It’s easy to see how the child actors who starred on Full House in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s formed real relationships with each other. Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin, Mary-Kate Olsen and her twin sister Ashley spent eight years of their childhoods playing the Tanner sisters, and just like in any family, different dynamics formed between the individual actors. Sweetin recently opened up about what that was like, explaining why she and the Olsen twins were much closer than her and Bure back then.
Jodie Sweetin took some time away from her How Rude, Tanneritos! podcast to sit down with former co-star Dave Coulier on his show Full House Rewind, and when the Joey Gladstone portrayer asked if she’d been closer to Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen or Candace Cameron Bure, Sweetin did not have to think about it, telling the host:
I think definitely Mary-Kate and Ashley. … We did a lot of stuff together, and I think it’s that age when, Candace was 10 when she started the show — and I was 5 — she’s heading into that like, pre-teen, teen, ‘You’re lame. Get away from me.’ And she also was the baby of her family. You know, it always rolls downhill. And she told me this, she was like, ‘Look, I got it all from my older siblings, and then you came along. And you were like the next available person to just be like, ‘Ew, you’re lame.’
That makes a lot of sense, especially when considering that Candace Cameron Bure had older siblings who gave her the same kind of grief she would go on to pass down to her TV sister.
At that age I'm sure Bure was more comfortable hanging out with Andrea Barber or Scott Weinger when he joined the series in 1991. While most little sisters do crave their older siblings’ attention, it doesn’t sound like Jodie Sweetin was too upset about playing big sis to Ashley and Mary-Kate. The Stephanie actress continued:
We definitely grew up like sisters. And me trying to tell stupid jokes, and [Candace] being like, ‘Oh my gosh. Come on, Andrea [Barber], let’s go be cool 12-year-olds over here. So I would hang out with Ashley and Mary-Kate, because then I got to be the older sibling and I was an only child. … And I loved being the older child, but I was very much care-taking and loved doing stuff like that. But Ashley and Mary-Kate and I got into it. We would act like siblings, too.
Because the Full House cast has remained so close, we’ve been privy to some of the inevitable drama over the years. For example, some people (i.e. John Stamos) were angry when the Olsen twins didn’t want to reunite with the rest of the cast for Fuller House (although Jodie Sweetin had the best explanation for why that was). Dave Coulier has confirmed that they “bicker” with one another just like any family, and we all know about the supposed feud that allegedly caused Candace Cameron Bure to unfollow Sweetin on Instagram.
But it’s been a pleasure for those of us who grew up with the Tanners to see all the good moments, too, like their reunion at Jodie Sweetin’s wedding and how they came together following Bob Saget’s death.
Jodie Sweetin may not see as much of the Olsen twins these days as her other co-stars, as they continue to reunite for 90s Con, podcasts and other Full House-related projects, but there’s likely nothing that can break that sibling bond that formed so early in their lives. You can relive all of the Tanner family fun by streaming the series with a Hulu subscription or Max subscription.
