Michael B. Jordan made a surprise Roseanne Barr reference in accepting the Best Villain award at the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards on Monday
After beating out rivals like Avengers: Infinity War‘s Josh Brolin and Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘s Adam Driver for the honor, Jordan, 31, quipped: “I’m shocked that I won this award for Best Villain. I thought Roseanne had this in the bag.”
The Black Panther actor also added a request from his costar Chadwick Boseman: “He personally asked me to ask y’all to stop asking him to say ‘Wakanda Forever’ out on the streets. Y’all taking the forever thing a little too seriously.”
Jordan played conflicted villain Erik Killmonger in the Marvel sensation opposite Boseman as Black Panther, who won for Best Hero earlier in the night.
Prior to hosting the awards show, host Tiffany Haddish recalled an uncomfortable encounter with Barr long before the Roseanne star got in trouble for her racist remarks.
The Girl’s Trip actress told the Hollywood Reporter she had a friend who lived in the same neighborhood as Barr, who wasn’t particularly nice to her when she introduced herself.
“One day, we were walking around the neighborhood, and Anna says, ‘Oh, Roseanne lives there,’ ” she said. “Now, I loved Roseanne, and the next day we walked by, and she was in her yard. I say, ‘Hiiii, Roseanne.’ She looks at me [makes a disgusted face], and ran in the house. I thought, ‘Maybe she don’t want to be bothered today.’ ”
She continued, “A week later, we walk by again, and I told Anna — she’s Hispanic, but she looks white — she should say hi this time. So she says, ‘Hi, Roseanne,’ and Roseanne goes, ‘Hey!’ I thought, ‘Maybe she got to know us.’ ”
But Haddish said Barr’s reaction towards her didn’t change when they walked by the comedian’s house a third time.
“Then I go back, like, a week later, I wave again and say, ‘Hi, Roseanne! I love your comedy,’ and she [makes the same disgusted face] and turns her head,” Haddish said. “I think, ‘F— that bitch.’ That was 2000, maybe 2001, so it’s not new. She been racist, why’d you all give her a TV show?”
In May, ABC canceled the Roseanne reboot after Barr compared former Barack Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett to an ape in a now-deleted tweet. The actress later claimed that she had taken Ambien before she began tweeting and that she didn’t know Jarrett is black.
