John Goodman has left fans and photographers gobsmacked after unveiling a jaw-dropping transformation at the Los Angeles premiere of The Smurfs. The legendary actor, now 73, rocked up to the red carpet on 13 July 2025 looking trimmer than ever — and folks could hardly believe their eyes.
Wearing a slick navy blue suit, patterned tie, and a pair of smart brown loafers, Goodman looked every bit the Hollywood icon he is. He was there to promote his role as Papa Smurf, but it was his dramatic weight loss that had everyone talking.
Goodman first kicked off his health journey back in 2007, when the scales tipped at a hefty 392 pounds. Over the years, he’s spoken candidly about the toll his lifestyle had taken and how he finally decided that enough was enough.
“I just got tired, sick and tired of looking at myself,” he once told interviewers. “You’re shaving in the mirror, and you don’t want to look at yourself. It gets dangerous.”
The transformation didn’t happen overnight. Instead, Goodman took a sensible approach: smaller portions, cutting out the booze, working with a personal trainer, and sticking to a Mediterranean diet. These days, he walks 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day and uses an elliptical bike and treadmill to keep active.
It wasn’t always smooth sailing, though. In 2016, he told ABC, “I’d have a handful of food and it’d go to my mouth. I was just eating all the time. I was just eating alcoholically.” He admitted he’d lose weight in the past, only to fall back into old habits. “In the old days, I would take three months out, lose 60 or 70 pounds, and then reward myself with a 6-pack of Bud.”
Goodman officially revealed he’d lost 200 pounds at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival in June 2023 — but his appearance at The Smurfs premiere has really hammered home just how far he’s come.
Fans of his long-running TV work will remember him best as Dan Conner, a role he reprised in The Conners, which wrapped its seventh and final season in April 2025. In a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, Goodman revealed he hasn’t spoken to former Roseanne co-star Roseanne Barr in “about seven or eight years” — not that he seemed too fussed.
His transformation isn’t just about shedding pounds, though. It’s about resilience, long-term commitment, and a proper lifestyle overhaul — not a quick fix. And while he’s not one for gimmicks, Goodman’s journey has quietly become one of the most inspiring body transformations in showbiz.