John Stamos is reflecting on how his initially felt after he learned that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen did not want to appear in Netflix’s 2016 “Full House” reboot.
On a recent episode of “And That’s What You REALLY Missed” podcast, hosted by former “Glee” stars Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz, the 59-year-old actor opened up about the Olsen twins absence from the reboot and reconnecting with them.
“When I did ‘Fuller House,’ they didn’t want to come back and I was angry for a minute and that got out,” he explained. “But they said, ‘We loved you guys, we loved our childhood. We loved being with you. We miss Bob.’ They came over to my house and they brought a pork chop and sage.”
Stamos also spoke about his former co-star and friend, the late Bob Saget, who died in January 2022 at age 65.
Despite working on eight seasons of “Full House” together, Stamos said the cast “didn’t really become close” until after the show was over, which he credits to Saget.
“He was very instrumental in keeping us all together,” he said. "When the twins moved to New York…we didn’t really see them much. We stayed in touch a little bit, but Bob really did and they were so great.”
When “Fuller House” debuted in 2016, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were the only main characters who didn’t reprise their characters. At the time, People reported that executive producer Bob Boyett said Ashley Olsen had told him she didn’t “feel comfortable acting” after not being on camera since she was 17 and Mary-Kate Olsen said the timing wasn’t right.
Stamos previously said he was “heartbroken” over the news the Olsen twins would not appear in “Fuller House.” Years later after the final season of the show aired, Stamos revealed how he felt about their absence on all six seasons of the show to Andy Cohen during an April 2021 episode of “Watch What Happens Live.”
“We were disappointed, but we understood,” he said, sharing that Lori Loughlin had informed him about Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's success as the founders of the luxury fashion label, The Row.
He added, “I remember Lori (Loughlin) saying to me, ‘It’s like, they won two or three CFDA Awards. That’s like winning two or three Oscars. If you won three Oscars, would you come back and do this?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe not.’”
Since sharing his temporary animosity toward his former co-stars, he has posted several throwback moments with the Olsen twins on social media and in interviews.
After posting a throwback photo from two decades prior posing with his “TV nieces” in January 2022, the following year, Stamos shared a story from set about working with the actors when they were less than a year old.
Stamos said on an episode of Josh Peck and Ben Soffer’s “Good Guys” podcast that he had gotten Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen fired at the beginning of “Full House” because they kept crying on set when they were 11-months-old.
He said he “couldn’t deal with it” anymore, adding, “‘This is not going to work, guys,’ and I screamed 10 times to get rid of them. ‘I can’t work like this’…And so they got rid of them.”
However, it was a short-lived absence from the Olsen twins, as Stamos didn’t jive with their replacements, either. He added, “I said ‘Bring the Olsens back. These kids are terrible!’”