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If you’ve ever wondered what Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were like when they were child actresses, now’s your chance to find out.
The iconic duo, who famously shared the role of Michelle Tanner on the family sitcom “Full House” for eight seasons, didn’t always agree on how they felt about being on set. And a Nov. 20 episode of the “How Rude, Tanneritos” podcast sheds light on that dynamic.
Presenter Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber, who performed Stephanie Tanner and Kimmy Gibbler, respectively, talked about life behind the scenes while answering questions from fans. A listener wanted to know what it was like to work with the twins.
“Was there ever a time when directors would prefer to work with one twin over the other and give them more time on set?” one user asked. “In a situation like that, could they fire one and keep the other? How does that work with twins? Especially when they get older and crying babies don’t need to be changed.”
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After Barber read the question, Sweetin chimed in with an honest answer.
“I would say yes, there was a time when they preferred working with one over the other,” Sweetin said, before clarifying that the speech was at the “beginning” of their time on the show, which they started when they were just nine months old.
Sweetin explained that Mary-Kate wasn’t always enthusiastic about certain tasks, while Ashley tended to be more “docile” with the work she was assigned.
“Mary Kate didn’t like being on set, but Ashley was like, ‘Cool, whatever…'” the actor revealed. “She was much more docile about it.” Sweetin said it was “funny” because “they kept those personalities their whole lives.”
Still, even with their different temperaments, the production team found ways to make things work.
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“There were certain scenes that one would do and the other wouldn’t do or something,” Sweetin confessed, and without missing a beat, Barber jumped in and said, “One would want to do a certain scene because it was more fun for them and the other one didn’t care.”
In the end, both actors said that replacing a twin was never an option. As Barber said, the sisters were a real “combined package.”
“Full House” was a family comedy about a widowed father who enlists his best friend and brother-in-law to help him raise his three daughters in a lively, joke-filled San Francisco home.