February 26, 2025 • 49 mins
This week’s episode with Jodie Sweetin is a pinch-me moment, as someone who grew up watching (almost exclusively) Full House. Jodie is an author, producer, counselor, and most notably, the actress who has graced our screens as Stephanie Tanner in the iconic shows, Full House and Fuller House. Jodie experienced the full highs and lows of a career by the age of 13, when Full House ended, leading to a decades long struggle with addiction. Not only did she overcome her addiction, but she took her experience and turned it into helping others, becoming a sobriety counselor and working at a drug treatment facility.
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She Pivots was created by host Emily Tisch Sussman to highlight women, their stories, and how their pivot became their success. To learn more about Jodie, follow us on Instagram @ShePivotsThePodcast or visit shepivotsthepodcast.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Jody Sweeten.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome back to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. This week,
(00:34):
I'm delighted to share Jody Sweeton's story. Jody is an author, producer, counselor,
and most notably, an actress who has graced our screens
as Stephanie Tanner and the iconic shows Full House and
Fuller House. I knew I wanted to have Jody on
as soon as I heard her story. I always say
(00:55):
that everything builds upon itself, and the only way that
I was able to connect with Jodi is because when
I worked on the Harris campaign, I made these new,
incredible connections through my coworkers and through colleagues. And when
I realized that one of my new colleagues was connected
to Jody, I reached out and was like, I know
we're talking about campaign, but I am dying to have
(01:15):
this conversation with Jody. Do you think it would be
okay to make the connection? And so we are able
to tell Jody's story here on she pivots right now.
What makes Jody's story interesting to me is that she
experienced the full arc of career highs and lows by
just thirteen. When Full House ended, what was a wonderful
and supportive environment for her during her formative years was
(01:38):
suddenly gone, and what followed was a decade's long struggle
with addiction. And while it may seem obvious to attribute
her battle with addiction to being a child star, it
was actually something deeper, she says, something more biological. Jody's
parents were actually her adoptive parents, and as for her
(01:59):
biological parents, and they both struggled with addiction. As she'll
share in the episode, Jody had a genetic predisposition to alcoholism,
but surrounded by the love of her parents and her
second Full House family, Jody put in the hard work
and is in recovery. As if navigating the loss of
(02:20):
your second family and career at thirteen wasn't enough of
a pivot, Jody decided to channel her own experiences into
becoming a sobriety counselor. She went back to school and
worked at a drug treatment facility until she returned as
Stephanie Tanner on Fuller House. Despite her challenges, she has
come to have a beautiful outlook on life and what
(02:41):
true success looks like. She is a breath of fresh
air and I can't wait for you to hear her story. Enjoy.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
My name is Jody Sweeten, and I am an actress, author, mom, podcaster,
and I don't know, probably a few other hats too.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Okay, so we're gonna rewind. We're going to go to
like little Jody. Okay, I mean you started acting so young,
But did you have ideas of like what you wanted
to be when you grew up? Was it always an actress?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I mean, I you know, I cycled through the usual
things as a kid of like doctor, astronauts, veterinarian, you know,
marine biologists. I feel like those are the top four
that kids go for because they're like I like dolphins,
I like dogs.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I you know, space is cool.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
But no, as a kid, I you know, I just
I loved performing, Like even if it was just my family,
I would, you know, find a little musical instrument and
like come out and jump and perform and sing a
little thing.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
And you know, I started reading at a really early age.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
So I was I was precocious, and I you know,
by by three three and a half, I was able
to read, start reading. By four, I was able to
read just about anything. I might not have known the
contact of it, but yeah, I was a.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Very early reader. And I'm still a voracious reader.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
But it really kind of led to me enjoying bringing
characters to life, enjoying creativity, and you know, all those
sorts of things.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I mean, my mom always tells. There's a couple of
stories that she tells.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
One is me at tot Lot, which was like the
little preschool thing, and I was dressed as snow white,
complete with a black wig costume.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
My mom made took it very seriously, and so I would.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Be running around the little sandbox area and then I
just suddenly fall and collapse, and the moms would be like,
oh no, what happened? And my mom was like, oh no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
She just ate she ate the boys and Apple. It's fine,
just let her be sure. She's just waiting for the prince.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
And my best friend Jeffrey, who was just always there
like what do you need? I was like, okay, you're
the prince, and so yeah, it was you know, I
was both an actor and director at a very young age.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The commitment to the character. But so when did that
just being dramatic turn into a potential for a career, Like,
was there a decision that you are now acting?
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Yeah, you know, I said that I wanted to be
what I called it was a modeler. At like three
and a half four, I was like, Mommy, I want
to be a modeler. And that was what I called
people on TV. And you know, my mom was like, well,
do have some like little talent show pageant things and
you know, some print stuff. And it just kind of
kept going and kept going, and people would be like,
(05:27):
She's like I think she would really do great at this,
Like she's a really fun, interesting kid. And my mom
was like, I mean, you know, okay, you know my
parents had no connection to the industry, didn't want to
be famous in any way.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
You know, they are both very much like no thanks,
where yes you could go ahead and do that.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
But yeah, it was probably around three and a half
four and I and it just kind of snowballed from
there truly, where it was like one thing led to another.
I started doing commercials around four and then just booking
a bunch of commercials and then like you know, sort
of all unfolded from that.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
What unfolded from there was landing a role on what
was to become one of the most popular family sitcoms
of its day, Full House. Full House. Obviously game changing
for your young acting career, for all of us, I
would say, who are also watching it? Oh for sure,
do you remember the beginning? I mean, you're again you
(06:24):
were so young, But do you remember forming those early relationships,
Like what were the dynamics like even from the beginning
between all of you?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Oh yeah, I mean I definitely remember. I mean I
have so many pictures and stuff too, So it's, you know,
one of those things where it's like do I do
I have the live memory or the memory of the photograph,
But either way, it's in there.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
We were just really lucky on the.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Show because everyone from the producers to the cast, to
the parents of the kids on the show, just everybody
was good, genuine family people. It was an environment that
put the kids first, not always the case, as we
(07:06):
hear a lot in this business, you know, and yes
it's still a job, and there were things, you know
that you had to show up and do, but like
from the beginning, we just clicked, you know, And it
really was the adults on the show, Bob and John
and Dave and then later on Lori, they were just
they were like family to us. I mean, it was
that was just genuinely who they were. You know. John
(07:27):
would throw huge barbecues at his house for the cast
and the crew at the beginning of every season just
to get to know each other and every like. It
wasn't just the cast, but it was you know, our
our crew and our script supervisors and our wardrobe people
like we were all close and a family and have
remained in contact. And it's it's something that we hear
(07:48):
over and over again from people in this business, how like,
really truly rare. It was, so it just some little
magical things sort of happened where we all.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
We all just clicked. Yeah, that's amazing. I mean you
said that parental support is critical for a child to
start in acting. How was your parental support It sounds
like really supplemented in many ways by your cast support
and by your production support.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Oh for sure. I was raised as an only child.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
My dad was older than my mom and had several
adult kids from a first marriage. And so, you know,
when they adopted me, my mom decided to be a
stay at home mom and it was just me, so
going driving back and forth from Lakewood, California to La back.
Also in the mid eighties when you could do that
(08:36):
in like forty minutes, and you know, she had time,
and so she was absolutely available and she could be
with me on set, drive me to all the auditions.
You know, there was there wasn't another sibling at home
to kind of worry about, So my mom was just
always there with me, and my dad was always supportive.
But he my dad worked a very you know, normal
blue collar job as a superintendent at a gypsum plant
(08:59):
in Long Beach, which is what they make drywall out of,
and he worked there all throughout me being on the show.
So you know, we were a really normal, you know,
outside of this weird TV thing that I was doing,
like a weird, normal, relatively middle class Orange County family,
you know what I mean. So my mom and dad
always told me that as long as I loved doing it,
(09:22):
they would support me, and if I didn't want to
do it anymore, then that was okay, and it was
my choice.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
And obviously, you know don't quit in the middle of
the season.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
But something happens and you really don't want to do
this anymore, then we need to talk. So it was
never there was never a pressure like some parents I
think put on their kids in this business.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
And her education was no exception. Both her parents and
the show want of the kids to maintain a semblance
of normalcy during these formative years growing up.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Well, I mean I started school right when I started
full house, so I started kindergarten.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I was only in kindergarten for like two days.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I skipped a grade, so I was already a little
younger than all the kids in my class. But I
would be kind of in and out. I went to
public schools except for I think two years. I went
to a private school in Orange County. The rest it was,
you know, all public schools. Once we got our normal
kind of routine down, would go to school in the
morning and work in the afternoon. My mom would pick
(10:20):
me up at lunch and drive me in for rehearsal days,
and then I had a couple of days I was
schooled on set, so I had very much a foot
in normal life too. And our producers and everyone knew
how important that was for us kids. You know, we
all had the ability to attend a regular school several
days a week and not completely be isolated and only
(10:43):
schooled on set and not have any you know, peer interaction.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, what was that peer interaction? Like, I mean, I
can't imagine someone sort of like casually being on one
of the biggest shows in the country.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I mean, like it depended on how new I was
to the school. You know, like usually you know, my
first school in like first grade, that a lot of
that year I wasn't there because we didn't quite have
our like routine down for shortened rehearsal days and all
that kind of stuff, so that I was a little
bit more in and out for first grade. And then
(11:15):
again being kind of pushed up into that grade and
not knowing anybody from my preschool or my you know
that I had kind of grown up with in my
neighborhood and suddenly being in a different class. But you know,
I it was like sometimes kids would be weird about it.
And then if I you know, if I had been
there for a little while, like second and third grade,
I went to that private school, and like, you know,
(11:35):
first some kids were weird about it, but mostly no,
Like at first yes, and then they'd just kind of
be like, oh, it's just normal. And there were always
the ones that like held onto some weird resentment or
jealousy or whatever. But I was never one of those
kids that was like, oh, I'm on TV. I never
watched the show. I never I didn't care, Like, I
just really was like, it's just just what I do
(11:58):
like because I enjoy it. Like, I don't need I'm
not impressed by you guys, So don't think that I
like think I'm cooler than you because I don't.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Well, on the show, we talk a lot about what
success means to people at different stages of their lives.
So what did success look like to you during that period?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Man, I guess like during that period it was I
just I got to have so many amazing, incredible experiences
on the set of Full House like I had. You know,
we didn't I didn't get to go on field trips,
but we would, you know, our our school teacher would
arrange for us to go on a weekend down to
the San Diego Zoo and you know meet with the
(12:39):
you know, zoologists there and stuff like we were. We
definitely got to be included in that stuff. So to me,
success was really just like getting to enjoy all of
these fun activities.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I was getting to do something I loved.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
I absolutely loved performing and acting school was fun, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I always liked it.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah, I guess success for me at that age was like,
just get to travel and have fun and be around
sun people and laugh all the time and it was great.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Did you ever have like a show business metric of
success at that point, like were you trying to get
to movies, a next show, you know something, viewership? No,
it was just it was as long as it was fun.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
It was just as long as it Yeah, it was
as long as it was fun. And you know, it
was also a very different era. It was nineteen eighty six.
You had your network television, you know, and some cable,
but it was once you were on a show, you
were on a show for a little while and everyone
knew it. And so that was a pretty successful place
to be. And as a kid, it was like, I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Know what I want.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I just was enjoying it for the moment. And I
wasn't one of those kids it was like I need
to be famous. I was like, this is cool, like,
I have fun doing this, but I can do other stuff,
you know, So I don't think it was ever like
vital to me to be famous.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
So many of our guests go through their quote low
point when they are well into their career or at
the very least older. But Jody's world changed suddenly when
Full House ended when she was just thirteen. She was
barely a teenager at that point, and losing something so
integral to her life and support system was devastating.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Hindsight always is twenty twenty, and of course, looking back
on it now, what I realized is I was definitely
in a period of grief. Nobody had died, but the
way that most of my life had been up until
that point suddenly was not anymore. And we didn't have
(14:35):
very long We only, you know, found out about two
weeks before we were done with the season that that
was going to be it. There had been talk of
us going to WB or CW whatever, it was, a
couple other things, and then it just didn't happen, and
so two weeks before they were like, actually after next week,
that's it. So I think I was grieving. I was
(14:57):
grieving that this idea of what had come to be
my normal. So it was it was less like, oh
my gosh, I'm not going to be on TV anymore.
I'm more just like, well, now what do I do?
Like okay, so I'm just like at school all the time, like,
and there was an appeal to that, you know. There
was also like, oh, to just be normal, like you know,
to just go to all seven periods every day and
(15:20):
be miserable like all the other kids.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
But yeah, like I think at the.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Time, I didn't probably give myself enough consideration about what
I was going through. Like I certainly wasn't talking to
anybody about it. I didn't you know, there was nobody
that I could talk to in my direct daily life
of like you know, like my mom understood a little bit,
but there was just a different thing to it.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So I think I entered a period and at thirteen,
you're like, who the hell am I? Anyway?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And then at on top of it, you know, I
was adopted at fourteen months old, so you know, I
had this I only knew bits and pieces of like
my biological family, So there was also a layer of
like who am I in regards to that, And so
I think at thirteen it was like a really big
upheaval and crisis of who am I now?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And what where do I go from here? What do
I want to do?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Like, you know, at thirteen, I had to ask myself,
do I want to keep having a job?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
You know?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Like sure, I guess, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
And I was like, yeah, okay, because it was easy
to just agree to it, but like my heart wasn't
as in it, because I was enjoying being a normal kid.
So you know, there was a lot of push and
pull I think at that time. And yeah, looking back
on it now, I would have a lot more grace
and sympathy for that thirteen year old who was like
just feeling really lost.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Jody continued to struggle, and soon she started to experiment
with alcohol, unknowingly opening a Pandora's box.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I started drinking at around thirteen, and it was like,
you know, I think, like stealing a Budweiser from somebody's
step dad's you know, outside fridge or whatever. It was beginning,
and I realized pretty quickly that it was doing something
for me that it maybe didn't necessarily do for everyone else,
(17:08):
and that it gave me a sense of peace and
it was something that I was that I just was
searching for more than other people that relief.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
And throughout high school, you know, it got more and more.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I'd say, like my junior and senior year, I was
still getting good grades, I was going to school. I
wasn't a problem, teachers liked me, you know, but I
was just every opportunity to do the stupid thing or
to be in you know, And it was always a
stupid thing, either in search of or under the influence
of drugs and alcohol, you know, Like that was the
(17:41):
repeating pattern for me. Was always looking to get alcohol
or weird or whatever, or being on it and making
poor decisions. And so my parents were just like they
were terrified. By the time I was getting to be
a senior in high school, they knew I was going
to be heading off to college, you know, and they
were like, oh my god, you are incapable of making
(18:04):
the responsible choice.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And it was more than that.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Obviously. It wasn't just about like, oh, I want to
have fun. It was like I just felt so much
less judged.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
It was it muted everything, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
And it also allowed me to be more extreme and
to get angry or upset or things. I lived and
It's funny because I think most people say, you know,
they drink so that they can kind of be a
little more stable. And it was like I was so
afraid to let out some of my more negative emotions
I think growing up and still it's something I work
on in therapy. But it gave me the excuse, I guess,
(18:41):
to cry or be upset, or to be angry or
you know. And so when that is, you know, the
excuse that you use for your drinking, you often make
very poor choices in getting angry or being that crying,
blubbering person. You know.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
It was just in a lot of pain and super lonely.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
After years of hard work and therapy, Jody is able
to look back and better understand the how and the
why of it all.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
People always assumed, but peers and just people in general
always assumed that I thought I was better than everyone else,
that because I was on TV or I was able
to buy a nice first car for myself or pay
for college, that I somehow would be an asshole, you
(19:34):
know what I mean, That I would be stuck up
and this and that, and it was it was a
weird way for me to try and like level the
playing field of being like, oh no, I'm just as
much of a mess as you are.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
In fact, I'm even worse. Like I'm not better than you,
I'm worse than you.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
And that didn't occur to me at the time obviously,
like as I've broken it down, like oh yeah, it was,
you know, this attempt to be like, oh, I'm messier
than you are, I'm more of a fuck, I'm more
you know, look at me.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I don't think I'm so special.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
And then it was also pieces of you know, all
I knew about my biological parents at the time was
that they both struggled with drug and alcohol use, and
so there was also this weird sense of it being
the only thing that I knew about them and that
I connected with them on that. Okay, well, obviously, like
(20:24):
I have some issues with this too. I mean even
at fifteen sixteen, I was like, yeah, I don't think,
like drinking in the morning is probably normal for like
fifteen sixteen. And but yet it was almost this not
a point of pride, but a point of connection with
the only thing that I knew about, like where you know,
I quote unquote came from, you know, I think, and
(20:45):
that's we all have this weird like biological attachment to it,
and you know, especially as kids, were like, I need
to know. And usually then you get to be an
adult and you're like, actually things that we're just fine.
Yeah sometimes, but yeah, it was a you know, it
was both a way to prove to others that I
was not stuck up and also a way to connect
(21:10):
myself to some sort of answer to the question of
who am I.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
When did it start to feel to you? It sounds
like you knew for a while during it that it
was an addiction problematic behavior. When did you accept that
to the point of taking action to getting sober the
first time?
Speaker 3 (21:30):
I was just just past my eighteenth birthday and I
got sober for the first time. Then I you know,
I was My first semester at college was a mess.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
I was.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
I had no ability to be responsible or make you know,
I had been so responsible my whole life, and then
it was like I had this freedom.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I could do whatever I wanted.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
I could make every stupid choice that I wanted in
boy did I and I just I didn't have an
off switch once it was Once that switch got flipped,
it was like we're on, Like any stupid idea it,
we're doing it. And so by the time I was
just a little bit past eighteen, like it had already
become very problematic. You know, I was intelligent and smart,
(22:16):
but I was getting a point nine GPA because I
just didn't go to any classes. My parents maybe come
home on weekends because they were afraid of me being
at the college campus because and it was a it
was a largely commuter school. It was a small private
school in the city of Orange and Orange County, and
you know, my parents were like, Okay, you can be
there Monday through Thursday, but you have to come home
(22:37):
on the weekends because you know, your behavior has warranted
that you're untrustworthy. But instead I just saw that as well, Great,
now i have Monday through Thursday, like Sunday night through
Thursday to party and then I'll just come home on
the weekends and sleep.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
And that's pretty much what I did.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
And it was just becoming very obvious that things were
not doing well. And that was you know, the first
time I got sober was just a little bit past
my eighteenth birthday, and that was really hard to be
going into like my sop my second year of college
and feeling again like such an outsider, like, oh, I
(23:13):
want you know, I wanted to rush a sorority, and
I did. And then I was like in the middle
of the pinning ceremony and I'm like, iven, I don't
like it these people. I don't want to do this,
Like it was just this this. I was just so
trying to find myself through other people, like who am I?
And I was looking for ways to get that reflected
back at me, you know. And and that didn't necessarily
(23:37):
get any easier getting sober at a young age, but
it definitely slowed things down a little bit, you know,
because I didn't It was like two and a half years,
maybe a little almost.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Three, right, and you got married during that time as well.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
I did, like you know, any good overachiever.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Once I sort of got my act together, I would
back earning top of my class, I got my scholarship back,
I bought a house, I had jaw surgery. Over a summer,
I was planning a huge wedding, and I was doing
my last year of college all at once. And I've realized,
now that's a sort of a pattern in my behavior
(24:18):
where I'm like, I have to do it all right now,
and then I burned myself out.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
But yeah, that was you know.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
I got married the first time when I was twenty
and again I think I was just like, Okay, this
is what I'm supposed to do next, Like I've done
the job. Thing I've done, I've graduated college, like or
I was in the middle process of it.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
It's like, okay, so I guess this is the next thing.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
I think a lot of a lot of people do,
but particularly young women. We kind of just go like, well,
where do I now? What I have some of the things,
but like, am is this expected of me? Or is
that expected of me?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
After the break, we talked with Jody about what eventually
led to her relapse and where she was mentally throughout
it all. And during that time, So you're the first
time you married it was to a police officer, and
(25:12):
your drug use started again.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Yes, I started drinking again because I was like, oh,
I you know, I'm twenty one now, like I'm older
and wiser, and I, you know, had talked myself into
the fact that I didn't that alcohol wouldn't be a problem.
I just didn't know how to do it. So I
decided for us to join a Wine of the month club.
That was my like easing back in like normal people.
(25:36):
And you know, immediately it was like, oh, yeah, this
is it's going to be hard for me to hide
the way I like to drink, which is too oblivion,
you know. And so I started doing drugs because it
was easier to hide, you know. I didn't break of drugs,
and he worked all night, and so I could be
(25:57):
out and about and come home at you know, or
five in the morning and nobody would know, you know,
and then I could go about my day and just
and you know, it was I was by no means
doing it perfectly, but I was for several years just
living like completely different lives.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Did you register it as a relapse at the time.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yeah, at that point I was like, oh, okay, we're back.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
And then I was like, well, you know, but my
my husband at the time, you know, there were times
I would tell me like I'm going to a meeting
and I was not going to a meeting, or I
would still go to meetings.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
I had a coffee commitment at a meeting.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I would go, you know, I would go to recover
meetings and I'd like not be sober, but I'd make
the coffee and then I'd you know, then I'd take off.
So it was like this, you know, it was this
weird knowing but also denial. You know, I've described it
before as like you're standing in front of a train
that you know is coming and you you just you're like,
(26:54):
I can't I don't know, I can't move, Like what
do I do? And you know, like there's just you'd
rather have it hit you and it be sudden, you
know what I mean, than be like, oh, I've got
to get my act together, like you're almost like I'd
just rather get run over by this and have everything
blow up. And I think in some ways that was
what I was looking for, like how do how do
(27:14):
I blow things up instead of and you know, I
did that a lot of my life. Let me just
blow things up instead of having an uncomfortable conversation or
saying what I need or want like but it was
like I just stopped, I stopped caring. I didn't care
like what happened to me, So why would anybody else?
You know, it was like and if you did, like, well,
then you're just going to get in my way. And
(27:34):
that was, you know, very much that sort of decision
making of my early twenties, and it was you know,
going to treatment, and there was periods of sobriety in
there and then going back to treatment, and then being sober,
and then being a sober living and then not and
you know, it was a very winding road through all
of it. The darkest moments for me weren't necessarily like
(27:55):
whinding from the hospital or anything like that. It was
those quiet moments when I just.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Hated the person that I had become, says.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
She checked herself into the Promises Drug Rehab facility and
underwent six weeks of intense treatment. Now, she says, she
is sober and ready to return to acting.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
You know, they talk about in sobriety that you will
get to this point where it's not the obsession is lifted,
you know. And I was someone I thought I would
die with a drink in my hand, you know, I
was like, that was my goal was to be, you know,
I don't know, little Eaty or something from Grey Gardens
and swanning about in a turban and a kaftan with a.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Drink in my hand.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
That being said, I am a much sloppier drunk than that,
and it wouldn't be pretty and I probably wouldn't live
that long. So I had to let go of this
idea of who that person was going to be. And
I realized that through all of the work that I've done,
I actually really.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Like who I am now.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
And it's nice to finally get to the part where
you enjoy that a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
When we come back, Jodi shares how she channeled this
exact mentality and her sobriety journey into her next pivot
more Soon. So is it around this time or at
(29:29):
what point did you become a counselor and you worked
as a logistics coordinator at a rehab center.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
When my younger daughter was Just after she was born,
I went back to school and got a certification as
a drug and alcohol counselor.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I didn't go back for my master's or anything.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
My husband has his masters as an LCSW, but no,
I went back and I just wanted to start working
in treatment.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I was like, you know what, one, I needed a job.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
You know, two kids are expensive and residuals aren't reliable,
so you know, well it's and I also, again, I
just like being productive and working. I was like, I
don't care, so I you know, applied for a job
and started working for like ten bucks an hour as
a tech in treatment and helping to take in new
clients and empty trash cans or wash dishes or whatever.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
I was. I was just happy to be there. And
then I worked in treatment for quite a while, probably
six or seven years. And it was right before Fuller
House started, actually that I quit working in that industry.
I mean, I was still working in that business while
we were going to pitch meetings for Fuller House. You know,
I'd be like, Okay, I got to leave my meeting
and go, you know, go meet with John and Candice
(30:38):
and Andrea and Jeff, you know, over at Netflix or something,
and then come back and you know, so again that
straddling of two worlds of sort of like normal day
to day stuff and then this weird other life.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Yeah, if we think about your going into into the
work as a pivot, then you almost pivoted back at
the same time. Did it feel like you were doing
mental gym now sticks, No, it.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Felt like I was really lucky that I had two
avenues of careers in my life that I would be
happy pursuing. Either way, I loved working in treatment. I
loved working with clients. I would have probably gone back
to school and become some sort of a psychologist or
so I definitely would have gone that route and then
(31:23):
taken that and worked in mutual aid programs or whatever.
That's always something that I'm like, I know, I could
go back and do that.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
I connect with people, and that working in that industry
was really fulfilling. But then I also am like, but
this is you know, being on a set is where
I feel the most at home, and it's where I've
spent most of my life, and I, you know, it's
just sort of this ingrained thing, and I am happiest
when I'm there. So the fact that I get to
(31:51):
do it, and I think the fact that you know,
I've talked about this before in the sort of the
interim period of first divorce and sober and having kids
and coming back to fuller house and all that, you know,
I lost a lot of the financial stuff. I lost money,
all my money on the house, and then I paid
(32:13):
for rehab, which is not cheap, and then I, you know,
and then I just blew money like an idiot, and
then I owed taxes and you know, all this kind
of stuff, and it was what I did was I
stripped away kind of all of the stuff and figured
out how to get content finally with me. And so
(32:33):
then it was like once I did that, and I
was like, oh, yeah, sure, I'll drive this like free
twenty year old Toyota that somebody gave me because I
don't have a car right now, you know whatever, Like
I don't care.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
I was happy.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
And it's almost like once I got happy with just
really being in my own skin and not feeling like
I needed to change or be somebody or something else
or look a different way, it was like it allowed
me to to enjoy this second round of it in
a much different way, in a way that it's like
I love it.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
I throw myself into it completely. But if it goes away.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Tomorrow, like I'll be okay, you know, And I don't
a lot of people in this business don't have that,
don't don't have that outlook, definitely, i'd say, not the norm. Yeah,
and I'm like, again, I love it. It's so much fun.
But if life takes a difference, if I have to pivot,
I'm happy doing that too.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, well that's so interesting. I was going to ask
about that about you know, going back into it, Like,
were you nervous to go back to the thing that
had been so identity forming and then had then led
to addiction issues for you?
Speaker 3 (33:41):
No, because you know, for me, the addiction issues and
my growing up in this business were two completely different things.
For me, I knew that I would have struggled with
addiction issues because of my biological predetermination to it, regardless
of if I was on TV or not. And it
just so happened that I was, so people know that
story and always sort of figure that it's got to
(34:04):
be part and parcel of that. It made things more complicated,
but I definitely know that I would have struggled regardless,
So it wasn't like I felt like coming back would
jeopardize that in any way.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
It was I was excited because I was like, I.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Get to come do this thing that I thought I'd
never get to do again. It was like this that
grief that I described earlier of losing that family at
thirteen or fourteen, very suddenly and suddenly my life not
being what it was all of a sudden.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
I got all of that back.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
I got all of it back, And so what it
felt like for me was like, oh, that's right, Like
you can say goodbye to something or to someone, but
you just don't know how it's what's going to happen
in the future, you know. So it was really healing
for me truly because I was like we were on
the same set, same dressing rooms. I mean, the three
(35:04):
girls moved up into like John, Bob and Dave's you know,
nicer rooms, and then the kids were down the hall
where we were.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
But yeah, it was the same dressing rooms.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Like it's same and they built it when we moved
into that stage on Warner Brothers twenty some odd years ago,
So it was really coming home, it really really it
was you know, the wardrobe room, the smells of the
stage all like, and I was like, this is exactly
where everything was when I left it twenty years ago.
(35:32):
And to get to do it with people that I
love so so much, like we had so much fun together,
Like what a gift. And I'm so grateful for it
because it was a very healing journey of like, oh, yeah,
maybe you don't always know, you know, remember you like
you don't you don't always know what's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Things can come back around.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Did you have a conversation with your onset family, like
your co stars, I mean, they must have known would
have been happening in the interm years. I imagine you
guys kept up to some degree that people knew what
was going on.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean Candice was my
matron of honor and my first wedding. Her daughter was
one of my flower girls. I mean, you know, every
new person I would date that that was the second
family that they had to meet. You know, it was like, okay,
well you've got to meet, like you met my parents,
but now here's the full house family.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
And sometimes they were more intimidating. You know. Bob would
be like, what are your intentions? And I was like,
can you not?
Speaker 3 (36:27):
But you know, yeah, they knew. And they were also
like really supportive. I mean, we've all we are very
much a family and have supported each other through birth, death, divorce, loss, lawsuits, everything,
and we still love each other. Might not always agree,
but we're very much like a family. And it's like
I'm going to not love you and I'll set a
(36:48):
couple of seats down. I don't know, you know, but
like that's just but that's what family is. And I'm
just so grateful that I got to have that experience
again with a different perspective of it.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Just to skip, I'm a little bit here. During the pandemic,
you were sober.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I use cannabis products for anxiety.
So during the pandemic, I figured out that I had
this really strange suddenly became really food averse, and it
was a way that my body deals with stress. Since
I'm not a stress eater, I'm a stress starver. And
so it's happened before during divorces and things. I will
just drop thirty pounds and I dropped a lot of weight.
(37:29):
I couldn't eat, I couldn't keep it anything down. The
smell of food, pictures of food were discussing, and so
I had to figure out how to have an appetite
and how to quell nauge it and so you know,
but I yeah, I don't drink, I don't use you know,
I don't use hard drugs. I like the journey of
going through the pandemic and being like, Okay, we're just
(37:51):
going to feel this, like this is just going to
be scary, you know it.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
And it was and it was scary in so many ways. Yeah,
it was a lot to handle. It's a lot to handle.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Yeah, And I was also entering like the the beginnings
of perimenopause, which I didn't really know at the time.
So I was also just a psycho. Like I was
like crying and angry and I mean, which was kind
of everyone during the pandemic. But it really didn't help.
And so now I'm like, oh, yeah, that now I
get Okay, that's yeah, that's why I went for that
(38:24):
three and a half hour walk that day.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Okay. You know, you just lose it.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So we haven't had the opportunity to interview someone who's
really gone through substance abuse and recovery on this show yet,
so I'm really interested to at, you know, to kind
of like get specific about like what tools did you
did it feel different for you, Like what tools were
you able to utilize to get it through that time?
Speaker 1 (38:45):
You know, I'll be very honest, I did not get
through that time very well at all. I did not.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
I looking back on it now, I think I I
will admit I think I had some sort of breakdown.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
I just wasn't okay.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
So I'd love to say that like, oh, well I
meditated my way through it.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Now I clawed my way through it. I yelled my
way through it.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
And I also tried to throw myself into like service
work and protests and mutual aid and doing stuff for
other people because I was I just felt like I
was crawling out of my skin. And it wasn't It
was not easy. And you know, but the thing that
I've learned in sobriety is if I'm feeling awful, let
me go find something to do for someone else.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Let me go be of use or of service.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
And there were so many places and ways to do
that at that time that that was kind of what
I threw myself into. And was it a distraction from
some things, sure, probably, but it was also like getting
back to who I really am and what I really love,
which is connecting with and helping people.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Right, And you didn't you didn't go back to drug use.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
No, No, it's.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
So interesting you talk about this. My sort of over
arching theme going into the show right now is plot twists,
Like your life happens in plot twists that you think
you've made a change, and then all of a sudden
you might actually go back to the other thing a
little bit and then come out of it again. And
but you do it with a different perspective. Where do
(40:14):
you think you are pivoting to now?
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Now?
Speaker 3 (40:18):
My goal is to pivot a little more into behind
the scenes stuff.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
I want to direct and produce.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
I've been, you know, producing on a bunch of my
homework and Lifetime movies and all the TV show that
I did Hallywo Darling's exec produced that, And you know,
that's kind of where I want to move into because
I constantly feel like I hear stories or I you know,
run into just incredible scripts that people who are not
known you know, are friends of mine or whatever, like hey,
(40:48):
would you read this? And I'm like this is incredible,
and I want to be able to bring those stories
to life. So, you know, producing directing, that's kind of
where I'm pivoting now. Is like, Okay, I don't want
to be in front of the camera forever again. Like
one of those things that you know, rarely do you
hear an actress say, is like, I don't I'm cool
not being in front of the camera. Yeah, but I
(41:08):
really that's not where I see myself long term. I
see myself continuing to do it for really great projects.
But I would I would really love to direct and
produce and watch other people sort of bring some things
to life to We haven't talked.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
As much about your daughters and being a mom. Yeah,
one of the things I'm really interested in is that
your daughters are now the age that you began to
have real difficulty. How do you talk with them about that?
How do you like safeguard against them following them the
same path.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
You can only safeguard as much as you can, right,
I mean, I have sixteen and fourteen year old daughters
and I love them, and sometimes they make really great,
responsible choices, and sometimes they really really don't. And it's
terrifying because I also know that no matter what my
expece sperience was or what I tell them I went through,
(42:03):
they're going to be like, yeah, okay and do whatever
they want. So what I've realized is is, you know,
as kids hit the age where it's you know, the
parental influence wanes and it's really now about peer group influence.
It's just really like, look, just be honest with me,
like there's nothing And for the most part they are.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
We you know, We've had some hiccups along the.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
Way past year, but you know, I think overall and
I will say, my kids come to me about all
sorts of things, whether it's them or their friends or
you know. And my kids also know that, you know,
they have some of my best girlfriends who are been
in their lives their entire lives, who are anties who
they can call.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
And I know I'm not alone in this. It feels
that way a lot of the time as a parent.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
But I just try and have honest conversations with them,
and I'm like, look, you're going to do some dumb shit.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
It's just what you're going to do.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
You never think that there's anything that you're going to
do that I'm going to like disown you for. We
might have some things to deal with, but I nothing
is going to shock me, you.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
I'm not gonna be like I can't believe you. I'll
be like, oh, oh, I totally believe you did that. Now,
how do we fix this?
Speaker 2 (43:16):
You know?
Speaker 3 (43:17):
And And it's scary because you know, we live in
a big city, and we live in an age of
social media and fentanel and all sorts of scary things
that are so easily accessible. And I think that's, you know,
the thing that I just try and tell my kids
all the time, is like, it's a different landscape of
(43:38):
being stupid as a young person than it was twenty
years ago. The margin of error is huge, and it
was always there when we were young, but not like this,
not like this, And you know, the margin of error
as far as what you do and how that gets
blasted online and you know all of these things, like
(44:00):
suddenly the stupidity of your youth really can have a
huge impact in ways that you don't foresee. And so
you know, trying to constantly guide them through this experience
of living in the age of immediate gratification and like,
how do we slow down a little bit? And if
you don't and you make a dumb choice or your
friend does, and like, okay, then come to me and
(44:22):
we'll we'll figure this out one way or another.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah, So, turning it back to you, what is something
that something that in your past that at the time
you saw it's a real low point or a negative
and now in retrospect you see it as having really
put you on the path you are now. Oh okay,
I know.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
One.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
So when I we were in the shooting the third
season of Fuller House and I not long before we
started that season, decided to try and rescue a one
dollar toy for my younger daughter over a small fence,
and I fell and snapped my tibia, my favorit, my
ankle dislocated. It just basically snapped my foot off sideways.
Supposed to leave for a movie the next day, that
(45:06):
didn't happen to surgeries pushed back fuller house anyway, I
was forced to I had to sit still, I had
to just be at home, and it forced me to
look at an incredibly unhealthy, abusive relationship that I was
in that I could no longer stay busy enough to
(45:27):
just ignore.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
And some really scary, awful stuff happened during that time.
But I like that felt like when I really went, oh,
oh wait, I don't have to do this. Is I
deserve better than this?
Speaker 3 (45:43):
And that was a huge turning point for me. Every
you know, things really really shifted in my life. And
from that point forward, I had the freedom to go
after the things that I wanted without the fear of
someone telling me I could or shouldn't or it wasn't
fair or all of those things that narcissists love to
(46:06):
throw on you. And so, you know, that was a
huge turning point for me because it was like, all
of a sudden, I was like, oh, I'm not I'm
not ever ever doing that bullshit again. Like and it was,
you know, breaking down some patterns that I repeated over
and over again in relationships and looked at and I
did a lot. I went back to therapy, and then
(46:27):
I was in therapy all through the pandemic. Like the
past probably six years of my life, I've done a
lot of work and therapy and continued work on self
and finding that grounded place and looking at things and
forgiving things from my past and also looking at things
that I don't want to repeat or that you know,
(46:49):
how do I make different choices?
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Things like that?
Speaker 2 (46:51):
So what are you working by now?
Speaker 3 (46:54):
So now I am working on. I have my podcast
how Rude Tanner Rito's, which is really fun. As I
mentioned earlier, I never watched the show growing up, and
neither did Andrea Barber. Like I have not seen most
of the episodes of Full House, maybe like the pilot
and a couple ones. So we decided that we were
gonna go back and start watching the original series from
(47:16):
the beginning all the way forward. And we're now we're
going into season four of Full House, but like season
two or three of our podcast, and it is so
much fun. We've had incredible guests on and Andrey and
I have so much fun both celebrating and making fun
of what were sitcoms in the late eighties early nineties.
The hair alone is magnificent, but I've been working on that.
(47:40):
I've been doing some live shows here in La Family Dinner,
which is a fun live panel comedy show that I've
been doing.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
I just got back from working in.
Speaker 3 (47:48):
Canada on a project which I can't say yet, but
it was really fun and something very different. I've been
doing my Hallmark Mystery series, which is on Hallmark plus
the Jane Mysteries, which is really fun. Or I get
to also sing, which is something I don't get to
do all the time. So yeah, I stay super busy
and I and in between all of that is momming
(48:10):
and traveling and trying to find a moment here and
there to you know, read books.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
So thank you so much, Jody, thanks for joining us.
It's just such such a good conversation.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
Thank you absolutely my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
Jody still lives in California with her two beautiful daughters
and husband She also has a podcast, a true delight
called how Rude Tannerito's. Give it a listen and be
sure to follow her on Instagram at Jody Sweeten. Thanks
for listening to this episode of she Pivots. I hope
you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave us a
(48:47):
rating and tell your friends about us. To learn more
about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she pivots
the Podcast, or sign up for our newsletter where you
can get exclusive behind the scenes content on our website
at she pivots thepodcast dot com. Special thanks to the
(49:07):
she pivots team, Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate producer
and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson,
Events and Logistics coordinator Madeline Sonovak, and audio editor and
mixer Nina Pollock I endorse she Pivots
Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Jody Sweeten.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome back to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. This week,
(00:34):
I'm delighted to share Jody Sweeton's story. Jody is an author, producer, counselor,
and most notably, an actress who has graced our screens
as Stephanie Tanner and the iconic shows Full House and
Fuller House. I knew I wanted to have Jody on
as soon as I heard her story. I always say
(00:55):
that everything builds upon itself, and the only way that
I was able to connect with Jodi is because when
I worked on the Harris campaign, I made these new,
incredible connections through my coworkers and through colleagues. And when
I realized that one of my new colleagues was connected
to Jody, I reached out and was like, I know
we're talking about campaign, but I am dying to have
(01:15):
this conversation with Jody. Do you think it would be
okay to make the connection? And so we are able
to tell Jody's story here on she pivots right now.
What makes Jody's story interesting to me is that she
experienced the full arc of career highs and lows by
just thirteen. When Full House ended, what was a wonderful
and supportive environment for her during her formative years was
(01:38):
suddenly gone, and what followed was a decade's long struggle
with addiction. And while it may seem obvious to attribute
her battle with addiction to being a child star, it
was actually something deeper, she says, something more biological. Jody's
parents were actually her adoptive parents, and as for her
(01:59):
biological parents, and they both struggled with addiction. As she'll
share in the episode, Jody had a genetic predisposition to alcoholism,
but surrounded by the love of her parents and her
second Full House family, Jody put in the hard work
and is in recovery. As if navigating the loss of
(02:20):
your second family and career at thirteen wasn't enough of
a pivot, Jody decided to channel her own experiences into
becoming a sobriety counselor. She went back to school and
worked at a drug treatment facility until she returned as
Stephanie Tanner on Fuller House. Despite her challenges, she has
come to have a beautiful outlook on life and what
(02:41):
true success looks like. She is a breath of fresh
air and I can't wait for you to hear her story. Enjoy.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
My name is Jody Sweeten, and I am an actress, author, mom, podcaster,
and I don't know, probably a few other hats too.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Okay, so we're gonna rewind. We're going to go to
like little Jody. Okay, I mean you started acting so young,
But did you have ideas of like what you wanted
to be when you grew up? Was it always an actress?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I mean, I you know, I cycled through the usual
things as a kid of like doctor, astronauts, veterinarian, you know,
marine biologists. I feel like those are the top four
that kids go for because they're like I like dolphins,
I like dogs.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I you know, space is cool.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
But no, as a kid, I you know, I just
I loved performing, Like even if it was just my family,
I would, you know, find a little musical instrument and
like come out and jump and perform and sing a
little thing.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
And you know, I started reading at a really early age.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
So I was I was precocious, and I you know,
by by three three and a half, I was able
to read, start reading. By four, I was able to
read just about anything. I might not have known the
contact of it, but yeah, I was a.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Very early reader. And I'm still a voracious reader.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
But it really kind of led to me enjoying bringing
characters to life, enjoying creativity, and you know, all those
sorts of things.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I mean, my mom always tells. There's a couple of
stories that she tells.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
One is me at tot Lot, which was like the
little preschool thing, and I was dressed as snow white,
complete with a black wig costume.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
My mom made took it very seriously, and so I would.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Be running around the little sandbox area and then I
just suddenly fall and collapse, and the moms would be like,
oh no, what happened? And my mom was like, oh no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
She just ate she ate the boys and Apple. It's fine,
just let her be sure. She's just waiting for the prince.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
And my best friend Jeffrey, who was just always there
like what do you need? I was like, okay, you're
the prince, and so yeah, it was you know, I
was both an actor and director at a very young age.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The commitment to the character. But so when did that
just being dramatic turn into a potential for a career, Like,
was there a decision that you are now acting?
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Yeah, you know, I said that I wanted to be
what I called it was a modeler. At like three
and a half four, I was like, Mommy, I want
to be a modeler. And that was what I called
people on TV. And you know, my mom was like, well,
do have some like little talent show pageant things and
you know, some print stuff. And it just kind of
kept going and kept going, and people would be like,
(05:27):
She's like I think she would really do great at this,
Like she's a really fun, interesting kid. And my mom
was like, I mean, you know, okay, you know my
parents had no connection to the industry, didn't want to
be famous in any way.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
You know, they are both very much like no thanks,
where yes you could go ahead and do that.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
But yeah, it was probably around three and a half
four and I and it just kind of snowballed from
there truly, where it was like one thing led to another.
I started doing commercials around four and then just booking
a bunch of commercials and then like you know, sort
of all unfolded from that.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
What unfolded from there was landing a role on what
was to become one of the most popular family sitcoms
of its day, Full House. Full House. Obviously game changing
for your young acting career, for all of us, I
would say, who are also watching it? Oh for sure,
do you remember the beginning? I mean, you're again you
(06:24):
were so young, But do you remember forming those early relationships,
Like what were the dynamics like even from the beginning
between all of you?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Oh yeah, I mean I definitely remember. I mean I
have so many pictures and stuff too, So it's, you know,
one of those things where it's like do I do
I have the live memory or the memory of the photograph,
But either way, it's in there.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
We were just really lucky on the.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Show because everyone from the producers to the cast, to
the parents of the kids on the show, just everybody
was good, genuine family people. It was an environment that
put the kids first, not always the case, as we
(07:06):
hear a lot in this business, you know, and yes
it's still a job, and there were things, you know
that you had to show up and do, but like
from the beginning, we just clicked, you know, And it
really was the adults on the show, Bob and John
and Dave and then later on Lori, they were just
they were like family to us. I mean, it was
that was just genuinely who they were. You know. John
(07:27):
would throw huge barbecues at his house for the cast
and the crew at the beginning of every season just
to get to know each other and every like. It
wasn't just the cast, but it was you know, our
our crew and our script supervisors and our wardrobe people
like we were all close and a family and have
remained in contact. And it's it's something that we hear
(07:48):
over and over again from people in this business, how like,
really truly rare. It was, so it just some little
magical things sort of happened where we all.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
We all just clicked. Yeah, that's amazing. I mean you
said that parental support is critical for a child to
start in acting. How was your parental support It sounds
like really supplemented in many ways by your cast support
and by your production support.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Oh for sure. I was raised as an only child.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
My dad was older than my mom and had several
adult kids from a first marriage. And so, you know,
when they adopted me, my mom decided to be a
stay at home mom and it was just me, so
going driving back and forth from Lakewood, California to La back.
Also in the mid eighties when you could do that
(08:36):
in like forty minutes, and you know, she had time,
and so she was absolutely available and she could be
with me on set, drive me to all the auditions.
You know, there was there wasn't another sibling at home
to kind of worry about, So my mom was just
always there with me, and my dad was always supportive.
But he my dad worked a very you know, normal
blue collar job as a superintendent at a gypsum plant
(08:59):
in Long Beach, which is what they make drywall out of,
and he worked there all throughout me being on the show.
So you know, we were a really normal, you know,
outside of this weird TV thing that I was doing,
like a weird, normal, relatively middle class Orange County family,
you know what I mean. So my mom and dad
always told me that as long as I loved doing it,
(09:22):
they would support me, and if I didn't want to
do it anymore, then that was okay, and it was
my choice.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
And obviously, you know don't quit in the middle of
the season.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
But something happens and you really don't want to do
this anymore, then we need to talk. So it was
never there was never a pressure like some parents I
think put on their kids in this business.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
And her education was no exception. Both her parents and
the show want of the kids to maintain a semblance
of normalcy during these formative years growing up.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Well, I mean I started school right when I started
full house, so I started kindergarten.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I was only in kindergarten for like two days.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I skipped a grade, so I was already a little
younger than all the kids in my class. But I
would be kind of in and out. I went to
public schools except for I think two years. I went
to a private school in Orange County. The rest it was,
you know, all public schools. Once we got our normal
kind of routine down, would go to school in the
morning and work in the afternoon. My mom would pick
(10:20):
me up at lunch and drive me in for rehearsal days,
and then I had a couple of days I was
schooled on set, so I had very much a foot
in normal life too. And our producers and everyone knew
how important that was for us kids. You know, we
all had the ability to attend a regular school several
days a week and not completely be isolated and only
(10:43):
schooled on set and not have any you know, peer interaction.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, what was that peer interaction? Like, I mean, I
can't imagine someone sort of like casually being on one
of the biggest shows in the country.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I mean, like it depended on how new I was
to the school. You know, like usually you know, my
first school in like first grade, that a lot of
that year I wasn't there because we didn't quite have
our like routine down for shortened rehearsal days and all
that kind of stuff, so that I was a little
bit more in and out for first grade. And then
(11:15):
again being kind of pushed up into that grade and
not knowing anybody from my preschool or my you know
that I had kind of grown up with in my
neighborhood and suddenly being in a different class. But you know,
I it was like sometimes kids would be weird about it.
And then if I you know, if I had been
there for a little while, like second and third grade,
I went to that private school, and like, you know,
(11:35):
first some kids were weird about it, but mostly no,
Like at first yes, and then they'd just kind of
be like, oh, it's just normal. And there were always
the ones that like held onto some weird resentment or
jealousy or whatever. But I was never one of those
kids that was like, oh, I'm on TV. I never
watched the show. I never I didn't care, Like, I
just really was like, it's just just what I do
(11:58):
like because I enjoy it. Like, I don't need I'm
not impressed by you guys, So don't think that I
like think I'm cooler than you because I don't.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Well, on the show, we talk a lot about what
success means to people at different stages of their lives.
So what did success look like to you during that period?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Man, I guess like during that period it was I
just I got to have so many amazing, incredible experiences
on the set of Full House like I had. You know,
we didn't I didn't get to go on field trips,
but we would, you know, our our school teacher would
arrange for us to go on a weekend down to
the San Diego Zoo and you know meet with the
(12:39):
you know, zoologists there and stuff like we were. We
definitely got to be included in that stuff. So to me,
success was really just like getting to enjoy all of
these fun activities.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I was getting to do something I loved.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
I absolutely loved performing and acting school was fun, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I always liked it.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah, I guess success for me at that age was like,
just get to travel and have fun and be around
sun people and laugh all the time and it was great.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Did you ever have like a show business metric of
success at that point, like were you trying to get
to movies, a next show, you know something, viewership? No,
it was just it was as long as it was fun.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
It was just as long as it Yeah, it was
as long as it was fun. And you know, it
was also a very different era. It was nineteen eighty six.
You had your network television, you know, and some cable,
but it was once you were on a show, you
were on a show for a little while and everyone
knew it. And so that was a pretty successful place
to be. And as a kid, it was like, I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Know what I want.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I just was enjoying it for the moment. And I
wasn't one of those kids it was like I need
to be famous. I was like, this is cool, like,
I have fun doing this, but I can do other stuff,
you know, So I don't think it was ever like
vital to me to be famous.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
So many of our guests go through their quote low
point when they are well into their career or at
the very least older. But Jody's world changed suddenly when
Full House ended when she was just thirteen. She was
barely a teenager at that point, and losing something so
integral to her life and support system was devastating.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Hindsight always is twenty twenty, and of course, looking back
on it now, what I realized is I was definitely
in a period of grief. Nobody had died, but the
way that most of my life had been up until
that point suddenly was not anymore. And we didn't have
(14:35):
very long We only, you know, found out about two
weeks before we were done with the season that that
was going to be it. There had been talk of
us going to WB or CW whatever, it was, a
couple other things, and then it just didn't happen, and
so two weeks before they were like, actually after next week,
that's it. So I think I was grieving. I was
(14:57):
grieving that this idea of what had come to be
my normal. So it was it was less like, oh
my gosh, I'm not going to be on TV anymore.
I'm more just like, well, now what do I do?
Like okay, so I'm just like at school all the time, like,
and there was an appeal to that, you know. There
was also like, oh, to just be normal, like you know,
to just go to all seven periods every day and
(15:20):
be miserable like all the other kids.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
But yeah, like I think at the.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Time, I didn't probably give myself enough consideration about what
I was going through. Like I certainly wasn't talking to
anybody about it. I didn't you know, there was nobody
that I could talk to in my direct daily life
of like you know, like my mom understood a little bit,
but there was just a different thing to it.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So I think I entered a period and at thirteen,
you're like, who the hell am I? Anyway?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And then at on top of it, you know, I
was adopted at fourteen months old, so you know, I
had this I only knew bits and pieces of like
my biological family, So there was also a layer of
like who am I in regards to that, And so
I think at thirteen it was like a really big
upheaval and crisis of who am I now?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And what where do I go from here? What do
I want to do?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Like, you know, at thirteen, I had to ask myself,
do I want to keep having a job?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
You know?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Like sure, I guess, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
And I was like, yeah, okay, because it was easy
to just agree to it, but like my heart wasn't
as in it, because I was enjoying being a normal kid.
So you know, there was a lot of push and
pull I think at that time. And yeah, looking back
on it now, I would have a lot more grace
and sympathy for that thirteen year old who was like
just feeling really lost.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Jody continued to struggle, and soon she started to experiment
with alcohol, unknowingly opening a Pandora's box.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I started drinking at around thirteen, and it was like,
you know, I think, like stealing a Budweiser from somebody's
step dad's you know, outside fridge or whatever. It was beginning,
and I realized pretty quickly that it was doing something
for me that it maybe didn't necessarily do for everyone else,
(17:08):
and that it gave me a sense of peace and
it was something that I was that I just was
searching for more than other people that relief.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
And throughout high school, you know, it got more and more.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I'd say, like my junior and senior year, I was
still getting good grades, I was going to school. I
wasn't a problem, teachers liked me, you know, but I
was just every opportunity to do the stupid thing or
to be in you know, And it was always a
stupid thing, either in search of or under the influence
of drugs and alcohol, you know, Like that was the
(17:41):
repeating pattern for me. Was always looking to get alcohol
or weird or whatever, or being on it and making
poor decisions. And so my parents were just like they
were terrified. By the time I was getting to be
a senior in high school, they knew I was going
to be heading off to college, you know, and they
were like, oh my god, you are incapable of making
(18:04):
the responsible choice.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And it was more than that.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Obviously. It wasn't just about like, oh, I want to
have fun. It was like I just felt so much
less judged.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
It was it muted everything, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
And it also allowed me to be more extreme and
to get angry or upset or things. I lived and
It's funny because I think most people say, you know,
they drink so that they can kind of be a
little more stable. And it was like I was so
afraid to let out some of my more negative emotions
I think growing up and still it's something I work
on in therapy. But it gave me the excuse, I guess,
(18:41):
to cry or be upset, or to be angry or
you know. And so when that is, you know, the
excuse that you use for your drinking, you often make
very poor choices in getting angry or being that crying,
blubbering person. You know.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
It was just in a lot of pain and super lonely.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
After years of hard work and therapy, Jody is able
to look back and better understand the how and the
why of it all.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
People always assumed, but peers and just people in general
always assumed that I thought I was better than everyone else,
that because I was on TV or I was able
to buy a nice first car for myself or pay
for college, that I somehow would be an asshole, you
(19:34):
know what I mean, That I would be stuck up
and this and that, and it was it was a
weird way for me to try and like level the
playing field of being like, oh no, I'm just as
much of a mess as you are.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
In fact, I'm even worse. Like I'm not better than you,
I'm worse than you.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
And that didn't occur to me at the time obviously,
like as I've broken it down, like oh yeah, it was,
you know, this attempt to be like, oh, I'm messier
than you are, I'm more of a fuck, I'm more
you know, look at me.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I don't think I'm so special.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
And then it was also pieces of you know, all
I knew about my biological parents at the time was
that they both struggled with drug and alcohol use, and
so there was also this weird sense of it being
the only thing that I knew about them and that
I connected with them on that. Okay, well, obviously, like
(20:24):
I have some issues with this too. I mean even
at fifteen sixteen, I was like, yeah, I don't think,
like drinking in the morning is probably normal for like
fifteen sixteen. And but yet it was almost this not
a point of pride, but a point of connection with
the only thing that I knew about, like where you know,
I quote unquote came from, you know, I think, and
(20:45):
that's we all have this weird like biological attachment to it,
and you know, especially as kids, were like, I need
to know. And usually then you get to be an
adult and you're like, actually things that we're just fine.
Yeah sometimes, but yeah, it was a you know, it
was both a way to prove to others that I
was not stuck up and also a way to connect
(21:10):
myself to some sort of answer to the question of
who am I.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
When did it start to feel to you? It sounds
like you knew for a while during it that it
was an addiction problematic behavior. When did you accept that
to the point of taking action to getting sober the
first time?
Speaker 3 (21:30):
I was just just past my eighteenth birthday and I
got sober for the first time. Then I you know,
I was My first semester at college was a mess.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
I was.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
I had no ability to be responsible or make you know,
I had been so responsible my whole life, and then
it was like I had this freedom.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I could do whatever I wanted.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
I could make every stupid choice that I wanted in
boy did I and I just I didn't have an
off switch once it was Once that switch got flipped,
it was like we're on, Like any stupid idea it,
we're doing it. And so by the time I was
just a little bit past eighteen, like it had already
become very problematic. You know, I was intelligent and smart,
(22:16):
but I was getting a point nine GPA because I
just didn't go to any classes. My parents maybe come
home on weekends because they were afraid of me being
at the college campus because and it was a it
was a largely commuter school. It was a small private
school in the city of Orange and Orange County, and
you know, my parents were like, Okay, you can be
there Monday through Thursday, but you have to come home
(22:37):
on the weekends because you know, your behavior has warranted
that you're untrustworthy. But instead I just saw that as well, Great,
now i have Monday through Thursday, like Sunday night through
Thursday to party and then I'll just come home on
the weekends and sleep.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
And that's pretty much what I did.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
And it was just becoming very obvious that things were
not doing well. And that was you know, the first
time I got sober was just a little bit past
my eighteenth birthday, and that was really hard to be
going into like my sop my second year of college
and feeling again like such an outsider, like, oh, I
(23:13):
want you know, I wanted to rush a sorority, and
I did. And then I was like in the middle
of the pinning ceremony and I'm like, iven, I don't
like it these people. I don't want to do this,
Like it was just this this. I was just so
trying to find myself through other people, like who am I?
And I was looking for ways to get that reflected
back at me, you know. And and that didn't necessarily
(23:37):
get any easier getting sober at a young age, but
it definitely slowed things down a little bit, you know,
because I didn't It was like two and a half years,
maybe a little almost.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Three, right, and you got married during that time as well.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
I did, like you know, any good overachiever.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Once I sort of got my act together, I would
back earning top of my class, I got my scholarship back,
I bought a house, I had jaw surgery. Over a summer,
I was planning a huge wedding, and I was doing
my last year of college all at once. And I've realized,
now that's a sort of a pattern in my behavior
(24:18):
where I'm like, I have to do it all right now,
and then I burned myself out.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
But yeah, that was you know.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
I got married the first time when I was twenty
and again I think I was just like, Okay, this
is what I'm supposed to do next, Like I've done
the job. Thing I've done, I've graduated college, like or
I was in the middle process of it.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
It's like, okay, so I guess this is the next thing.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
I think a lot of a lot of people do,
but particularly young women. We kind of just go like, well,
where do I now? What I have some of the things,
but like, am is this expected of me? Or is
that expected of me?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
After the break, we talked with Jody about what eventually
led to her relapse and where she was mentally throughout
it all. And during that time, So you're the first
time you married it was to a police officer, and
(25:12):
your drug use started again.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Yes, I started drinking again because I was like, oh,
I you know, I'm twenty one now, like I'm older
and wiser, and I, you know, had talked myself into
the fact that I didn't that alcohol wouldn't be a problem.
I just didn't know how to do it. So I
decided for us to join a Wine of the month club.
That was my like easing back in like normal people.
(25:36):
And you know, immediately it was like, oh, yeah, this
is it's going to be hard for me to hide
the way I like to drink, which is too oblivion,
you know. And so I started doing drugs because it
was easier to hide, you know. I didn't break of drugs,
and he worked all night, and so I could be
(25:57):
out and about and come home at you know, or
five in the morning and nobody would know, you know,
and then I could go about my day and just
and you know, it was I was by no means
doing it perfectly, but I was for several years just
living like completely different lives.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Did you register it as a relapse at the time.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yeah, at that point I was like, oh, okay, we're back.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
And then I was like, well, you know, but my
my husband at the time, you know, there were times
I would tell me like I'm going to a meeting
and I was not going to a meeting, or I
would still go to meetings.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
I had a coffee commitment at a meeting.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I would go, you know, I would go to recover
meetings and I'd like not be sober, but I'd make
the coffee and then I'd you know, then I'd take off.
So it was like this, you know, it was this
weird knowing but also denial. You know, I've described it
before as like you're standing in front of a train
that you know is coming and you you just you're like,
(26:54):
I can't I don't know, I can't move, Like what
do I do? And you know, like there's just you'd
rather have it hit you and it be sudden, you
know what I mean, than be like, oh, I've got
to get my act together, like you're almost like I'd
just rather get run over by this and have everything
blow up. And I think in some ways that was
what I was looking for, like how do how do
(27:14):
I blow things up instead of and you know, I
did that a lot of my life. Let me just
blow things up instead of having an uncomfortable conversation or
saying what I need or want like but it was
like I just stopped, I stopped caring. I didn't care
like what happened to me, So why would anybody else?
You know, it was like and if you did, like, well,
then you're just going to get in my way. And
(27:34):
that was, you know, very much that sort of decision
making of my early twenties, and it was you know,
going to treatment, and there was periods of sobriety in
there and then going back to treatment, and then being sober,
and then being a sober living and then not and
you know, it was a very winding road through all
of it. The darkest moments for me weren't necessarily like
(27:55):
whinding from the hospital or anything like that. It was
those quiet moments when I just.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Hated the person that I had become, says.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
She checked herself into the Promises Drug Rehab facility and
underwent six weeks of intense treatment. Now, she says, she
is sober and ready to return to acting.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
You know, they talk about in sobriety that you will
get to this point where it's not the obsession is lifted,
you know. And I was someone I thought I would
die with a drink in my hand, you know, I
was like, that was my goal was to be, you know,
I don't know, little Eaty or something from Grey Gardens
and swanning about in a turban and a kaftan with a.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Drink in my hand.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
That being said, I am a much sloppier drunk than that,
and it wouldn't be pretty and I probably wouldn't live
that long. So I had to let go of this
idea of who that person was going to be. And
I realized that through all of the work that I've done,
I actually really.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Like who I am now.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
And it's nice to finally get to the part where
you enjoy that a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
When we come back, Jodi shares how she channeled this
exact mentality and her sobriety journey into her next pivot
more Soon. So is it around this time or at
(29:29):
what point did you become a counselor and you worked
as a logistics coordinator at a rehab center.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
When my younger daughter was Just after she was born,
I went back to school and got a certification as
a drug and alcohol counselor.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I didn't go back for my master's or anything.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
My husband has his masters as an LCSW, but no,
I went back and I just wanted to start working
in treatment.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I was like, you know what, one, I needed a job.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
You know, two kids are expensive and residuals aren't reliable,
so you know, well it's and I also, again, I
just like being productive and working. I was like, I
don't care, so I you know, applied for a job
and started working for like ten bucks an hour as
a tech in treatment and helping to take in new
clients and empty trash cans or wash dishes or whatever.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
I was. I was just happy to be there. And
then I worked in treatment for quite a while, probably
six or seven years. And it was right before Fuller
House started, actually that I quit working in that industry.
I mean, I was still working in that business while
we were going to pitch meetings for Fuller House. You know,
I'd be like, Okay, I got to leave my meeting
and go, you know, go meet with John and Candice
(30:38):
and Andrea and Jeff, you know, over at Netflix or something,
and then come back and you know, so again that
straddling of two worlds of sort of like normal day
to day stuff and then this weird other life.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Yeah, if we think about your going into into the
work as a pivot, then you almost pivoted back at
the same time. Did it feel like you were doing
mental gym now sticks, No, it.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Felt like I was really lucky that I had two
avenues of careers in my life that I would be
happy pursuing. Either way, I loved working in treatment. I
loved working with clients. I would have probably gone back
to school and become some sort of a psychologist or
so I definitely would have gone that route and then
(31:23):
taken that and worked in mutual aid programs or whatever.
That's always something that I'm like, I know, I could
go back and do that.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
I connect with people, and that working in that industry
was really fulfilling. But then I also am like, but
this is you know, being on a set is where
I feel the most at home, and it's where I've
spent most of my life, and I, you know, it's
just sort of this ingrained thing, and I am happiest
when I'm there. So the fact that I get to
(31:51):
do it, and I think the fact that you know,
I've talked about this before in the sort of the
interim period of first divorce and sober and having kids
and coming back to fuller house and all that, you know,
I lost a lot of the financial stuff. I lost money,
all my money on the house, and then I paid
(32:13):
for rehab, which is not cheap, and then I, you know,
and then I just blew money like an idiot, and
then I owed taxes and you know, all this kind
of stuff, and it was what I did was I
stripped away kind of all of the stuff and figured
out how to get content finally with me. And so
(32:33):
then it was like once I did that, and I
was like, oh, yeah, sure, I'll drive this like free
twenty year old Toyota that somebody gave me because I
don't have a car right now, you know whatever, Like
I don't care.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
I was happy.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
And it's almost like once I got happy with just
really being in my own skin and not feeling like
I needed to change or be somebody or something else
or look a different way, it was like it allowed
me to to enjoy this second round of it in
a much different way, in a way that it's like
I love it.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
I throw myself into it completely. But if it goes away.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Tomorrow, like I'll be okay, you know, And I don't
a lot of people in this business don't have that,
don't don't have that outlook, definitely, i'd say, not the norm. Yeah,
and I'm like, again, I love it. It's so much fun.
But if life takes a difference, if I have to pivot,
I'm happy doing that too.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, well that's so interesting. I was going to ask
about that about you know, going back into it, Like,
were you nervous to go back to the thing that
had been so identity forming and then had then led
to addiction issues for you?
Speaker 3 (33:41):
No, because you know, for me, the addiction issues and
my growing up in this business were two completely different things.
For me, I knew that I would have struggled with
addiction issues because of my biological predetermination to it, regardless
of if I was on TV or not. And it
just so happened that I was, so people know that
story and always sort of figure that it's got to
(34:04):
be part and parcel of that. It made things more complicated,
but I definitely know that I would have struggled regardless,
So it wasn't like I felt like coming back would
jeopardize that in any way.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
It was I was excited because I was like, I.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Get to come do this thing that I thought I'd
never get to do again. It was like this that
grief that I described earlier of losing that family at
thirteen or fourteen, very suddenly and suddenly my life not
being what it was all of a sudden.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
I got all of that back.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
I got all of it back, And so what it
felt like for me was like, oh, that's right, Like
you can say goodbye to something or to someone, but
you just don't know how it's what's going to happen
in the future, you know. So it was really healing
for me truly because I was like we were on
the same set, same dressing rooms. I mean, the three
(35:04):
girls moved up into like John, Bob and Dave's you know,
nicer rooms, and then the kids were down the hall
where we were.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
But yeah, it was the same dressing rooms.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Like it's same and they built it when we moved
into that stage on Warner Brothers twenty some odd years ago,
So it was really coming home, it really really it
was you know, the wardrobe room, the smells of the
stage all like, and I was like, this is exactly
where everything was when I left it twenty years ago.
(35:32):
And to get to do it with people that I
love so so much, like we had so much fun together,
Like what a gift. And I'm so grateful for it
because it was a very healing journey of like, oh, yeah,
maybe you don't always know, you know, remember you like
you don't you don't always know what's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Things can come back around.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Did you have a conversation with your onset family, like
your co stars, I mean, they must have known would
have been happening in the interm years. I imagine you
guys kept up to some degree that people knew what
was going on.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean Candice was my
matron of honor and my first wedding. Her daughter was
one of my flower girls. I mean, you know, every
new person I would date that that was the second
family that they had to meet. You know, it was like, okay,
well you've got to meet, like you met my parents,
but now here's the full house family.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
And sometimes they were more intimidating. You know. Bob would
be like, what are your intentions? And I was like,
can you not?
Speaker 3 (36:27):
But you know, yeah, they knew. And they were also
like really supportive. I mean, we've all we are very
much a family and have supported each other through birth, death, divorce, loss, lawsuits, everything,
and we still love each other. Might not always agree,
but we're very much like a family. And it's like
I'm going to not love you and I'll set a
(36:48):
couple of seats down. I don't know, you know, but
like that's just but that's what family is. And I'm
just so grateful that I got to have that experience
again with a different perspective of it.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Just to skip, I'm a little bit here. During the pandemic,
you were sober.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I use cannabis products for anxiety.
So during the pandemic, I figured out that I had
this really strange suddenly became really food averse, and it
was a way that my body deals with stress. Since
I'm not a stress eater, I'm a stress starver. And
so it's happened before during divorces and things. I will
just drop thirty pounds and I dropped a lot of weight.
(37:29):
I couldn't eat, I couldn't keep it anything down. The
smell of food, pictures of food were discussing, and so
I had to figure out how to have an appetite
and how to quell nauge it and so you know,
but I yeah, I don't drink, I don't use you know,
I don't use hard drugs. I like the journey of
going through the pandemic and being like, Okay, we're just
(37:51):
going to feel this, like this is just going to
be scary, you know it.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
And it was and it was scary in so many ways. Yeah,
it was a lot to handle. It's a lot to handle.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Yeah, And I was also entering like the the beginnings
of perimenopause, which I didn't really know at the time.
So I was also just a psycho. Like I was
like crying and angry and I mean, which was kind
of everyone during the pandemic. But it really didn't help.
And so now I'm like, oh, yeah, that now I
get Okay, that's yeah, that's why I went for that
(38:24):
three and a half hour walk that day.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Okay. You know, you just lose it.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So we haven't had the opportunity to interview someone who's
really gone through substance abuse and recovery on this show yet,
so I'm really interested to at, you know, to kind
of like get specific about like what tools did you
did it feel different for you, Like what tools were
you able to utilize to get it through that time?
Speaker 1 (38:45):
You know, I'll be very honest, I did not get
through that time very well at all. I did not.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
I looking back on it now, I think I I
will admit I think I had some sort of breakdown.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
I just wasn't okay.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
So I'd love to say that like, oh, well I
meditated my way through it.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Now I clawed my way through it. I yelled my
way through it.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
And I also tried to throw myself into like service
work and protests and mutual aid and doing stuff for
other people because I was I just felt like I
was crawling out of my skin. And it wasn't It
was not easy. And you know, but the thing that
I've learned in sobriety is if I'm feeling awful, let
me go find something to do for someone else.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Let me go be of use or of service.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
And there were so many places and ways to do
that at that time that that was kind of what
I threw myself into. And was it a distraction from
some things, sure, probably, but it was also like getting
back to who I really am and what I really love,
which is connecting with and helping people.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Right, And you didn't you didn't go back to drug use.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
No, No, it's.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
So interesting you talk about this. My sort of over
arching theme going into the show right now is plot twists,
Like your life happens in plot twists that you think
you've made a change, and then all of a sudden
you might actually go back to the other thing a
little bit and then come out of it again. And
but you do it with a different perspective. Where do
(40:14):
you think you are pivoting to now?
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Now?
Speaker 3 (40:18):
My goal is to pivot a little more into behind
the scenes stuff.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
I want to direct and produce.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
I've been, you know, producing on a bunch of my
homework and Lifetime movies and all the TV show that
I did Hallywo Darling's exec produced that, And you know,
that's kind of where I want to move into because
I constantly feel like I hear stories or I you know,
run into just incredible scripts that people who are not
known you know, are friends of mine or whatever, like hey,
(40:48):
would you read this? And I'm like this is incredible,
and I want to be able to bring those stories
to life. So, you know, producing directing, that's kind of
where I'm pivoting now. Is like, Okay, I don't want
to be in front of the camera forever again. Like
one of those things that you know, rarely do you
hear an actress say, is like, I don't I'm cool
not being in front of the camera. Yeah, but I
(41:08):
really that's not where I see myself long term. I
see myself continuing to do it for really great projects.
But I would I would really love to direct and
produce and watch other people sort of bring some things
to life to We haven't talked.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
As much about your daughters and being a mom. Yeah,
one of the things I'm really interested in is that
your daughters are now the age that you began to
have real difficulty. How do you talk with them about that?
How do you like safeguard against them following them the
same path.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
You can only safeguard as much as you can, right,
I mean, I have sixteen and fourteen year old daughters
and I love them, and sometimes they make really great,
responsible choices, and sometimes they really really don't. And it's
terrifying because I also know that no matter what my
expece sperience was or what I tell them I went through,
(42:03):
they're going to be like, yeah, okay and do whatever
they want. So what I've realized is is, you know,
as kids hit the age where it's you know, the
parental influence wanes and it's really now about peer group influence.
It's just really like, look, just be honest with me,
like there's nothing And for the most part they are.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
We you know, We've had some hiccups along the.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
Way past year, but you know, I think overall and
I will say, my kids come to me about all
sorts of things, whether it's them or their friends or
you know. And my kids also know that, you know,
they have some of my best girlfriends who are been
in their lives their entire lives, who are anties who
they can call.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
And I know I'm not alone in this. It feels
that way a lot of the time as a parent.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
But I just try and have honest conversations with them,
and I'm like, look, you're going to do some dumb shit.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
It's just what you're going to do.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
You never think that there's anything that you're going to
do that I'm going to like disown you for. We
might have some things to deal with, but I nothing
is going to shock me, you.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
I'm not gonna be like I can't believe you. I'll
be like, oh, oh, I totally believe you did that. Now,
how do we fix this?
Speaker 2 (43:16):
You know?
Speaker 3 (43:17):
And And it's scary because you know, we live in
a big city, and we live in an age of
social media and fentanel and all sorts of scary things
that are so easily accessible. And I think that's, you know,
the thing that I just try and tell my kids
all the time, is like, it's a different landscape of
(43:38):
being stupid as a young person than it was twenty
years ago. The margin of error is huge, and it
was always there when we were young, but not like this,
not like this, And you know, the margin of error
as far as what you do and how that gets
blasted online and you know all of these things, like
(44:00):
suddenly the stupidity of your youth really can have a
huge impact in ways that you don't foresee. And so
you know, trying to constantly guide them through this experience
of living in the age of immediate gratification and like,
how do we slow down a little bit? And if
you don't and you make a dumb choice or your
friend does, and like, okay, then come to me and
(44:22):
we'll we'll figure this out one way or another.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah, So, turning it back to you, what is something
that something that in your past that at the time
you saw it's a real low point or a negative
and now in retrospect you see it as having really
put you on the path you are now. Oh okay,
I know.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
One.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
So when I we were in the shooting the third
season of Fuller House and I not long before we
started that season, decided to try and rescue a one
dollar toy for my younger daughter over a small fence,
and I fell and snapped my tibia, my favorit, my
ankle dislocated. It just basically snapped my foot off sideways.
Supposed to leave for a movie the next day, that
(45:06):
didn't happen to surgeries pushed back fuller house anyway, I
was forced to I had to sit still, I had
to just be at home, and it forced me to
look at an incredibly unhealthy, abusive relationship that I was
in that I could no longer stay busy enough to
(45:27):
just ignore.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
And some really scary, awful stuff happened during that time.
But I like that felt like when I really went, oh,
oh wait, I don't have to do this. Is I
deserve better than this?
Speaker 3 (45:43):
And that was a huge turning point for me. Every
you know, things really really shifted in my life. And
from that point forward, I had the freedom to go
after the things that I wanted without the fear of
someone telling me I could or shouldn't or it wasn't
fair or all of those things that narcissists love to
(46:06):
throw on you. And so, you know, that was a
huge turning point for me because it was like, all
of a sudden, I was like, oh, I'm not I'm
not ever ever doing that bullshit again. Like and it was,
you know, breaking down some patterns that I repeated over
and over again in relationships and looked at and I
did a lot. I went back to therapy, and then
(46:27):
I was in therapy all through the pandemic. Like the
past probably six years of my life, I've done a
lot of work and therapy and continued work on self
and finding that grounded place and looking at things and
forgiving things from my past and also looking at things
that I don't want to repeat or that you know,
(46:49):
how do I make different choices?
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Things like that?
Speaker 2 (46:51):
So what are you working by now?
Speaker 3 (46:54):
So now I am working on. I have my podcast
how Rude Tanner Rito's, which is really fun. As I
mentioned earlier, I never watched the show growing up, and
neither did Andrea Barber. Like I have not seen most
of the episodes of Full House, maybe like the pilot
and a couple ones. So we decided that we were
gonna go back and start watching the original series from
(47:16):
the beginning all the way forward. And we're now we're
going into season four of Full House, but like season
two or three of our podcast, and it is so
much fun. We've had incredible guests on and Andrey and
I have so much fun both celebrating and making fun
of what were sitcoms in the late eighties early nineties.
The hair alone is magnificent, but I've been working on that.
(47:40):
I've been doing some live shows here in La Family Dinner,
which is a fun live panel comedy show that I've
been doing.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
I just got back from working in.
Speaker 3 (47:48):
Canada on a project which I can't say yet, but
it was really fun and something very different. I've been
doing my Hallmark Mystery series, which is on Hallmark plus
the Jane Mysteries, which is really fun. Or I get
to also sing, which is something I don't get to
do all the time. So yeah, I stay super busy
and I and in between all of that is momming
(48:10):
and traveling and trying to find a moment here and
there to you know, read books.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
So thank you so much, Jody, thanks for joining us.
It's just such such a good conversation.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
Thank you absolutely my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
Jody still lives in California with her two beautiful daughters
and husband She also has a podcast, a true delight
called how Rude Tannerito's. Give it a listen and be
sure to follow her on Instagram at Jody Sweeten. Thanks
for listening to this episode of she Pivots. I hope
you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave us a
(48:47):
rating and tell your friends about us. To learn more
about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she pivots
the Podcast, or sign up for our newsletter where you
can get exclusive behind the scenes content on our website
at she pivots thepodcast dot com. Special thanks to the
(49:07):
she pivots team, Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate producer
and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson,
Events and Logistics coordinator Madeline Sonovak, and audio editor and
mixer Nina Pollock I endorse she Pivots
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