Max Hangs with the Olsen Twins.

The next day, after my call back for 'Full House", and the pirate incident, my agent rang me up.

"Well, they love you. You're their favorite, but they want to see you wearing something else. They thought your outfit was kind of weird."
"Ok..." I said. I had worn brown corduroy shorts with moss green tights and boots."Like what?" I asked.
"They actually requested jeans. They want you to come back wearing jeans."
"Ok." I shrugged. It was another trip over to Sony, but, whatever.

I went back to Sony in jeans and a little t-shirt, and they gave me the part. I remember Bob Saget (who was in the room both times) joking relentlessly about the fact that his producers and director could NOT imagine what I might look like in jeans, and therefore dragged me all the way back over there. I didn't bring Max that time. But I DID bring him to rehearsal the next day. The receptionist that fell in love with little Max told everyone what a cute kid I had, and they volunteered that I could bring him all week to hang out and play with the Olsen twins in their super-bomb green room. So I did.
Besides, I had a surprise for Max!

The reason that all of those pirates were hanging around the Sony lot (where 'Full House' was shot) was that Steven Spielberg was filming 'Hook' on 2 or 3 of the biggest sound stages there. I had spoken to one of the pirates again, and he had let me peek into one of them. I met some of the art department guys, and asked them if I could bring my kid over to see the giant sets in the next few days. They were really nice about it.

Those old fashioned sit-coms were the sweetest gigs in the world. I DREAMED of getting one that would be a steady gig - it would have been GREAT with a kid (or kids). The week always started out REALLY slow and easy. Get to the soundstage at 10am, have coffee and donuts, meet the cast and writers,director, stage manager, etc. Do a table reading of the script, everyone sitting around a big table. Sometimes there were interruptions,a bit of add-libbing by the cast - sometimes full on silliness. Then an early one hour break for lunch (sometimes 2 hours), partly so that the writers could do rewrites and hear them after lunch again. Sometimes I met with the wardrobe people on that first day - but often it didn't happen until day 2, so the first day was SUPER easy and short. We usually got to leave at 2 or 3 pm. Then the week got progressively more intense, and more hours, up until taping day. Taping day was the long one. You'd get there at 9 or 10 in the morning and wouldn't be done until 9 or 10 at night - many times even later. But no complaints from ME! I LOVED the sit-com schedule. Compared to dramas - it was a DREAM week!

And, as far as the Olsen twins went, they didn't even have to read at the table reading that first day. SAG rules for children are very strict. For good reason. They spent most of their time going to "school" on set and playing around. They were really little. Same as Max.

So, after Max and I were done with our first, easy, fun day on 'Full House', I took him over to the soundstage for 'Hook'.
My new friends, pirates and art department guys, let us in.

I will never forget Max's face as he gasped in wonder at that set! Put yourself in a little boy's mind, and imagine that you are being let into a HUGE, GIANT room that is immediately full of WATER, all the walls around painted beautifully to look like sky and port, and a HUGE, life-size ship floating in the water 3 feet in front of you. The port and dock portion of the set was built up, too - not merely painted - and the overall effect was that of entering into a little boy's dream. I am actually getting choked up now just thinking about it. It was THAT spectacular!
Max was speechless for more than a moment. I was, too! It was REALLY, REALLY incredible! There the ship was - we could touch it, gently bobbing on the water, creaking even, a little.
"Mom!" Max finally let out. "It's a REAL SHIP!"
My whole heart just about burst with happiness. All of this struggling for acting, being poor, being unsure of my next paycheck - felt paid off in that moment. Other parents with big, suburban houses didn't get to take their kids HERE! Into Spielberg's magical pirate world!I smiled at Max, and it felt like my smile was so big it would split my face.
"Yea. " I said. "It IS a real ship!"

They let us walk around a little, and then the main art department guy said, "If you come find me tomorrow, I'll show you the OTHER set! It'll BLOW your mind!"
Max and I nodded our heads in excitement. I felt like just as much of a kid as him! It was SOOOOO cool!

The next day we got into the blocking and more re-writes on 'Full House'. Max had no trouble whatsoever with the Olsen twins - except they both liked him so much that all they wanted to do was play with him. They didn't want to do their "school" or anything, and towards the end of the day, one of them refused to come onto the set to do her line unless Max came out with her.It was pretty cute.

Bob Saget was super nice to me. We had a kissing scene at the end of the show - and it was fun! Everyone was nice to me - EXCEPT John Stamos.He was a jerk. I think he was used to every girl that guest-starred being all crushed out over him, and when I clearly WASN'T, he got pouty and rude.
But the FUNNIEST thing to ME about being on that show, was that Bob and Dave Coulier were SO crude on set! I had seen them IN the show - all squeaky clean and G-rated - and I was SHOCKED at how SUPER FUNNY and ...well, NOT G-rated they were. The poor nanny and producers kept trying to shush them around all the kids, but they were NOT always successful. And the two older girls would just look at me and roll their eyes. They seemed to take it in stride.

After a day of laughing almost non-stop, Max and I finally had our chance to see the other sound stage.
We found the sweet art department guy, and as promised, he let us in to a WHOLE OTHER WONDERLAND.

This time, when the doors opened, they revealed the set of the lost-boys' tree house. I don't know if you have ever seen the movie, 'Hook', but if you have - you will know that it wasn't just a tree house - it was a crazy roller-coaster type ride that twisted and turned in these HUGE fake trees, with tons of vines and crazy looking, giant flowers. Again, it was AMAZING!
just BEING on that set made you feel like a kid in a beautiful, fantastical dream!

Max wanted to go on the roller-coaster ride so badly, but of course they couldn't let him.It was so cool, though. He couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks.

The small world part of this story, is that two years ago, my brother's good friend (and mine) moved into my downstairs apartment. His name is Ted Korsmo, and his brother is Charlie Korsmo - who played the kid in 'Hook'. He had been flown out to LA by his parents to visit his brother on the set of 'Hook', and not long ago we shared our stories about those crazy, amazing sets.

The one little bummer for me, was that I had auditioned for two different parts in 'Hook'.I didn't get either of them, but I did get called back, and got to read for Steven Spielberg in his bungalow.

As I put Max to sleep after that week of 'Full House', singing him to sleep as I always did, I thought about how fun it would have been to be IN that movie.I could have taken Max onto the set as an ACTOR that was a PART of it. And then, I would have been in one of his favorite movies for all time.

Oh well. That was just one of many, many roles I wanted so badly, and didn't get. But, hey. I'm not dead yet. Maybe I'll still do something cool one of these days.