Season five of “Fuller House” just dropped on Netflix June 2nd and people are of course LOVING it. Myself included. I, an intellectual, was determined to watch the entire second half of Fuller House’s final season in one day. But that just wouldn’t be able to happen. (Currently en route to finish all of The Office before it leaves Netflix on July 2nd.)
If you’re a fan of Full House, you would love Fuller House. This wasn’t one of those reunion shows where everyone is old and is only doing it because they need the money. I mean yeah, John Stamos might be old, but “Have Mercy”. But the thing is, you can’t just watch Fuller House without really knowing Full House. I mean really, would you understand why DJ says “Oh my lanta” and “Oh my santa”? Would you understand why Uncle Jesse bought the smash club again? (What ever happened to that?) Everything from Stephanie finding out she can’t have kids, to Kimmy being her surrogate, to DJ ruining Steve and CJ’s wedding, to Rocki officially becoming Jackson’s girlfriend, to DJ and Steve FINALLY getting married, to Stephanie marrying a Gibbler. Original and new cast members have made it clear, that the door is always open.
My first question for seventeen-year-old Michael Campion, (Jackson Fuller, DJ’s oldest son) was how he was doing during the pandemic. “I’ve been alright, I’m just really glad that I’m in the position that I’m in. I have such an amazing family and such amazing support. And I’m doing my best to give back in every way I can.” When asked about how he felt knowing that Fuller House is officially over and people have seen it, this was his response: “It is very bittersweet because as much as I love the show and definitely hate to see it go, I think that they wrapped it up very nicely, and the fans are really happy with the ending.” My personal feelings about the end of Fuller House is that, it was able to end the way Full House should have, in a way. The way that Fuller House ends of course pulls on your heartstrings. Maybe you just got into the world of the Tanneritos. Maybe you’ve been watching since you were little on Nick At Nite. Maybe you’ve watched for over thirty years. Every. Single. Episode. There were hugs, laughs, smiles, familiar faces, surprises and of course, tears. Michael adds, “Full House got cancelled right in the middle of filming. They didn’t get a chance to give it a proper ending.” Michael also stated that this last season was his favorite because he learned a lot and felt like he “really matured as an actor”.
Since we’ve talked so much about Fuller House, we of course had to talk about Full House as well. Nick At Nite was where I was first introduced to the world of Mr. Bear, Uncle Jesse, Comet, a car driving into the kitchen, Tanner Family Fun Day and tons more characters and situations. When I asked him what his favorite episode of Full House was, he pointed out the one where DJ forgets Kimmy’s sixteenth birthday, which is Season 6, Episode 14 titled, “Birthday Blues”. “I love Kimmy Gibbler, she’s my favorite character in the entire show. Whenever I watched it, I felt so sad for her and I remember that episode standing out so clearly in my mind. And that’s actually Andrea’s (Barber who plays Kimmy) favorite episode as well.” I then proceeded to explain that when he was explaining the episode to me, my brain could automatically pick it out. I feel that if you only watch all of Full House one time, you wouldn’t truly understand all of the inside jokes, situations, anytime an original cast member says “like the time” or “remember that time”. “You have to really know the show to get the super niche humor that they put in there.”, Michael agreed. “It’s really funny, my favorite jokes are when they poke fun at Michelle for not being there.”
The next thing we talked about is character development. If you know me, you know that I’m obsessed with Stranger Things. So whenever I notice Mike’s character development with his relationship with El, or El gaining more confidence, or Steve being totally fine with the fact that Robin wasn’t into him because she’s into girls… That’s character development. We obviously see that Jackson’s character really starts to develop in the beginning of season five. He gets into AP History, he gives advice to his mom and little brother Max, and even his girlfriend, Rocki. So when I asked him what his favorite part of his character’s development was, this is what he said: “Honestly I’m just glad he had as much character development as he did. He started off as this little boy who was funny and he really came into his own. He’s now like a young man. I’m most proud that he matured into understanding the real world. And now he has a clear idea of what he wants to do. He’s becoming less insecure. I’m really happy that it ended that way.”
A fun question I came up with was, who does he, as Michael, relate to the most out of DJ, Stephanie and Kimmy? Michael said that he relates to DJ the most, being that he’s “the dad friend”, which is an ongoing inside joke with his best friends. “I like to clean, I like to be responsible, and I don’t go out and party.” I mean, someone has to be the responsible one! DJ would be so proud. As for me, I’ve always related to Stephanie the most. No, I’m not the middle child, but when I was younger and watched her on Full House, I always wanted to be like her. When she says on Fuller House that she’s at a cross road with her career, I definitely related to that!
Full House, Fuller House… Fullest House? “I would love to see Fullest House.” What could we see Jackson, Ramona and Max doing in 30 years? Jackson is seen to be interested in technology. Although he’s an idiot at heart, he’s obviously a genius when it comes to certain things. “It’s really funny because I’m interested in technology as well and they wrote that in because of me, which I thought was funny. So I think that he’s gonna have a real good stable job in San Francisco. Max is gonna be insanely smart. He’s gonna be at the top Ivy league school. As for Ramona, I’m not entirely sure. She wanted to go to college, but nothing was really said about her love life or anything. But I think we’re all gonna be stable and healthy individuals.”
My next question for Michael was what his favorite Fuller House memories were such as episodes to film, what happened on set, etc. “It’s so hard to pick one because I have so many amazing memories.” He was able to break it down to three categories: favorite episodes, pulling pranks and cast outings. “My favorite scene that I shot in general is season 1, episode 3, where it was me, Soni (Ramona) and Elias (Max) and we all were being babysat by Joey and we got to shoot each other with Nerf guns, we had silly string, it was a great time.” He then proceeds to talk about near the end of season three, when everyone goes to Japan for Steve and CJ’s wedding. “Also, a very close second was going to Japan. Honestly, Japan is like right on the same level.” Next up, we get to hear how Michael and Soni would play pranks on each other on set. “Me and Soni used to play pranks on each other all of the time and we used to keep a tally of how many successful pranks we pulled. And by the end of it, she definitely won. I was not very good at doing pranks to be honest.” Then, he tells me a little about cast outings. “We’re such like a second family. We’ll go out and just do stuff sometimes. I remember one time, it was a movie I was really excited to see, it was Doctor Sleep. I’m a big Stephen King fan.” Funny enough, I had just seen that movie for the first time a week ago! “I love The Shining too. I rallied up all of the Fuller House people and we all went to go see it. It was like a nice Fuller House outing. We got recognized so fast by everyone because we were all together. It was really fun though.”
What I always learned from Full House when I was younger was to hug it out, that things will be okay in the end, “We got through it just like we always do. Just like we always will.” (said by Joey and Danny in the last episode of Full House) So I wanted to know what Michael hoped that people would remember the most about and take away from Fuller House. “I think that the key message of the whole show is nothing can’t be solved with love and communication and that’s kind of what Full House was about. But now, it’s for our generation and how we handle our problems. So I think that if you were to take away anything, it would be that core message that every episode has.” I can’t lie… I didn’t cry during the ending of Fuller House. It might be because I was watching it with my boyfriend and I really don’t like to cry in front of people. (I know, I cry at Stranger Things every time I watch it.) But I do feel like when I revisit it, I will definitely cry a lot. I mean, I almost cried when Steve FINALLY proposed to DJ. That might be one of my favorite parts of the entire show. “I cried a lot when we were filming. Everyone was crying. It was very bittersweet.” This completes the Fuller House talk.
Michael has been acting since the age of five and revealed his first ever role was an Oompa Loompa in Willy Wonka. “It was for this local theater that I grew up with in Orlando and it was so fun. I’d just turned five and it was my calling. I was like, ‘I wanna do this for the rest of my life’. It was so fun.” Going forward, somewhat opposite of Jackson Fuller, Michael starred in a Youtube series titled, “Red Ruby”, a show about how teens in the 90s got stuck in a cave, and somehow… They got to live forever. The show consists of seven episodes, with a time length of 15-20 minutes for each episode. “I think I heard something about a season two. I don’t know, they said something about it.” So that’s exciting. The way I’d heard about that show is I wasn’t able to sleep one night (Me? Not being able to sleep? In quarantine?) and I ended up browsing on Youtube. I’d remembered that I had seen Red Ruby in Michael’s IMDB profile and since I had just scheduled my interview with him, I wanted to see what it was about. I was never into Twilight, Vampire Diaries, etc. (My Babysitter’s A Vampire on Disney channel was good though.) But I did really like this show in particular. My favorite part about Michael’s character in Red Ruby was that we got to see a different side of him and his acting. “I think that’s what I wanna do is more dramatic-type roles and I was in the sitcom world for so long, but I think that’s where I really shine.”
So we found out that Michael, just like Jackson, is very interested in technology and whatnot. So I was curious to know what career path he would be on if he wasn’t an actor. “That’s funny that you ask that. I have a lot of hobbies I’d say. I’m a magician at The Magic Castle, I’m interested in computer security, that’s really interesting to me. I’ve been doing that for quite sometime. If I wasn’t an actor, I definitely have a lot of career paths I’d like to go down.”
Sadly, he wasn’t able to do a magic trick for me when I asked, though he felt really bad. But it’s okay, my mind would not be able to get over it anyway. “I got into doing magic when I was eight years old. My aunt and uncle got me this magic kit for my birthday and since then, it was amazing. I could fool people and entertain them. It was just the perfect storm for my personality. I went to this placed called The Magic Castle, it’s this club for magicians in LA, where you can go and watch these shows. It’s this mansion in Hollywood Hills. I auditioned to get into their junior program and now I’m in.”
It might be different to talk about public figure’s Instagram lives in an interview, but it was necessary. In Michael’s last Instagram live, he stated that he guests people based on their username and profile picture… Which can be interpreted in a very negative way. “I feel like that’s pretty smart, because you just never know who’s gonna be on the other side of the camera. Even if you decide to pick an account that looks normal, you just never know.” That was my personal opinion of the situation. “It’s so hard because you’re talking to these people in front of at least 600 at a time and if something goes wrong, it’s really awkward and I can’t fix it. It’s very challenging to balance all of that… But yes, I’m very biased on the username and profile picture.”
I, of course, had to hint that I knew he liked Greta Van Fleet. (Review Of Greta Van Fleet's EP From The Fires) “I love Greta Van Fleet! I went to go see them in concert in October of last year. It was really fun.” I mentioned that being a fan of GVF is so interesting… You’re either obsessed, hate, or have never heard of them. He also stated that one of this best friends is “absolutely obsessed with them” and was how Michael got into them in the first place. “I’m also a fan of classic rock.”
The last thing I had to ask Michael may have been the most important one… Besides asking him if he liked Greta Van Fleet obviously. So the question was, what was his advice for the younger generation? “I’m definitely part of the younger generation and I feel like it’s my responsibility to do the best I can because there’s so much mediocrity in this world. There’s so many people not following their dreams. You can go and do something you don’t like just to get money, or you can go down your dream path because either way you can fail, but I’d rather you fail doing something you really love and not many people go down that path. And I certainly went down that path and it’s worked out for me.”
One of the last things I mentioned to Michael was that he was my guniea pig and the first person I’ve ever interviewed. “You should definitely do some more interviews! This was great.” That’s my cue! I get to do this with other people!
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. This was probab;y my longest article EVER. I had a lot to say. But as I do this more, I will learn how to summarize better and use better word choices. With that being said, I just did something I was extremely anxious about doing. Life is crazy, but it works out in insane ways!
See you in the funny papers.
Bethany
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