More Than Stephanie with Jodie Sweetin

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Welcome to the shit show.

Things are going to get weird.

It's your favede villain, Kale Wow.

And you're listening to Barely Famous.

Today, I have a special guest with us on Barely Famous Podcasts.

You may recognize her from Full House, Fuller House, or maybe one of her lifetime movies.

Jodi Sweeten is here for Barely Famous Podcast.

All right, Jodi, thank you for joining us on Barely Famous Podcasts.

Absolutely.

And you're promoting your new movie.

Do you want to talk about it?

So Dateless to Dangerous, and it premieres June 21st on Lifetime.

Yep, at Lifetime at 8 p.m.

7 Central.

And yeah, I'm really proud of it.

Okay, well, let's talk about it.

I don't know anything about it.

Obviously, it's not the 21st yet.

So tell me about it.

So the movie is Dateless to Dangerous, My Son's Secret Life.

And it is about

sort of the, well, not sort of, but it is about the incel culture that we're really dealing with right now and a lot of the really toxic masculinity and racism, racism misogyny that are taking hold of different corners of the internet.

And I play Noelle, who's a mom who's kind of going through a separation with her husband at the time and she's got two teenage kids, Miles and

Haley.

And Miles is really struggling.

Dad's out of the house and he's kind of struggling to connect, find friends, find his place.

And he, you know, gets rejected by a girl and things just aren't going his way.

And he starts kind of finding in the the gaming community and in the online, you know, Manosphere sort of thing,

really,

really

dark and

uncomfortable and misogynistic, racist,

just

the worst things that we see on the internet.

And we're seeing it happen more and more.

And so this really addresses, you know, I think a lot of times we have seen them as, you know, the school shooters or the sort of disaffected young men.

And we're seeing it just just more and more often.

And that's really what this movie was about.

And, you know, having teenage daughters myself, I was like really interested in bringing this to life.

So is that what sort of drew you to want to audition for this?

They actually sent me the script and I read it and

I was really interested in it.

One, because I think it's an incredibly important topic that we need to address.

And two, because I was just excited to be able to, you know, do something so different than what people have seen me do before.

How was it different than doing like sitcoms or it's, I mean, it's different in every way.

Yeah.

But it's, it's nice because I, I, I love performing.

I love acting.

I love doing comedy, but I also love doing stuff that's a little bit darker and, you know, more along the lines of stuff I watch because I definitely don't watch sitcoms and things.

Yeah.

You don't watch sitcoms?

No, I don't.

Oh my gosh.

What do you watch?

I watch a lot of weird documentaries.

Okay.

And

yeah, I don't watch a ton of television.

Okay, fair.

I mean, I read a lot of books.

I'm a nerd.

Oh, okay.

What's your favorite book?

Ooh, there's a whole series of books by an author, a Spanish author named Carlos Ruiz Zafong.

And he wrote an entire series of books called The Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

And it is an incredible journey through

Civil War era, like 1930s, Spain.

Okay.

And

it's got elements of like sort of that.

magical realism and like some dark kind of gothic tones, some historical fiction.

You know, it's, yeah, I love it.

And he's an incredible writer i my friend emily and i also run a book club so we're big book girlies and um actually just had a couple authors here yesterday so that's exciting i didn't know you'd read yeah yeah um what do you remember about growing up in la and you still live there i do i still live there i uh growing up in la i remember when you used to be able to get from orange county to la in under an hour

i remember the days of less traffic that's what i remember um but no i mean i honestly i remember you know the joke is always i remember like reading a thomas guide like the paper maps as a kid, because my mom would be taking me to auditions all over LA.

Yeah.

And I was five years old sitting in the passenger seat, like, all right, we got to get to La Brea, you know, and looking it up.

And yeah, I just, I remember a lot of time in the car

in LA going back and forth to auditions or back and forth to, you know, the full house set.

Yeah.

And we lived, like I said, a little bit outside of LA.

So it was a lot of time in the car.

Me and my mom got to start.

Growing up, did you ever, did you always want to do hallmark films or lifetime movies or did or was that just sort of that was you know it sort of came about after i i came back and was doing um a lot of fuller house stuff yep um and one of the things that hallmark loves to do is bring back you know a lot of fan favorite um stars to do their movies people that you know were i in the 90s that everyone grew up with yeah you know it sort of brings that sense of comfort and i know that hallmark movies christmas movies rom-coms all that that's something they definitely like to capitalize on well you think people love a good crossover and so when they see their favorite, you know, sitcom stars or whatever it is, you know, come on.

I think I had

Tamara Mori was on.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

And she was in a Hallmark Christmas movie, which is cool.

And so that makes sense that they would pick people from.

Yeah, they pick people, I think, that have, that, that have a following.

Because one thing I know, too, about like Hallmark and Hallmarkies, as they call themselves, I think they really attach themselves to a particular star or celebrity of the different movies and they're just excited to watch anything that they do.

So it's, you know, the fans are really great and give us a lot of opportunity to keep having fun and working.

When you were filming Dating to Dangerous, what was the set like compared with like a sitcom like Full House or Fuller House?

Well, I mean, a sitcom, you're shooting four cameras at once.

So a sitcom is more almost like

a play because you have your live audience or just sort of your...

camera row so everything faces out like a theater would okay when you're shooting like a lifetime movie or something like that, they call it single cam.

There's usually two cameras, but it is more done in a space like this.

So you are setting up different cameras and then we've got to get coverage of you.

So now we've got to move all the cameras and the lighting and everything.

When you're doing a sitcom, everything is lit.

You've got four cameras and you're trying to get all the shots that you need of everything that's happening at once.

Okay.

So single cam world, movie world is much slower.

Yeah.

And it's a much different pace than like a sitcom.

A sitcom is kind of a machine that's running and like single cam is like a lot of the hurry up and wait where you're like we need to do on set right now and then it's two hours because they're relighting something or okay and more in like a realistic setting where like a single camera like a yeah more in a realistic setting or more what I'll say is like a like almost like a 3d set okay like it has four walls typically sure sure sure or at least it's just you're bringing the cameras in a lot closer so yeah it's a it's a different thing and I directed an episode of Fuller House so I got to direct a sitcom which is you know there's a lot of moving parts to that well what was the difference between acting and directing for you then?

Oh my gosh.

Well, I was acting and directing that week.

So I was, it was like different hats.

But I, I mean, I loved it.

And I think, you know, it was interesting.

What I realized is the second I would stand behind the director's podium and be watching the scene sort of play out and giving notes or whatever, I immediately would start referring to everyone as their character name.

Okay.

But when I was on the other side and in the scene with everyone, it was like I referred to all of them by their normal name.

And it was almost like when I took myself out of it, it became distant.

You know what I mean?

It became more of like a tableau that I was playing with and directing.

And then when I would be in it, I was like, oh, no, no, no, now I'm in this.

So, yeah.

But it was, I mean, it was a lot because it was a very heavy Steph episode.

There was, you know,

quite a bit of scenes that I was in.

So it was a lot of kind of running back and forth.

I like doing that stuff.

I like to keep my brain over occupied.

Well, sometimes that's how we have to do it.

Yes.

But through all of it, whether it's sitcom, lifetime, anything, do you ever run into people calling you by your character name instead of your name?

All the time.

Does that bother you?

No, I don't.

No, because I also know that like most people have grown up seeing my face and associating it with the name Stephanie.

Right.

No, I don't care.

It's no resentment?

No.

No, I get to do what I do and continue to do it 37, 38 years later because people fell in love with Stephanie.

Like I'm not mad at that.

Oh, I love that.

I call people that I've known my whole life by the wrong name.

So they've never met me before.

What do they know?

Do you ever talk about your childhood and how you were raised and being adopted?

Yeah.

Okay.

Oh, yeah.

Can we talk about it a little bit?

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I was adopted

before I even remember.

You know, I was like 14, 15 months when it was finalized.

But I, you know, I spent my first Christmas with my mom and dad that have adopted me.

So I've really always known them as my parents.

But I, you know, I always talk about being adopted because one, I think particularly in the 80s and

prior to having a lot more open discussions about reproductive health and IVF and all these things, being adopted was kind of a thing that people didn't really talk about.

It was kind of like,

you know, there was not a shame to it, but it was like, oh, that's not your real kid.

And people would say, people would say, oh, that's your, that's your adopted kid.

That's not your real kid.

That's your real kid.

Right.

You know, and

I think my parents just never really wanted that.

And they also, you know, never wanted everything about my life history coming out at five or six years old when i had no control over it right um but no my parents were always very open about me being adopted and um you know i think once i had

once well i know that once i had kids of my own particularly my older daughter um and was still kind of struggling with trying to get my together and get sober um

I had a whole different experience and realization of

sort of the fear and the and all of the things that go into why

someone would give a child up for adoption.

Sure.

And it had nothing to do with the baby.

You know what I mean?

And it wasn't until I was the parent and realized, like, oh, this is all my own stuff, you know, that I was like dealing with.

And I suddenly was able to give that.

sort of consideration to my birth mom at the time of like, oh, yeah, your life was a mess.

Like this had nothing to do with me.

In fact, you, this was the best thing you could have done for me sure and it you know it just gives you a little bit different perspective and i find that talking about being adopted so many people like oh my gosh me too and immediately it's there's a there's a link and there is a connection and there is so you know there is something different about being adopted and knowing that you're in your family and you love your family but that at the same time people like oh you look just like your mom and you're like Do I?

I don't know.

Yeah.

You know, or the assumptions that people make like that.

And, you know, oh, did you get that from your mom or your dad's side?

And you're like, I don't know.

So growing up, did you always know who your birth parents were?

I didn't know them.

They, my, my, um, my birth father was in prison when I was born, and he was actually killed in a prison riot in Soledad prison when I was about nine months old.

And then my birth mom was in jail when I was born

in LA.

And so she gave birth to me at USC County Hospitals where they take all the female inmates.

And

she had,

so my biological dad's cousins

were my adopted dad's

children.

Hold on.

I know.

I need to, I always say I need to draw like people are like, oh, so he's your uncle.

I'm like, no, he's not my uncle.

So my dad's ex-wife, my adopted dad's ex-wife.

Okay.

She was my biological dad's aunt.

Okay.

So you are related.

So

weirdly, I'm not related.

So So I'm not related technically to my dad by blood or anything.

And he was, and they were right split at the time, but technically I am related by blood to his kids.

Oh, because they're my cousins.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

So it's interesting because I do have some information and some connection about my birth dad that I've been able to ask.

But, you know, my parents also didn't know them really, like, very well.

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You know, again, it was a different time.

So it was like, you know, you knew you were adopted, but we didn't, it wasn't like, let's not tell anybody, you know?

But yeah, I always knew who, you know, I knew that I was adopted.

I knew I was, you know, that I didn't grow in my mom's belly, but I grew in her heart, that kind of stuff.

But it wasn't until I was like, maybe, I don't know, 11 or 12 that I started finding out kind of all of the backstory information about my mom and dad being killed and, you know, all this kind of stuff that, you know, you don't really tell like a seven-year-old.

Right, right, right.

But you were on TV at that time.

So how much of your childhood or your knowledge of your childhood or, you know, where, where you came from shaped your life at that time?

I mean, I, probably more than I know.

You know, I think, I mean, I, I was, I did some thing with attachment style the other day, and they were talking about, you know, some of the most formative times in your life, the first 18 months of your life.

And so I think a lot of the, you know, maladaptive skills, shall we say, that I had for dealing with pain and trauma and uncomfortableness

were were

sort of stemmed from, you know, that

first bit of life when it was insecure and there weren't, there were different people coming in and out.

I didn't have that secure attachment and, you know, all that kind of stuff.

And I, all I knew about my biological parents was that they both struggled with some addiction issues.

Okay.

And so I think there was also a weird part of me that

because that was kind of all I knew about them when I was younger, it was almost like a weird connection to them.

Okay.

And I knew the second that I started drinking, like I was not like other people, but I was like, oh, but I'm like them.

You know what I mean?

So yeah, there's, and as you're 14, 15 year old, you're, you don't know who the hell you are anyway.

And then add that on and add on being on TV and all of that.

It was, you know, it was, it's been a long journey of self-discovery.

Even now, I'm sure today you're still.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I mean, that's kind of the whole point of this whole life thing is to keep growing and digging in there.

But at 43, I am much more secure and and happy in myself than, you know,

20.

Yeah, I would imagine.

Yeah.

But you started acting when you were five.

I was about four when I started acting, like four and a half.

Did you just go to your mom and say, hey, I want to do this?

Or how did that come about?

So I started out in dance when I was about three.

I loved it.

I also was a very early reader.

I was reading at three.

And so,

you know, I was able to read scripts and, you know, read books and things like that.

I loved performing.

I was very animated.

And

people would always tell my mom, like, oh, she should do commercials or something.

And my parents had zero interest in the business, zero connection to the business.

Like my parents were not the people that were like, we want you to be famous.

So we're included.

My mom would be like, absolutely not.

Do not point the camera this way.

And

yeah, you know, I started doing it at like at four, but it became about because I told my mom I wanted to be a modeler, which is what I call people on TV.

And I started doing dance and like my first dance recital when I sort of warmed my way up from the second row into the front, because those bitches weren't doing it right.

You know,

I got up to the front and my mom was like, maybe we should put her in.

So she seems to really like this.

And yeah, I just always loved it.

I loved performing.

I did commercials, booked a ton of commercials, and then did a guest appearance on another sitcom that was the same producers

that would eventually do Full House.

And they had Full House in development.

It was just kind of an idea at the time.

And they were like, that's Stephanie Tanner.

And I got cast from doing that one episode of Valerie with Jason Bateman and

Valerie Harper.

And

yeah, I got cast on Full House from that.

And then everything else.

is just sort of history.

Were you able to live a normal life and go to public school just like other kids your age?

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I sort of went back and forth, but our producers were really,

I mean, our set was such a great place to grow up, and it was such an anomaly in sort of the world of

child stars.

You know what I mean?

We had such a close connected cast and crew.

Our producers, everybody looked out for the kids, loved the kids.

It was not, um, we were never looked at as like commodities.

It was like, well, what's in their best interest?

And then let's try and figure out how we can work around that.

And so, for me, you know, I, they were able to let me go to regular school three days days a week.

So, Mondays, we didn't work.

After like the second season, we had a four-day work week, Tuesday through Friday.

Mondays, I'd be in school all day.

Tuesday, Wednesdays, I would be there till lunch.

And then Thursday and Friday, I was schooled on set.

So, I got kind of this hybrid thing, but I went to a public school in Orange County.

Nobody else was in the business.

I had normal friends.

I still to this day, like most of my friends are not in this business.

If they are, they're like crew because we're crazy actors.

But I, you know, it's, I just, like, life was very normal other than this thing that I did that other people watched.

And I never watched the show.

I didn't care.

I wasn't impressed by it, like being on TV.

Yeah.

So for me, it was just very normal.

That's so interesting.

And you don't have the same experience then as some of the actors on like quiet on set and stuff.

So how does all God know?

How do you,

I guess, empathize with them?

Because obviously it didn't happen to you, but that doesn't.

It didn't happen to me, but I know plenty of people who it has happened to.

And I also know that like maybe it wasn't, uh, it wasn't painful.

it wasn't an uncomfortable situation but being a working child actor comes with a lot of responsibilities and a lot of shit that gets put on your shoulders that I don't think you really kind of pick through until you're a little bit older and you know I wouldn't change anything I love what I did but I definitely am like oh yeah there's

there's a lot to being a child actor that is placed upon you know sort of the shoulders of very young people.

And I'm really glad for some of it.

I have an incredible work ethic from it.

I love it.

I've, I get to do what I love to do.

But it's also like, yeah, but at six years old, I knew like, you don't get sick days.

You know what I mean?

You got to get up.

If you, if you're not feeling it today, it doesn't matter.

You've got 250 people that are counting on you and you've got shit you got to do.

And so you at a very early age learn sort of, okay, my needs come second to what has to get done.

And that does, that isn't always great because then you continually put your needs to the back burner because you're like, oh, that just feels normal and comfortable.

But you didn't know any different either.

No, I didn't know any different.

And, you know, again, like my parents were very normal.

Our producers tried to make it the most normal experience possible.

But, you know, it is, you're working.

But there's no bad days.

You said there's no days off, but there's probably no meltdowns.

You can't have meltdowns.

You can't.

Yeah.

And I wasn't that kid anyway.

The only time I ever got upset, my mom still talks about it and I joke about it with Jeff Franklin, our creator and executive producer.

There was like some dream sequence thing that Stephanie was doing and there were costumes.

Okay.

I love a good costume.

And there was, they custom-made this like very 1930s, 40s, Busby Berkeley sort of turquoise satin gown with like boas at the bottom.

And I was dancing.

So I was loving it.

And I loved that dress.

But in the dream sequence, I then there's like another part of it that's like a little sort of hot pants, cute, like little onesie sequin outfit.

I didn't like that as much because it didn't twirl

and so i was like i don't know seven eight and they were like hey you have to change that and i was like

i really like that outfit and my mom was like you've got to do it yeah you know and it was the first and only time that i was like but i really like this outfit usually i was like yeah whatever i don't care yeah and for whatever reason i was real stuck on that and i think because it was They created it for me.

I got to go to the wardrobe department at Sony Studios, which was where they did Wizard of Oz and all that, you know.

And I was like, this is cool, like, that's so important.

But that was like the only time that I really ever, you know, and our producers were like, it, you've got to go change.

We have said, we, this is, you know, and he pulled my mom aside and was like, I can't have an eight-year-old like freaking out, and we got to do it.

And she's like, I know, Jeff, I'm trying.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And now we joke about it.

He's like, I wasn't mad, but it was like, we gotta work, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

Did you get to keep the dress?

No, I didn't get to keep the dress.

Oh, did you?

Did I?

No, I didn't get to keep the dress,

but that's okay.

It was, they can't, all stuff like that, they keep for wardrobe.

Like

you're technically not supposed to take anything with you, but we would during the season.

You're like, if I really loved something.

Yeah, if we loved something, our wardrobe people would give it to us.

Back in the days when, you know, shows had money.

Well,

cable is weird now.

So I feel like cable streaming.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All of it.

Can you do it all for $5?

But through all of this, you still decided to go to college when you graduated high school.

So what was the deciding factor for you?

You were like, I'm an actor, but I still want to go to college.

I'm a big nerd.

I love learning.

I love school.

I would probably be going to school for something right now, getting my master's in something if I weren't doing this.

I don't know.

Maybe I will someday.

Who knows?

But no,

I always loved school.

I was always really good at school.

And, you know, the show ended right after like my eight, right around my eighth grade year.

And so I started high school and went to performing arts high school, did musical theater and

really loved that, but was like, okay, well, I always planned to go to college.

That was always the thing.

I didn't know what I wanted to do or what I was going to do.

But yeah, that was always something that I wanted to do.

And I like learning.

And you had a little bit of a break between when you finished full house and you went to college, but did it still feel like a break?

I did.

I never really walked away from the business entirely.

Even when I wasn't working consistently, even as an adult,

it was like I never was like, oh, I don't want to do this anymore.

It was like, well, I'll leave the door open, but bills got to get paid.

Right.

So time to get a job.

Yeah.

And,

you know, there was some time in between, but I did, you know, episodes of, I did like four or five episodes of Party of Five with Lacey Schaber.

And I did a show called Yes Dear.

And, you know, I did like bits and pieces on different things.

But really just was kind of enjoying like the normalcy of going to school and just being there every day.

Yeah, no, that makes sense.

But it's not, yeah.

By the time most other kids were like, I hate school.

I'm here every day.

I was like, oh my God, I get to go every day.

You know, you kind of live the best of both worlds, right?

Cause you got to still do what you love, but also go to school and live a normal, normal life.

Yeah.

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Why are we still here?

Yeah.

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Yeah.

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You know?

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So I learned like this whole sort of set of skills that I don't, I think I would have really struggled with in school had I not been sort of doing this hybrid thing where I got some one-on-one focused attention and normal school environment stuff.

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Well, well, that brings me to my next question.

Was there anything that stuck with you from your education specifically?

But I think you just answered that with the one-on-one.

I think it's so important, especially, you know, for kids that have ADHD or any sort of.

Both my girls, you know, both my girls have it.

And I was like, I would score higher on any of these questions than they would i think it's me the call's coming from inside the house you know um but it it i think is

one of the things that actually made me really successful in this business yeah is being able to do multiple things at a time and being enjoying being busy and going and you know being able to focus on a bunch of different stuff at a young age like that actually worked really well for me.

Yeah, it did.

Did you think growing up that you would still be acting in your 40s?

Or did you, know what i i never really thought about it yeah i'm still to this day people like so what's your plan for the next 10 years i'm like i don't know do we ever know

some people have plans i am not a planner person i am this is not how i live my life obviously more divorces later but i you know or three divorces and a marriage four marriages i'm just not it's not how i like operate i'm like i don't know life is weird who knows where it'll go yeah but i you know i knew that i love to do this i knew that as long as i get opportunities to do it, I will keep doing it.

I love every aspect of this business.

I have such admiration and love for crews and the art of doing anything in entertainment.

It's just, it's fun.

It's a weird little group of like this carney family that you sort of travel with and it's fabulous.

So you directed.

an episode or episodes of full Fuller House.

Yeah, yeah, Fuller House.

Would you ever direct a lifetime movie?

Absolutely.

I would love to.

Yeah, I would love to get back to directing more.

It was a really wonderful opportunity.

And I found I've just really like, again, having 9,000 things going on.

And, you know, I was like, oh, this is my, this is my happy place.

Love control chaos.

Yeah, I love that.

But I do.

I love it.

I love creating and I love working with actors.

And as a director, you know, that's one of the most important things that you're doing is really working with actors and having been on the other side of it.

You're like, I know what works.

I know it doesn't.

ask questions don't you know all those kinds of things that you just get from being on the other side of it but um but yeah i would love to direct more i that's kind of where i want to go i don't always want to be in front of the camera i would imagine it would be nice to be on the other side i want to get tattooed and just be like well i'm very tattooed on places you can't see uh but like i you know i'm like that's i just i'm like at some point in my life i'm like i don't

I don't need to be the face of stuff.

Yep.

But I love creating.

So would if you got tattoos on your arms, would that prevent you from getting?

I mean, I have a couple here now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've got one on my back, I've got one big thigh piece, I've got both ribs done, I got my low back, I got, yeah, I'm slowly I'm running out of space.

Yeah, yeah, but if you had them visible, would it prevent you from getting a roll somewhere?

Would they cover it up, or how does that work?

Yeah, well, cover it up.

They did, I mean, now you can cover up with an airbrush and all the stuff, but it's more that it's like, do you want to spend two hours every day covering up your tattoos when you already have to come in two hours early for hair and makeup.

Like, do I want to come in at 4:30 in the morning to cover all that up?

Or do I want to go, you know, I'm going to give it time until maybe my Hallmark careers or lifetime career is, you know, gone through a little bit and I'm behind the camera.

Then we'll do it.

I guess that makes sense.

Yeah.

But I basically, I'm like, I just, I love this business and anything that I can do to continue creating, whether it's directing, writing comedy, doing stand-up, performing, you know, all of it.

I just, I love it.

What were the biggest differences from filming full house as a child and then filming Fuller House as an adult?

I mean, definitely

having more creative input, which was so cool.

You know, as a kid, it's just kind of like you do what's written.

But, you know, and getting to come back to characters that had been part of us for so many years.

you get to fill in the blanks in between, you know, and like you don't usually get to do that with a role.

Like you never go away for 20 years and then go, I wonder what the hell she's been up to, you know?

And we got to do that and um

yeah it was that was really different was getting to have a voice and like a voice in how we wanted scripts to go what we liked what we didn't like it definitely gave me um a much greater sense of how to stand up for myself and how to say what I wanted and and you know say this is this is what I'm doing this is not what I'm doing or whatever um and it yeah it was and it was also really cool to be

the adults now in a situation working with young kids in the business who this was also kind of their first time and being like, dude, I get it.

I've been there.

Yeah.

You know, and I connected with the kids really well.

And particularly Elias, who played Max on the show,

you know, he was a hyperactive little boy.

And so sometimes he would be just all over the place.

And I was like, bro, look, come here.

You want to go home?

I want to go home.

Yeah.

Chill out.

Let's do this.

And let, you know, and he'd be like, okay.

I mean, get it done.

And get it done.

And it's like

but there was a a nice understanding and relating to like i know it's a long day dude yeah and you've had to do school like it sucks yeah

and it i i felt really glad to be able to offer some of those you know

like of advice and like understanding and comfort and you know full circle

that's really cool is it do you have the same wiggle room in a lifetime movie that you do for like you said that um for fuller house you sort of had a say did you do you get to yeah you know what i do i i often wind up either producing or executive producing a lot of most of the movies that I do.

And, you know, at this stage in the game,

I do get more input.

And it's also, you know, as an actor, as you get older, when you're a kid, you're like, I don't know, I'm just having fun.

Like,

as an actor, when you get older, you're like, oh, yeah, no, I'm breaking down a character.

I'm like thinking about stuff.

And so a lot of times something will be written and you're like, I just, that's not who she is.

Yeah.

And they listen.

So it's great.

And I

love collaborating, rewriting, do, you know, like working to to create the best, most authentic thing possible, even if it's something that's not super serious or whatever.

This project, the Datelist Datorist happens to have a much more serious tone.

But yeah,

I just like to be able to work with others and have input and talk to the director and the writer and the producers and be like, how do we, this isn't working.

How do we make it work?

Yeah.

How does it feel knowing that you can do all the things?

Like you can do the sitcom and you can do the lifetime movie and you can do something serious and you can do something something funny you know i i i love it like i said i love performing entertaining

bringing human connection to life uh on screen or in the theater or whatever um yeah i mean i i i sing i dance i act i i just i love it it makes my i never feel more at home than i do when i'm on set do you ever does

jodi ever seep into any character roles that you're playing or vice versa oh jodi and stephanie are very, very close in who they are, partly because as a kid,

they sort of wrote around what we were as kids.

Like, oh, cool.

You know, Stephanie was a dancer because they were like, what's your special skills?

And I was like, I can dance.

So it makes it much easier to make a kid who is a dancer a dancer than like, you're going to do karate.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, you know, there was a lot of

who we were as people sort of tied into our characters.

But yeah, you know, I, Steph and I are very similar in some ways.

Do you ever feel like you were typecasted?

Is it called typecasted?

When you're like, okay, I'm Stephanie and I can't go anywhere else.

Oh, for sure.

I mean, when I first ended the show, you know, I really wanted to do other different stuff.

And I was in acting classes and, you know, loved performing and would go out on things that were more serious or dramatic or whatever.

And, you know, oftentimes you'd walk into a room back when you walked into a room to do an audition.

And it's not self-tape.

it's all self-tapes anymore.

You don't see any humans.

Oh, it sucks.

Um, but you would walk into a room to audition, and they'd be like, Oh my god, I love you on vlog.

Can you see how rude?

And you're like,

I should just leave.

Like, maybe I should leave.

I don't, it obviously you can't see me as anything else.

And, you know, for a while there, I think actors, when you get known as something, you're like, you love it, but you're also like, but I, there's so much more.

There's so much more.

And,

you know, I think that it took a little while, but it also, I was glad I got a little bit of time to kind of walk away.

And, you know, even as an adult, I worked in drug and alcohol treatment for like six, seven years.

I kind of walked away from the business and loved that and found a whole other skill set of things that I'd never

even attempted to do or thought, you know, I was director of operations and doing logistical planning for, you know, a staff of 120 people.

And

All of that stuff came in really handy when I went back and directed.

But it was stuff that I never thought of.

like, right, you know, and I was just happy.

I'm like, cool, wherever I am, I'll bloom where I'm planted, I'll have fun.

And yeah, so it was like coming back to do all of those things was it was a real learning experience that kind of all of your life will come together, sort of at one point.

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When you took a break from the business, what was the deciding factor for you?

I have bills to pay.

I had two kids and bills to pay.

And, you know.

Was it burnout part of it at all?

Just like, no, no.

No, because I hadn't been.

When I was young, I was still continuing to audition and do all that.

I never, like I said, I never really walked away and was like, I'm not doing this anymore.

It was like, well, I'm not auditioning as much.

And now I have kids and I can't like just drop everything, you know, whenever I want.

So how do I find something else that I'm good at, that I love?

And, you know, I went into mental health care and drug and alcohol treatment.

And

I loved it.

I would probably still be working on my master's or, you know, doctorate or something in that field.

Right.

But it was more so that it was like, okay, like we got to get a job.

Yeah.

And, you know, I started at the bottom.

I was like making 10 bucks an hour like you know washing dishes and like emptying trash cans and stuff while i was in school and people be like are you you know who you look like and i was like yeah i'm here they're like why are you here i was like why why wouldn't i be like i was about to ask you that i feel like i was like i'm working even myself like i don't feel like i could leave this world and like go work yeah at like a restaurant or something because i wouldn't even know where to how to where would I start.

So how was that for you?

Yeah, you started at the bottom.

You worked at the bottom.

You were just like, fuck it, I'm going to go do this.

I don't care.

I have zero ego ego about any of it.

Like, I don't care that I was on TV.

I don't think that there's anything special about people who are in front of the camera.

And I was like, I, I got a good job.

Yeah.

Why wouldn't I?

Okay.

I'm not going to walk in and expect to go into an entirely different field and be like, because of who I am, I should start ahead of everyone else.

I was like, no, I got to start at the bottom and prove myself just like anybody else.

And

people were shocked by that.

Yeah, of course.

I think I would be shocked by that.

Yeah.

It was also kind of a trip, though, because people were coming in and they're like newly detoxing and they're like, wait a minute.

Did you ever?

Am I really, am I really fucked up?

Are you the girl from Full House?

And I was like, no, I am.

Yeah.

They're like, God, I thought I was having some sort of a, you know, like a detox dream.

And I was like, no, no.

I mean, you might be, but also, yeah.

Did you ever read about yourself?

Like, would people post about it?

And did that ever like freak you out that people would see you working at, you know, the detox center?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, you know, I have had exes sell stories about all manner of things.

And I'm like, I don't care.

I know, I don't care.

There's nothing.

How do I get there?

How old are you?

33.

Oh, girl, you got about 10 years.

It's true, though.

But I also, I was just like, why am I going to let someone else's perception of what I should or shouldn't be doing or what my status in life should or shouldn't be

because of something I did as a kid?

It just didn't make sense to me.

Like, who cares?

Yeah.

Just go get a job.

Do what you got to do.

Yeah.

And I loved it.

And it was fun.

And I, yeah, I, you know,

10, 12 bucks an hour.

Like, I was making, and I'm not making a ton of money, but it was something.

Yeah.

You're

standing on your feet.

I was like, okay, this is what we're doing.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

And you have been married four times.

Is that right?

I have.

I have my

husband, Mescal.

Now, this is it.

I'm too old for this shit.

But I

know, but I, but truthfully, like it, it took all of that.

And again, a lot of self-discovery, a lot of digging through my own stuff to figure out who I was and then who I was in relationship to other people.

Yeah.

So what was that like trying to figure that out?

I mean, it was three divorces and very messy.

I have four kids, dads.

So

similar.

I get it.

Yeah, yeah.

It's not, I get it.

And I guess I, having grown up in this business and having people always have made assumptions about me going to school that like, oh, she must be stuck up or oh, she must be this, I had to learn at a very early age, like I can't base myself on what other people think of me because it's not true.

And so I think in a lot of ways, I was just always very determined to be like,

I'm just going to do me.

Yeah.

And.

screw what everybody else thinks.

And

yeah.

And so I just kind of have lived my life and it's been messy sometimes and it hasn't been pretty, but

I've done a lot of work, like done a lot of digging and a lot of therapy and a lot, you know, same.

Yeah, and and I'm like so grateful for it though, you know.

And people always ask, like, oh, would you, do you regret it?

Do you, I'm like,

look,

are there things that like you're like, I am so sorry that I did that to somebody?

Absolutely, but I don't think I would change it or that I regret it because even those really painful, awful, ugly things I had to look at in myself.

That's exactly why I am so comfortable with who I am today.

Yeah.

It was because I went, oh, wow, you can be a real asshole.

Let's look at that, you know, and then suddenly you're like, oh, it's not, what's so scary?

Okay.

So I made a mistake, like big deal.

Yeah.

My therapist said that their impact and influence are different than traumatized, being traumatized.

And one of the things that I always read is like, my relation, my

track record, we'll call it in relationships is going to traumatize my kids.

That's what I read most about myself.

Yeah, me too.

And I'm like, oh, cool.

Do you think that it, do you think there was trauma in there?

Do you think it was more implicit?

I mean, I definitely, not from, you know, I, I've had several exes who were

incredibly emotionally abusive to me.

Um, and I, you know, tried to protect my kids from that as much as possible.

Um,

and they weren't, you know, my kids' dads or anything.

But I'm sure that there's, I mean, you can't help but go through life and be affected by what goes on around you.

I don't know if there was any trauma.

I mean,

trauma is also a relative term.

What traumatizes one person is also, can also be very normal or like sort of overlooked by someone else.

Yeah.

So I don't know.

I hope not, but I know that one thing I've always done is talk very openly and honestly to my girls.

Even when I've made a mistake or when I have, you know, we've had to go through something that hasn't been easy.

I'm like,

I've screwed up.

Yeah.

This is, but I'm really stuck, but we're going to make it through.

And I've got you, you know?

And I think that's different from how we grew up.

Like we didn't, maybe I can't speak for you, but I didn't grow up with parents or adults apologizing to kids.

No, not at all.

So that's different from Not at all.

Yeah.

And I think, I think, you know, I don't ever apologize to my kids in a way that like I need their permission, but I apologize to them when I know I've been wrong.

Yeah.

And that happens all the time.

It happens all the time as a parent when you snap at your kid or you tell them like, absolutely not.

No, you're not.

And you walk out and you're like,

why did I say that?

And you're like, oh, I.

I'm stressed.

I'm tired.

I'm overwhelmed.

I'm this.

It has nothing to do.

It had nothing to do with them.

And I'll walk by and be like, I'm sorry, I snapped at you.

This has nothing to do with you.

Let's talk.

What was the question again?

You know, or whatever.

Or months later, I'll be like, Yeah, I handled that really poorly.

And that's all I hope is that my kids learn that you can be wrong, make a mistake and move on.

Yeah.

No, I've actually seen like in my seven-year-old, he'll calm down and then he'll come talk to me because that's something that he's seen me do.

My girls do.

But speaking of your girls, have they expressed any interest in acting?

My younger one, yes.

So my 17-year-old is much more of an athlete.

Okay.

When she was younger, she was a little more like kind of into the performing stuff.

But as she's gotten older, she's been a little more like, nah.

But she is an athlete, really great soccer player.

And, but my younger one is, she has the performance bug for sure.

She's in a performing arts school program, musical theater, and she is.

And I'm not saying this just because I'm her mom.

She is an incredible singer.

Like she is

really impressive.

Like I saw her do something recently and I was was like because you know when you don't see your kids practice at home and you're like oh no how like i knew she could sing but i was like how is this gonna go well and literally the audience was like

she sang last midnight from into the woods and

absolutely nailed every note in it and killed and i was like oh so then what do you do does she want to go to auditions how would you support her right well right now um

She's happy where she is.

She likes going to school.

She likes having a normal thing.

You know, there were times because she was like this when she was four or five years old.

She got up.

I remember one of our first tapings of Fuller House got up and sang Katy Perry's Roar in front of the entire audience and like nicked it.

Yeah.

And

she just, she loves it.

Yeah.

I though saw in her that she didn't have that thing that you need as a child star, which is that you are willing to put your needs or whatever you want in the moment aside for the longer-term goal.

Okay.

And so I was like, that's not who you are.

I'm not going to make that who you are.

Enjoy being a kid.

You've got all the time in the world to be in the business.

And the business is very different now than it was.

You know, I, to be a kid in this business with social media these days, I don't know how they do it.

And I wouldn't,

I really don't.

It was hard enough to not have that stuff and grow up in that world.

And I can't imagine having to put yourself out there like that.

And, you know, because of the scrutiny, you mean?

Or because the scrutiny, the cruelty, the, the constant pressure of having to be relevant, new.

What are you posting?

What are you doing?

Like, it's, it's a lot.

Yeah.

And that is what people's careers rely on now, particularly young people, you know?

And it goes away so fast.

Like, it goes away so fast.

And so you're constantly like, I need to, I need to do more.

I need to do more.

And I'm like, I'm not putting it.

Sounds like me, actually.

I mean, I get it.

Look, I am notorious for being like, you lazy bezer.

You need to do more.

You know, I'm like, I'm doing seven jobs.

That was, that makes sense because I feel like the urgency maybe in the 90s wasn't you don't have to worry about what you're doing between filming seasons or taking.

You had to worry about something.

You had to worry about tabloid reporters.

Okay.

But you didn't have to worry about someone taking a picture of you on your phone or of you posting something stupid in a drunken stupor.

You know, like

there's just, and as a young person, like you make so many mistakes.

You're so dumb.

And now you have the opportunity to share with everyone just how dumb you are.

And we should all have the space and freedom to go be dumb and learn things when we're young and

work through it and not have to do it on a public stage.

And now it's

celebrity or not, your life is ruined if you say something or do something that.

A lot of young people do stupid things.

Sure.

And if you don't post it yourself, someone else will post it.

Exactly.

Someone else will post it.

You know, I'm glad I did all my stupid partying right in the days that cell phone cameras were just coming out.

Like the BlackBerry could take a fuzzy photo, you know, and I'm like, woo, miss that.

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You struggled with addiction yourself

while under the public, in the public eye.

I mean, not when I was like, not when I was a kid kid, but like in my 20s, yeah.

And, you know, because people know who you are, it never kind of goes away from it being in the public eye.

And also

anything that you go through because you're in the public eye, people just want to pay attention to it, regardless of if it's something that millions of other people are dealing with.

Somehow it becomes more sensational and it must have to do with the business.

And you're like, no, not this.

And I always say, like, I would have had struggled with addiction issues regardless of being on TV or not.

And to be fair, that gave me some of the ability

to be able to get, find treatment and find help in ways that I might not have had I not worked as a child.

Right.

But it's hard, you know, you don't, you have to make all your mistakes very publicly.

But yeah, I just like looking back on it now, I'm like, I'm glad I did it then.

Yeah.

And not in these later years.

What was, what was the, um, where was the line for you where you were like, okay, I do need treatment.

I want to get treatment.

And then also just like essentially rebranding or getting your career back.

What was that like for you?

Well, I went to treatment.

in my early 20s and I had gotten, I had been sober before that.

I had, you know, I got sober the first time I was like 18.

It was, it was an up and down day.

It was a lot.

And, you know, as a young person, you're like, I'm never going to have any fun again, you know?

And

so I had kind of ridden that wave a little bit.

And then when I went to treatment, the story came out.

Someone basically sold the story that I had been in treatment.

So the choice was sort of taken away from me, whether or not I get to come out publicly about this.

It was, okay, this is out there publicly.

How do you want to deal with it?

Do you want to hide from it or do you want to, are you just going to face it and be like, here we go?

I chose to just face it because it's not going to go anywhere.

And the more you try to not talk about something, the more people want to talk about it.

Right.

So, you know, after that happened and, you know, kind of everything got blown up, I was still really struggling with getting sober and having to navigate all of that, you know, in my early to mid-20s on top of the fact that people still know you.

So they assume things and you were a child star.

So they're like, oh, you're one of those fucked up child stars.

And, you know, and you're like, no, I'm just a regular person.

I'm just a regular person.

You know, I, I lived in a neighborhood that was, you know, middle class neighborhood.

And

there were five other kids in that neighborhood who either went to jail for drugs, OD'd in their house in our neighborhood.

You know, nobody knew about them.

Right.

But it happens all the time.

And, you know, I always say that because I'm like, it doesn't

have to be someone famous.

This happens all the time.

Right.

So I just felt like, okay, well, I guess then I'll talk about it.

Right.

And so you did.

And then how, what was it like getting, you know, going back into acting after your final treatment, going to treatment the first time?

Well, I mean, I had gone to treatment in my 20s and then I had kids and then I got sober and then I got drank again and then I got sober.

You know, it's been up and down, but it's been, God, 16 years since I've drank alcohol

and

13 years since I relapsed on meds with a car accident that I was in.

Meds, pills were never my thing.

And then they prescribed me somas for, which is a muscle relaxer for some.

I was like, ooh, this is fun.

Um,

but yeah, I, you know,

getting back into acting, it was, it was hard for a little while because it was, you know, again, the only thing that people wanted to talk about.

So it was, there were times I was like, oh, why didn't I just keep my mouth shut?

Why didn't I just say, I don't want to talk about it?

Because now it's all that people want to talk about.

But, you know, through it, I

got to come back to Fuller.

And, you know, I just never gave up knowing that I had more to offer than just being some salacious story.

Yeah.

And did you ever have to like spend time rebuilding trust with like producers or anything because they looked at you differently or no?

No, no, because I never, I was, uh, I didn't come to set loaded.

I didn't, well, that's, I mean, hungover, sure, but I didn't, um, I never screwed anything up.

And, you know, when I first, was going through all this and I wrote my book, I was doing these speaking engagements about

being sober and going through treatment and I still hadn't gotten completely sober yet and so I was saying I was this person and I was not but nobody knew and you know sometimes when you can get away with stuff for a long time like that self-loathing is almost worse because you're like oh my god

I'm such a liar that nobody can even tell that I'm lying, you know, and it was really hard.

And I felt like terrible about it.

Yeah.

And then when my book came out,

I hadn't told my speaking agents actually about some of the stories.

And then it was in the book.

And so they called and they were like, wait, what?

And I was like, oh, yeah, I should have told you guys about that.

But honestly, since then, I've done more speaking engagements, same people, they've come back.

I have great relationships with everyone that I work with.

Even my friends that I used to get loaded with, I've apologized.

And they're like, you weren't always like a terrible, like an asshole.

You were just insane.

And we never knew what Jodi we were going to get.

And I was like, well, that's part of my charm.

Yeah.

So

you still want to know, but now I'm sober and I'm going to remember it all.

Yeah.

How much of your past, your child, your childhood, your

recovery do you talk about with your girls?

A lot.

Yeah.

My girls, I mean, you know, again, there's no hiding from it.

They have access to the internet.

They can Google everything they want about me.

Yeah.

You know, and it's not like their dads haven't told them stuff about me.

So it's like, okay,

I'll be honest because I also think like,

I know me growing up, I had this idea that my parents had never done anything wrong.

Right.

And I think

parents then, like we were talking about, you know, we apologize to our kids now and we have a different relationship.

I think parents then, it was like, you had to be this sort of.

this figure in your child's life that was authoritative and knew what they were doing and all that, you know, and so I was like, oh, it's me.

I am a horrible person, you know?

And

as I got older and talked to my mom about certain things, I mean, she was never like I was, but getting to know your parents as people

really gives you a whole different experience of them.

And so I'm like, I don't want my kids at 30 to be like, oh, you were this or you're, what was going on?

I'm like, let's just talk about it now.

Like, and we have a much more open, honest relationship.

Look, do I think my kids tell me everything they're 15 and 17 absolutely not i know they don't because i see their social media sometimes and i'm like you didn't tell me that um

but you know i also am like there is nothing that you could do that i probably haven't already done multiple times and gotten through or gotten myself out of so like

I'm not going to judge you.

It does create a different dynamic, I think, between the parent and child when they see you as human and not just a parent.

Right.

Right.

Because I have that sort of relationship with my oldest son.

Like he just will come to me about anything and everything because I think that he's seen me be human and not just a mom.

And some people will say, well, you have to be a parent before you're a friend.

I'm not his friend.

I'm just a human.

Exactly.

That's, and that's what I was going to say is like, I still am like, I'm still the one that sucks and has to be like, no, you can't do this or taking the phone or no, whatever.

Yeah.

But it's a different relationship in that I, they just see me as a person who is fallible, who can make mistakes, who is trying their best, who's willing to say when they're wrong.

Yeah.

Those are the things that I want my kids to learn.

So that's what I want to exemplify is

all of these ways to go about in the world.

And just, nobody's perfect.

So like if you screw up, be like, oh, my bad.

Sorry about that.

Let me do better.

Yeah.

Let me not do that again.

Right.

Don't just say I'm sorry and then fuck off and do it again.

Right.

Make your amends.

How do we do this?

You know, and a lot of that too came from 12-step programs and 12-step principles that i've learned over the years of like just being honest taking accountability for yourself like those are things that i have tried to teach my daughters that's more important to me i don't i don't give a about grades i don't i i don't care if you're gonna go to a four-year university i don't like none of that matters i just want to raise good humans yeah and i want them to be good to themselves and good to others yeah that's all i care about when people ask me like what my kids want to do i just want them to be happy yeah i'm like i don't know they could go to college they're gonna do i'm like maybe they're gonna go backpack the world.

I don't know.

Let them have fun.

You know what I mean?

Like, go live your life.

I, none of your life is attached to anything that I need from you.

For sure.

And I think sometimes parents forget that.

You were a dancer.

I was.

And then you went on dancing with the stars.

What was that like?

Oh my God.

It was, um,

funny enough, up until I did a couple, a show in Panama where I lived in the jungle for two weeks.

It was the hardest thing I'd ever done physically.

And then I really wouldn't live down in the jungle.

But it was, I mean, it, and because I wanted to work really hard, like I would dance six days a week and there were no days off.

And we worked, you know, Easter Sunday.

We worked, there was, when you're in it, you're in it.

Yeah.

And you go from, you know, maybe working out to being like, you're going to do like five hours of intense cardio for every day for, you know, six days a week.

Every day?

Yeah.

I always wanted like hours a week.

It was so much fun though.

And I loved it.

Like I used to go watch ballroom competitions when I was in my teens.

Like I've always wanted to do it.

Any reality show that I've ever done, I've only done like a couple of them, has always been because it's something that I wanted to learn how to do anyway.

Right.

And so I'm just getting the opportunity to do it.

And I'm like, okay, well, sure, I would do this anyway.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What was the jungle one?

It was called Beyond the Edge.

And it was a show

where it was sort of like a survivor, naked, and afraid-esque thing.

We lived out in the jungle on our own for two weeks.

And every day we competed in like crazy, like Iron Man competitions.

Would you do that again?

Probably.

Yeah.

Would you do special forces?

Have you seen that?

I have to do that.

And I think it was probably like too close to Panama and I was like, crawl, I've done matches.

You're like, come back to me.

But honestly, I'm like, nah, I'm good.

I've done it.

I did.

And I liked it in the jungle.

Jungle was beautiful.

I had some amazing moments.

in the jungle where we didn't have our phones and I had a different relationship with my phone and with electronic devices after I came back from the jungle.

I'm just like it changed for you.

In what ways?

Were you just like putting yourself?

I was finally so free of it and so able to be present and in nature and just like in my own self, pushing myself to do things that were hard or challenging that didn't depend on anybody else in the outside world.

I didn't need to comment on anything.

I didn't need to read.

I just came back and I was like, oh, plus, I got kicked off Facebook while I was back or while I was gone.

My personal page.

I'm very political.

And so I was like, you know what?

Okay, cool.

That was several years ago.

And I just, I'm not as in it anymore.

Just that two weeks completely changed.

Yeah.

What day do you think in that two weeks was like the turning point for you?

I remember it clearly.

I was standing.

It was a day that we, it was, so we'd work for,

we'd go for like four or five days, and then we would have like half a day off that or a day off that was, we'd be doing interviews and stuff in the jungle like you do for the reality shows.

And

it was on that day and we were so sore.

I mean, I almost drowned at one point doing this long ass swim and all this stuff.

And I just remember I was standing there and like our little village area was kind of empty and I just looked up and all I could hear was like the ocean kind of on the other side of the little sand dune and the trees were just this beautiful canopy and there were birds and there were monkeys and I didn't hear any people.

And I was like, totally not stressed.

And it was 2021 and we'd all spent a lot of time on the internet the year before.

And I went, oh.

This is what it was supposed to be.

This is different.

And I was like, I need more of this

and to dip my toe into the other rather than the reverse of living in that all the time and dipping my toe into like nature and taking a break from it.

Wow.

And

yeah, I just, I, and I guess also it's my age.

I remember life before all this crap.

Like I remember when you just used to go out and do stuff and have fun.

And I hate taking pictures of stuff.

So like, I just go live life and I'm like, oh yeah, everyone that's like younger than me is like, oh, we got to take a picture of it.

And I'm like, I don't, that's not me.

Like, I live in the age of like, you know, the wind up cameras and half of them would have your thumb over the lens and you were like, well, oh, well.

So you feel like you still hold on to like not going on social media as much or like going on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I, for sure.

Like there's definitely, I am, I am a sort of what I call like a drop and post now where like I'll post some stuff.

I don't care about the comments.

I I don't need you to agree with me.

I don't need you to like me.

I'm very political in what I talk about.

So I will post stuff about that and then just be like, okay, I'm out.

Bye.

You know, because I'm like,

the, the,

I've spent time arguing with people on the internet.

Yeah.

And it's just diminishing return.

Right.

It's diminishing returns now.

And I literally notice I open it up and I'm like, oh my God, I feel so anxious.

And I'm like, I'm much better feeling like I'm taking action.

So I'll dip in there and be like, where's a protest?

Where's something I can take action on?

Where's something I can learn?

And then I'll be like, okay, bye.

I'm not reading the comments.

I'm not going to argue.

I'm not going to change anybody's mind, but I'm going to be who I'm going to be.

And you haven't always been like that?

No, I think, I think it took a while to like kind of be like, Oh, I actually don't like social media all that much.

You know, it was really fun when we first started.

We had a great time, everybody collectively.

And I think now we just have gotten really away from the connected part of it.

And it's just, I mean, it's, you know, it's become sort of AI corporate bot slop, and we've just become cruel to each other.

Yeah.

No, I can agree with you.

Yeah.

I'm like, I could be mean to somebody in person.

I don't need to do it on the internet.

You know, why waste my time?

You might not even be a real human.

Yeah.

What was your favorite role that you've ever played?

I mean, I guess it would have to be Stephanie.

Really?

Yeah, I love Stephanie.

And again, she's like sort of the closest to me.

So it's always been like, yeah, that's an easy role to slip into.

Yeah.

And, you know, she's, she's loved.

Yeah.

She is.

I, I love Steph now.

I think as a teenager, I was like, oh my God, yeah, I know.

I was on the show.

Now I'm like, I love her.

I love that show.

I love what it was about.

I love how connected people are to it.

I mean,

we were in Harlem last night for Juneteenth.

And this, I passed by this young kid on a skateboard, like, you know, nose pierces, all the seven.

He was like, are you that lady from Full House?

And I was like, yes, can I give you a hug?

And he was like 17, 18.

And I was like, absolutely.

And

what other characters give you that response?

Yeah.

Other than something that people have grown up with and lived with their whole lives.

So I consider Steph to be like a special little conduit of, you know, love and change out there in the world.

Is there a dream collab or a dream role that you want to play?

I don't know if there's a dream role.

I like doing more serious, dark stuff,

but

I would love to do

like a show like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Arrested Development, an sort of irreverent, witty, layered single cam comedy.

Yeah.

I love it.

I watch that.

Those are the kind of comedies I watch.

I don't watch sitcoms, but I will watch.

Do you watch The Office or did you watch?

Oh, yeah.

I did.

Yeah.

I watched like The Office.

I didn't watch it like all of the time.

But yeah, again, that kind of stuff, I just, that would be really fun to do.

But I also, I really want opportunities to direct more.

would you ever do like a book to movie or book to show adaptation absolutely yeah what are you most looking forward to

book to movie adaptation oh um did you read verity i didn't don't okay i mean do

if you have a weak stomach don't i don't um i think i'm i'm a very dark i'm like this there's nothing that can shock me or if you at this point like the dark stuff yeah yeah um still beating is supposed to be a movie and that's by jennifer hartman okay um i'm trying to think what else yeah see i'm usually one of of those people.

I'm like, once I've read the book, I'm like, I don't care about the movie because I'm like, it's not gonna be as good.

But you might, you could be in it, you could be casted.

That I would do.

Yeah.

Oh, there.

Well,

remarkably, remarkably bright creatures.

Have you seen Love?

That is going to be a movie.

That's going to, you know, who's in it?

No.

Sally Field.

Oh, see.

She's playing.

Um, why can't I think of the character's name?

She's playing the main character.

Um, the octopus?

She's not playing the octopus.

She's playing the

they're CGIing Sally Field's face onto an octopus.

Um, it's the flying octopus.

No,

No,

she's going to Tova.

Toba.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

I don't know.

I read that book.

I was in Yosemite and I read it after a horrible bout of norovirus, which was a real bummer.

But I was reading that book and just crying at the end of it.

I loved it.

I loved it.

Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

Did you read that one?

No, but I've heard about that one.

You have to read it.

It's on my, I think it's on my wish list of my books to buy.

That one, I feel like I relate it in a different way because I have four,

my kids have four dads.

That's always complicated.

I feel like what you've talked about today, you could maybe relate to parts of it, especially because the public eye aspect of it too is in there.

And I think it would be really cool for you.

Yeah, okay.

I'm going to move that up to the top of the list.

It was really good.

And I didn't listen to the audio, but I heard really good things about the audio.

So if you're traveling, that would be a good thing.

I can't do audiobooks.

So I'm not an auditory learner.

I am a person that has to physically touch it.

I don't read e-books either.

Okay.

Because if I don't have the tactile page, it does not absorb.

It's like it doesn't happen.

Same thing with scripts.

I hate using e-scripts.

I'll do it to read through.

Yeah.

Most of the scripts now you download them on an iPad or whatever.

But I always like to have, I always print my script out.

Yeah.

Because if I don't have it in my hand when I'm trying to memorize it, it doesn't, it's like it doesn't exist.

We're missing that in

for school these days.

Like my seven-year-old came home with a Chrome, like a computer.

And I'm like, I can't.

This is why he's not retaining anything because he's like just clicking around.

I hate it.

I hate it all.

Yeah, I'm going to live in a year in the woods in the next couple years.

But

I am a book nerd, so I love it.

The series of books that I was telling you about, Carlos Riesophon, I always, I was like, oh my God, this would be,

it would have to be like a big budget, giant HBO that, because there's so much that you'd have to be able to afford to create and do.

But I also, I'm like, oh, but it's so good.

Don't touch touch it.

Yeah.

Well, because they have to remove so much.

Right.

And I think if I remember right, I think I remember there were a lot of people that had come to him to like purchase rights and to his family.

He passed during COVID

to purchase the rights to that series of books.

And he was like, no.

No.

And I get it.

Like for him.

Yeah.

I was like, no, don't let him.

This is, this is special.

And you couldn't

replicate it if you tried.

No, for sure.

Where can people find you on socials?

You can find me on Instagram at Jodi Sweeten.

You can also find the podcast ID, which is the Full House Rewatch podcast with Andrea Barber, which is called Howrude Tandoritos.

And you can find us online at Howreud Podcast on Instagram.

And I'm trying to think what else.

I think that's about it.

I think I'm on TikTok.

I don't ever go on TikTok.

I think my social manager posts on TikTok.

Maybe.

I don't know.

I've literally never opened TikTok in my life and I plan to keep it that way.

I was going to say keep it that way for sure.

I mean, at this point, we might lose it anyway.

So I'm like, why get attached to someone who's going away, you know?

This is true.

And you can watch the movie Dating to Dangerous on Lifetime on June 21st at 8 p.m.

Eastern Standard Time.

Thank you so much for joining us.

I'm so glad I got to go.

Thank you so much.

Hi guys, my name is Hayden, and a lot of you have been asking me to start a podcast.

Okay, I'm totally kidding.

Nobody asked me to start a podcast.

The world did absolutely not need another podcast, but I wanted to because there's no place on the internet where I can yap for 30 to 45 minutes straight with my best best friends, you guys, and just shoot the shit, talk about all of my favorite things like social media, pop culture, reality TV, influencers.

We all know I love a good influencer.

And that's what you can expect from my new podcast.

A lot of you have been asking.

This is a space for some real conversations with some of my favorite creators, reality stars, maybe even a celebrity or two if they answer my DM.

This is all about the world behind the curtain that I really want to share with you guys.

Allow me to ask the questions that you've been dying to know the answers to.

And allow me to tell my guests that a lot of you have been asking.

You guys can listen to, follow, rate, and review a lot of you have been asking with me, Hayden Cohen, wherever you get podcasts.

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