Inside John Stamos’ Life as a Zaddy: Fatherhood, Sobriety and Looking for His ‘Breaking Bad’ (Exclusive)

To a certain segment of the population, 
John Stamos will always be Uncle Jesse. It’s a role he played on Full House from 1987 to 1995, then reprised from 2016 to 2020 in Fuller House. He’s fine with that, truly, but he also wants to challenge himself. “I just want to play a little more real,” he tells Us. “I’m looking for my Breaking Bad.”

He may not have found his Walter White yet, but he’s been flexing his acting muscles in a series of roles that are a far cry from the guitar-toting toddler wrangler we know and love. He just shot the movie Drag, in which he plays a serial killer, and he’ll soon appear on season 2 of Apple TV+’s Palm Royale as a “lawyer/gynecologist” alongside such luminaries as Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney and Patti LuPone. “I just pinch myself sometimes,” he says. “To be able to still be considered good enough to work with some of the greats — just to be in a scene with these people — that means a lot.”

It doesn’t hurt that Stamos, 62, is as easy on the eyes as ever. He credits his perpetual youthfulness to getting sober a decade ago and raising his 7-year-old son, Billy, with wife Caitlin McHugh, whom he wed in 2018. But it helps too that he seems genuinely happy with his life. He continues to tour with his beloved Beach Boys between film and TV projects, and he authored a bestselling memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, in 2023. Writing the book “gave me some perspective of how lucky I’ve been and what an incredible life and career I’ve had,” he says. Stamos sat down with Us to revisit his life as a working actor and share the secrets of staying relevant — and handsome — in a world that’s always looking for the next big thing.

Let’s start with your latest Disney Jr. project, Marvel’s Iron Man and His Awesome Friends, in which you voice Tony Stark’s dad, Howard. You played Tony in Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends.
I aged out, apparently! When I played Iron Man, he was a little more high-energy. Howard, he’s always pulling dad jokes. Speaking of dad jokes, I consider myself a really good dad — last night was maybe one of my worst parenting moves ever. We came back from Disneyland late, me and Billy, my son, and we were just so tired. I said, “Billy, brush your teeth.” I got a toothbrush, and what I thought was toothpaste turned out to be anti-itch cream. He said he brushed and thought it was toothpaste, but it started to taste weirder and weirder.

Good that he kept going. He was like, “I gotta get this done, even if the toothpaste tastes strange.”
We try as parents.

You’ve been taking more voice roles in projects aimed at kids. Does that have to do with you becoming a father yourself?
Yeah, 100 percent. As a parent, you’re always trying to impress your kid, and nothing I was doing was working. He used to watch Mickey Mouse Funhouse, so I just started asking around, “Can I do a voice on there?” I did this salty Irish pirate on there, and he loved that. And then he started getting to Marvel, so I started doing more of the Marvel stuff. I just hit up all my friends at Disney and go, “Can I do some more voices, please?”

Will he watch the new show?
Oh, yeah. We’ll watch it today. He watches Full House, but mainly to mock me. I say, “Billy, put your Legos away.” He goes, “You got it, dude.” He likes to do the catchphrases right back at me.

Has fatherhood affected your career choices in other ways?
I just did a horror movie [Drag, produced by Danny DeVito], where I play a serial killer, and it was maybe one of the darkest, weirdest roles I’ve ever taken. So in that case, no. I love actors. … We take what we can get. But I did this movie and [Billy] won’t ever see it, I hope. I did this last season of Palm Royale … he asked me the other day, “Dad, can I watch Palm Royale?” I’m like, “No, no, I don’t think so.” I’ve done a lot of television and entertainment stuff for him. I’m in the second or third quarter, so I really want to step up.

Does he understand that what you do is different from what a lot of his friends’ parents probably do?
He handles it really well. He understands that I do something different. We were on vacation with — not to drop names — but Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. And they were like, “Just make sure he knows that that’s your job. … This is your family.” And then people come up and ask for pictures. But he kind of gets into it. Yesterday he was like, “Dad, Dad, Dad, those people want a picture over there.” What he loves most is the Beach Boys tour. His new thing is to sit behind me the whole time and talk to me about mundane things, and I’m playing in front of 10, 15,000 people. “Dad, Rory is out there, my friend Rory!” He likes to come onstage, and so he was sort of banging on the tambourine. I said, “If you’re going to come onstage, you have to play.” So he started taking drum lessons, and he studied the tambourine part on “Good Vibrations,” and he plays it perfectly.

Do you think he’ll follow in your acting footsteps, too?
I think he’s been bitten. He did Beetlejuice at the community center and loved it. Loved rehearsal. “Dad, I love going to tech.” Well, tech is like a five-hour thing, where you just stand there when they move the lights around. I’m encouraging him to take singing lessons and get into that a little more. I think that’s his path. I’ll be more helpful with entertainment than sports, that’s for sure.

Wow, an actor who loves tech.
Right? I did this Jesus Christ Superstar thing [on August 1], and he went back and he was talking to Cynthia Erivo and Kristin Chenoweth. They were giving him little advice and stuff. I said, “He loves tech.” Cynthia says, “He loves tech? Wow, he’s gonna make it!”

You stepped in last-minute for Josh Gad as King Herod. How did you get involved?
I was on tour in Spain and we were flying home on this long flight, and I got a text from one of my besties, Neil Meron, who was producing the show, and he said, “Do you want to be a hero? Josh Gad got Covid and we need you to step in and do the Hollywood Bowl this week.” Luckily, I had enough WiFi to check out the song, because I’m not that familiar with Jesus Christ Superstar. I’m not an actor who could just step into something, especially singing and music. I’m not a great singer. I don’t enjoy singing, so I have to really work on it. Choreography, it’s tough for me too. It takes me a long time to learn, but you tell yourself, I want to be challenged. I don’t want to do the same thing over and over again. Failure is fine. And then when an opportunity like that comes up… I got the jitters. I said, “I can’t do this.” And I was in my bathroom — it’s kind of like my Broadway bathroom, I have stuff from theaters — and Liza Minnelli signed my script for Bye Bye Birdie that I did on Broadway years ago. She wrote, “Dear John, Take no prisoners and f*** the wounded.” And I thought, I better go do this. That inspired me. It was a moment I’ll never forget.

Did it reignite the desire to get onstage?
It really did. I just don’t know what makes sense. To go back to New York for a long time now with a young son is sort of daunting, but I am looking for something. It would be nice. I mean, Cabaret [in 2002] was the greatest. I don’t think I’ll ever top that. That was my best performance, I think, and also the best time. That was the first role where I really had to step out.

What’s your secret to staying relevant as Hollywood constantly changes?
I have no idea. I’m shocked myself that I’m still around. If I could be humble about it, I think I’ve been a pretty nice person, and that goes a long way. There’s 20 guys in line behind you that could do the job just as well. So hopefully my reputation has helped with that. I’m still amazed when I get a job like Palm Royale, getting to work with Kristen Wiig and all these great actors. I’m happy to play smaller roles and work with really good people.

Have you ever felt pressure to reinvent yourself so people don’t only think of 
you as Uncle Jesse?
I’m always doing that. And the more I get to do roles that aren’t that, the more I embrace what Full House was and what Uncle Jesse is. People can call me Uncle Jesse all day long. I love it now. I still get to work with Danny DeVito. I get to do Palm Royale. I can accept it now, because I’m not just that. I’ve proven to myself that I can do other things. Whether people see the other stuff or not, it doesn’t really matter. And also, having a kid, now I realize how important [Full House] is. It holds up because the themes are universal, and it’s needed now more than ever. That’s why I’ve really been connecting more with the Beach Boys the last few years, too. Discord is at an all-time high, and decency at an all-time low, and people need good entertainment. They need positivity, optimism. You walk into a Beach Boys show at a certain age, you’re going to walk out younger and happier and more optimistic. I see it every night, the power of music and the power of television. I’m not some creaky old man either. I’m not afraid of the future, I’m not afraid of technology, [but] what’s going on with social media is tough. The meanness and the darkness of it is sad to me.

You’re 62, and people still talk about your looks the way they did when you were a teen heartthrob. How’s that feel?
I don’t know. I mean, I am getting old, although I don’t feel it. I take care of myself. I stopped drinking 10 years ago. That’s why I’m alive. I never would have met my wife if I was still drinking. I’m happy where I’m at in my career, but I think I would be a lot further along if I’d stopped sooner. I got the job done, but I could have done it better, and I could have been more connected. Getting married and having a child, that’s kept me young and kept me alive. I think that’s helped with my longevity.

OK, but what’s the skincare regimen and workout routine? People need to know.
Well, I don’t do a lot. I wash my face. Depends on if there’s some scrub around. I work out three or four times a week. I do this electric muscle-stimulant thing where you put a suit on, but you only wear it for 20 minutes. But good sleep now is important. Having a young son helps.

How does it feel to be a zaddy?
Do I get an award? It’s flattering. 
It’s weird when I hear my name in TV shows and movies. People come up, “Hey, John, how are you doing?” I’m like, “Do you know who I am?” I guess I’ve just been around a long time, but I’m still blown away by it. My whole life, I wanted to be famous. I didn’t care about acting, I just wanted to be famous. And I think the one thing that I wanted to get away from so badly, Full House, is the one thing that’s kept me around.

Do you get lots of DMs?
I never knew about DMs until a couple years ago. You know who told me about DMs? Andy Cohen. He’s like, “You ever look at your DMs?” I was like, “Oh, my God, people are writing to me.” I do look at them sometimes. A lot of times I’ll get DMs saying, “My sister’s going through chemo, could you send a little video?” I did one yesterday. It’ll take me two seconds to send a video to somebody, wish them a good day or something.

Was there ever a time when you thought you might leave the industry behind?
Never, no, I love it. Doing that one-day rehearsal for Jesus Christ Superstar, the family vibe and the camaraderie that happens when you’re with other actors, you’re getting ready to go out and do something that’s maybe the scariest thing on the planet. It just felt like, “This is where I belong.” Like, [the Beach Boys’] Mike Love is 84 — he’s not ever retiring. I don’t know what I would do in retirement. My wife says, “Let’s move to Europe.” I’m like, “Not yet.”

What do you hope people will say about your career 20 years from now?
I just hope they say I was a good guy, a good man. I know what they’re gonna say: “We love you as Uncle Jesse.” That’s OK too.