speak," she said. "I mean, I had a nervous breakdown. I couldn't walk or speak or think…"

Over the past five years, Barr has slowly reemerged on the stand-up comedy scene and began performing live again.

Now, she has a stand-up special on Fox Nation, titled "Roseanne Barr: Cancel This!" along with a documentary about her life and career, titled "Who Is Roseanne Barr?"

The stand-up special opens with her joking to the crowd, "Has anyone else here been fired recently?"

On "Tucker Carlson Today," Barr discussed her firing over the tweet, saying, "Any deviation from their fascist boot in your face makes you a racist."

She continued, "I was not allowed to even apologize for what happened. I was just, like, blackballed and just totally canceled from even commenting on what happened, so I thought, 'Well, stand-up is a great place to come back and say what happened and tell the truth about it and also talk about cancel culture itself and how horrible it is and how fascist…"

Barr also felt that other comedians have fallen victim to cancel culture and it is impacting the comedy world.

"[They] have no livelihood unless they are ridiculously sucking up to what the left considers to be [acceptable]," she said. "The left has no humor at all. They have no sense of humor at all, let's be real."

As for her comeback, Eldridge says controversy has always been part of Barr’s persona. 

"Roseanne's brand, her style, has always been to offend as many people as possible," the brand expert told Fox News Digital. "You can go all the way back to her shout-singing the National Anthem and grabbing her crotch, many years ago. In large part, this was set up to play exactly to her would-be audience—the setback was really a set-up for a come-back."

Candace Cameron Bure

Bure rose to fame as a child star on the beloved family sitcom "Full House" in the late 80s and early 90s. 

After that, Bure took a break from acting to start a family with her husband, Valeri Bure, and raise their three children, Natasha, Lev, and Maksim.

She eventually returned to TV and became a fixture on The Hallmark Channel in their holiday films and "Aurora Teagarden" mystery movie series, and became known as the "Queen of Christmas" on the channel. She also appeared in "Fuller House," Netflix’s reboot of "Full House," with most of her original cast mates.

In 2022, it was announced that Bure would be leaving Hallmark for Great American Family, where she now serves as chief creative officer. 

The move surprised many, but for Bure it was an opportunity to pursue more faith-based projects, something she is passionate about. 

"My faith is so the core and foundation of who I am that sometimes I don't verbally acknowledge it because it's just my assumption," Bure told Fox News Digital in November 2022. "It's like, well, ‘If you get Candace, you get faith.’ It's one and the same. It is with me all the time. It is in all that I do." 

However, Bure made comments about her move that sparked controversy.

The actress told The Wall Street Journal at the time that the network would not feature films with LGBTQ storylines.

"I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core," she said in the interview. The Hallmark Channel had announced that its holiday film line-up would feature its first same-sex couple in "The Holiday Sitter."

Bure later commented on her remark and addressed the backlash in a statement to Fox News Digital. "All of you who know me, know beyond question that I have great love and affection for all people. It absolutely breaks my heart that anyone would ever think I intentionally would want to offend and hurt anyone."

The 46-year-old continues to be outspoken about her faith. 

"It’s hard, no matter what. Especially when you are a compassionate person, and you have a heart for people," she said during a podcast interview earlier this year.

"But it’s important that we speak truth in love, ’cause, listen, nobody’s gonna change, nobody’s going to listen to you when it comes out angry, when it comes out in a harsh way, but it’s important that we don’t back down."

Her first holiday film for Great American Family premiered in November 2022. 

According to a statement from Bure, the film "A Christmas…Present," is about "slowing down enough to recognize what’s right in front of our eyes." 

Bure continued, "The hustle and bustle of the Christmas season will arrive before we know it but it’s through the quiet moments that we hear God speak to us, directing our path to what’s most important."

"A Christmas…Present" has already earned Bure two awards: best family television prize and the Grace Award for TV performance at the 30th Annual Movieguide Awards. The Movieguide Awards are dedicated to family-friendly entertainment. 

She also recently posted her support for Kelsey Grammer’s new religious film, "Jesus Revolution."

On her Instagram, she shared the trailer and wrote in the caption, "Ultimately I pray this movie is used for His glory, and for people to hear the gospel and turn to Jesus." 

Bure is also set to reunite with her "Full House" co-stars at 90s Con. 

Liam Neeson

Neeson has been a Hollywood mainstay, working for decades in dramatic roles, including his Oscar-nominated performance as Oskar Schindler in "Schindler’s List."

He also appeared in somewhat action oriented roles like "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" and "Batman Begins." However, it was his role in 2008’s "Taken" that gave the Northern Ireland born star a career renaissance in 2008. 

"Taken" spawned two sequels and a variety of similarly action-themed projects for the actor like "The Grey," "Non-Stop" and "The Commuter."

The actor’s hot streak came to a pause though while he was promoting 2019’s "Cold Pursuit."

In an interview with The Independent published at the time, Neeson recalled an incident where he harbored racist thoughts after a member of his family told him she was raped.

"My immediate reaction was," Neeson said before pausing. "I asked, did she know who it was? No. What color were they? She said it was a Black person."

Neeson said he then went out with a baton "hoping I’d be approached by somebody." 

"After that, there were some nights I went out deliberately into Black areas in this city, looking to be set upon so that I could unleash physical violence. I did it for maybe four or five times. It really shocked me, this primal urge I had. It shocked me and it hurt me. I did seek help. I went to a priest. I had two very good friends I talked to, and believe it or not — power walking — to get rid of this."

The comments sparked backlash for the veteran actor, and the red carpet for "Cold Pursuit" was canceled. After appearing on "Good Morning America" to clarify his comments to Robin Roberts, other promotional appearances were canceled.

There were calls for Neeson to be removed from his other upcoming film "Men in Black International" and director Spike Lee declared he would not work with the actor.

A month after the initial interview, Neeson released a formal apology. In the statement, he said what happened to his family "ignited irrational thoughts and do not represent the person I am."

Neeson has continued to work, appearing in multiple projects, most recently "Marlowe" and "Memory," both released in 2022.

He also made a cameo appearance in an episode of "Atlanta," written by Donald Glover. In the episode, he appears as a heightened version of himself and poking fun at the controversy.

Dave Chappelle

Dave Chappelle is a veteran standup comic and actor, beginning in the early 90s. He rose to mainstream fame in 2003 with his Comedy Central series "Chappelle’s Show," where he skewered everything from racism to politics and pop culture in the weekly sketch series.

At the show’s height, Chappelle walked away from it in the middle of producing the third season, citing stress and disagreements with the network over the content of the show.

From there, the Ohio native focused on stand up comedy, and in 2016 began a lucrative deal with Netflix, which produced six of his standup specials.

The last special, 2021’s "The Closer" sparked his most recent controversy. In the special, Chappelle spent a significant amount of time discussing his views on transgender people, which have been deemed transphobic by members of the LGBTQ+ community and others.

Netflix employees walked out in protest of the special’s content, but the company stood by Chappelle.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos defended the company's decision not to fire or remove Chappelle's material and called him the "comedian of our generation." He also noted that comedians have to joke about taboo subjects by "crossing the line every once in a while."

Chappelle has never backed down on his stance and even said he agreed with J.K. Rowling, who had been decried for her position on the transgender community.

In May 2022, the 49-year-old was attacked onstage by Isiah Lee, who was ultimately charged with four misdemeanors. In the moments after the attack, Chappelle joked that it was a "trans man" who had attacked him.  

Later that year, a venue in Minnesota canceled a scheduled appearance by the comedian. 

On Twitter, the First Avenue theater wrote, "To staff, artists and our community, we hear you, and we are sorry. We know we must hold ourselves to the highest standards, and we know we let you down. We are not just a black box with people in it, and we understand that First Ave is not just a room, but meaningful beyond our walls."

The canceled appearance sparked a divide on Twitter. Chappelle was also defended by other comedians over the cancelation, with many calling it censorship and a violation of his First Amendment rights.

Despite the firestorm surrounding him, Chappelle has continued to successfully tour and even hosted "Saturday Night Live" for the third time in November. 

That appearance drew its own separate controversy over his monologue, which addressed recent antisemitic comments by Kanye West and NBA star Kyrie Irving. Critics thought he was "normalizing" antisemitism, while others, including Jon Stewart, thought there was an attempt to do something "constructive."

"Dave said something in the 'SNL' monologue that I thought was constructive, which, ‘It shouldn’t be this hard to talk about things.' And that's what we're talking about," Stewart, who is Jewish, said on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" at the time.

Chappelle’s special "The Closer" continues to draw attention to the comedian. At this year’s Grammy, the comedian took home the Grammy for best comedy album, his fourth Grammy thus far.

Eldridge says the comedian’s unwillingness to back down, coupled with Netflix’s support of the special, have kept Chappelle from folding.

"Netflix defended him, just as Spotify defended [Joe] Rogan, when the angry mob stood outside the gates," Eldridge said. "In the end, these two links of the chain will need to hold strong in order to support the dangling, dead weight of a cancel culture mob: the accused celebrity must mount a vocal defense and the corporate affiliate (Netflix, Spotify, etc.) must weigh the evidence and make an evidence-based decision, they cannot simply cave, crack, or break under the slightest pressure."

Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp has had a varied career, beginning as a teen heartthrob in "21 Jump Street," before becoming an offbeat idol in Tim Burton films like "Edward Scissorhands" and "Sleepy Hollow." 

His biggest claim to fame came with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, playing Captain Jack Sparrow, the swashbuckling and strange breakout character from the films. 

Depp was in a relationship with French actress Vanessa Paradis beginning in 1998 before splitting in 2012. The couple had two children together, model and actress Lily-Rose Depp and son, Jack. 

After the breakup, Depp began dating actress Amber Heard, who he had starred with in 2011’s "The Rum Diary." They married in 2015 but divorced one year later, with Heard claiming Depp had been abusive during the relationship.

In 2018, Heard wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post that implied she was a victim of domestic abuse. The actress did not refer to Depp by name in the piece.

However, public backlash against Depp was swift, with fans calling for him to be dropped from the "Harry Potter" spin off film series "Fantastic Beasts." He did so after he lost his libel suit in the U.K. after an article was published branding him a "wife beater."

Depp went on to sue Heard for defamation, to which she countersued, in a lengthy trial in 2022 that contained shocking allegations of abuse from both parties.

Ultimately, Depp won his case against Heard with the jury finding in his favor on all five counts and awarding him $15 million in damages. The sum was reduced to 10.3 million by the judge, and Heard was awarded $2 million in her countersuit. 

The "Aquaman" star later agreed to pay $1 million to settle the claim against her.

Depp was not present for the verdict but said in a statement "The jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled. From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome. Speaking the truth was something that I owed to my children and to all those who have remained steadfast in their support of me."

The actor had been touring with musician Jeff Beck until his passing earlier this year. He is also set to star in a new film, "La Favorite," about King Louis XV, which will premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May.

As for the role of Jack Sparrow, "Pirate of the Caribbean" producer Jerry Bruckheimer said while he could not answer for Disney on whether they would have the actor back, he did say, "I would love to have him in the movie. He’s a friend, a terrific actor, and it’s unfortunate that personal lives creep into everything we do."

In November, Depp appeared in Rihanna's Savage X Fenty fashion show, making history as the "first male to take part in this ‘star’ moment." Depp's appearance was met with both backlash and support. 

Chris Pratt 

Chris Pratt became a breakout star on NBC’s "Parks and Recreation," playing goofball Andy Dwyer before becoming a Marvel mega star with "Guardians of the Galaxy" in 2014.

He headlined other major films, including the continuation of the Jurassic Park films in "Jurassic World," and voiced the lead character in "The Lego Movie."

Despite his popularity, Pratt has come under fire for a few different things.

He first drew controversy when he made an acceptance speech at the 2018 MTV Movie Awards, where he said, "God is real. God loves, you, God wants the best for you. Believe that. I do."

Pratt was also accused of attending Hillsong Church, a church popular with celebrities that has also faced anti-LGBTQ+ controversies and misconduct allegations.

"I didn’t know that I would kind of become the face of religion when really I’m not a religious person," the 44-year-old told Men’s Health Magazine in June of last year. He added that he has never attended Hillsong Church.

The "Terminal List" star was also deemed "the worst Hollywood Chris" in a viral tweet that seemed to call out his religious status and suspected political beliefs.

Pratt’s Marvel co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr., among others, leaped to his defense, as did his now wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger.

The relationship between Pratt and Schwarzenegger has generated its own issues. In 2021, he was criticized for posting on social about Schwarzenegger, saying she had delivered a "healthy daughter." 

Fans interpreted the message as a potential insult to his ex-wife Anna Faris and their son Jack, who was born premature and has experienced health issues over the years. 

He later told Men’s Health magazine he cried over the criticism.

"That is f---ed up. My son’s gonna read that one day," he said of the online discourse. "He’s 9. And it’s etched in digital stone. It really f---ing bothered me, dude. I cried about it.

"You don't ever wanna get caught complaining or anything 'cause I have so many blessings," he added. "I consider everything a blessing truly in my life. [But] why are they coming after me?"

Fans were also divided over his casting as the video game character Mario in the upcoming "Super Mario Bros. Movie," citing his lack of Italian ancestry and not sounding particularly like the character in the first trailer. 

Pratt did his best to assuage critics, telling Variety, "It’s an animated voiceover narrative. It’s not a live-action movie. I’m not going to be wearing a plumber suit running all over. I’m providing a voice for an animated character, and it is updated and unlike anything you’ve heard in the ‘Mario’ world before."

In addition to the upcoming "Super Mario Bros. Movie," Pratt is also voicing Garfield in a new big screen adaptation of the comic strip. 

The actor of course continues live action work as well, with "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" releasing in theaters in May.

Will Smith

Will Smith was widely beloved by audiences around the world, going back to his days as a rapper known as "The Fresh Prince." 

After starring in "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" the Philadelphia native became an international blockbuster draw, bringing in millions of dollars with movies like "Bad Boys," "Independence Day," and "Men in Black."

Smith also showcased his acting skills, earning Oscar nominations for his roles in "Ali" and "The Pursuit of Happyness," which also starred his son, Jaden Smith.

The actor earned a double nomination in 2022 for starring in and producing "King Richard" about Venus and Serena Williams’ father and his journey to helping them achieve tennis greatness. 

In the lead up to the ceremony, Smith was as popular as ever, but that came to a halt during the show when he slapped Chris Rock live on television after the comedian made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head. 

After the slap, Smith shouted from the audience for Rock to "Keep my wife's name out of your f--king mouth!" though the audio was cut for viewers at home. 

Despite the shocking moment, Smith went on to win best actor, and apologized for his actions, though not to Rock directly. 

"I wanna apologize to the academy. I wanna apologize to all my fellow nominees," he said. "This is a beautiful moment and I'm not crying for winning an award. It's not about winning an award for me, it's about being able to shine light on all of the people."

"Love will make you do crazy things," Smith added. At the time, the LAPD also released a statement stating that the agency was aware of the incident, but that Rock was not interested in pressing charges.

Though he apologized, Smith was banned from the Oscars and other events associated with Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for 10 years. He is still able to be nominated for any future work, but will not be allowed at the ceremony. 

"I accept and respect the academy’s decision," the actor said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital at the time. Smith also resigned from the Academy of his accord.

Smith formally apologized to Rock as well, writing on Instagram: "I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness."

Since then, the "Wild Wild West" star has been able to joke about the moment, most recently in a TikTok.

In 2022, Smith's "Emancipation" movie was released on Apple TV+, in which he both starred and executive produced. Smith’s performance was praised, but the film did not become a contender in awards season.

The actor is executive producing a wide variety of projects, including "Bel-Air," the reboot of his breakthrough series "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." Most recently, Smith confirmed that there will be a fourth entry in the "Bad Boys" franchise, after the success of the third film, "Bad Boys for Life," released in 2020.

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