Sweetin talks to ET about her new movie, 'Just Swipe,' and being part of 'On the Edge.'
Jodie Sweetin will always cherish her time with Bob Saget. The actress, who portrayed the late comedian's middle child, Stephanie Tanner, on Full House, recalled the lesson that Saget taught her about handling loss and grief.
"The thing that I keep remembering and I keep saying is that, Bob, he suffered so much loss in his life. His sisters and other siblings that passed before he was born and his parents, there was a lot of loss in Bob's life," Sweetin told ET's Lauren Zima on Monday while promoting her new movie, Just Swipe. "But he walked through it with humor, and he learned that from his dad, Ben. One of the things I just remember him trying to joke and laugh and make those inappropriate jokes at some of the darker things because...otherwise how do you deal with it? How do you process it? It weighs down on you and that's something that I will always remember and that I find I do now is I deal with things through laughter or maybe I don't deal with things."
Saget unexpectedly died on Jan. 9 at the age of 65. Sweetin was just five years old when she met the late actor, making him an important figure in her life.
"When someone passes, all the sudden you think about all the things that you've learned from them and how important they've been," she expressed. "And I just realized so much of his genuineness and his kindness and his ability to help others really impacted me."
The two would go on to co-star on the sitcom for eight seasons from 1987 to 1995, as well as the reboot, Fuller House, from 2016 to 2020. The entire cast remained close over the years, with Sweetin reiterating their close connection.
"When we would say it over the years, and still even as much as we've said it and as much as people have seen it, I really don't think anyone can truly understand just how close we really, really were," the actress explained. "And what a family we were and everyone that came to visit our set always said what a special experience it was. People that worked on our set were like, 'I've never worked on a set like this.' And it started back in '86, '87 with that core Full House family group of people."
It's been almost a month since Saget's devastating death and Sweetin said "life is in session right now." And while "life keeps going" and good and bad things happen, she is doing "OK."
"I'm OK now. It was an incredible shock and I think those first two weeks were really, really a lot. And as it happens, you walk through and you process it," she reflected. "But I will say, I'm so grateful that I got to spend so much time with everyone and when someone passes, it's always that thing where it's like, 'Wow, Bob, all the stories and all of the laughs and all of the wonderful things,' and I just keep saying that Bob would have loved that everyone was talking about him. (laughs). He would've been like, 'Oh, this is so great! I mean, I don't deserve it, but tell me more.'"
Saget was laid to rest on Jan. 14, with the Full House cast in attendance, as well as many of his close friends and family.
"It was a beautiful service and, you know, what's strange is, I don't think I was physically there, but emotionally. Like, I have flashes of remembering it was so overwhelming. I didn't get up to speak at his funeral, that was for, obviously, his wife and his children, but we all sat around telling jokes. All Bob's comedian friends that I've known, you know, for years, Jeff Ross and Bill Burr and Mike Binder, all these guys celebrating Bob by sitting around and laughing and telling stories, I think was really the greatest gift and send-off that we could've given him."
Sweetin really enjoyed seeing her former co-stars, including Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who remained close to Saget over the years, despite not returning for the Netflix reboot. Amid all the heartwarming tributes to America's Dad, Danny Tanner, everyone can't help but share how amazing Saget's hugs her. When asked to describe Saget's signature embrace, Sweetin said, "It was much like Bob."
"It was genuine, it was real, he took a moment with it and he would give you a hug and nuzzle his [head] because he was so tall," she recalled. "And I just remember he'd lean in and put his head on your shoulder, and I just have so many great hugs from Bob. I remember that as an adult, everything, and he'd see me and go, 'Jo!' and he'd just give me this big hug and I can hear it. I can hear his voice when he would give me a hug, and so I'll always remember that."
Sweetin, meanwhile, has been keeping busy with her new movie, Just Swipe. The rom-com follows the actress as Vanessa, a woman who's always looking for Mr. Right but has trouble finding him. Confined to her home amid the pandemic, she discovers she can try her luck online dating. When she and Brandon (David Lipper) both swipe right, she feels like she found who she was looking for. But can two people really fall in love when they have never met in person?
Sweetin, who recently got engaged to boyfriend Mescal Wasilewski, admitted that she's never online dated, "I have never actually done it." "But one of the things in the movie that is so real about it is that it takes place during the pandemic, so it's like Zoom hangouts with friends and playing silly games online and happy hours and dinners across a Zoom, and I think there's an element in that people will be like, 'Oh my gosh, I remember that we were going through it.' And David Lipper is in it, which people may recognize from Fuller House. So it was really fun to work with David again. But I think the important message of the whole movie is that it's not about the outside stuff, it's really about connecting with somebody on a deeper level."
"And I think in a way Zoom and having to do it in a distance sort of made people have to take it slow and get to really actually know each other and talk," she added. "I really loved that part of the movie because that's something that's really important to me, getting to know people for who they are."
And that's not all, Sweetin is also part of the CBS survival competition show Beyond the Edge.
"I can't wait to start talking about that and having people see exactly what we did," she exclaimed. "And the thing I love about that show too was it was only a competition with yourself. You were the only one that could really be like, 'I'm done.'"
"It was incredible, it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, physically, mentally," she added. "I had some life-changing moments out there, I really, really, truly did."
The series, premiering Wednesday, March 16, follows nine celebrities as they trade "their worlds of luxury to live in the dangerous jungles of Panama, where they face off in epic adventures and endure the most brutal conditions, as they push themselves to go beyond their comfort zone." It will also be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.
Just Swipe will be released on Feb. 8 on iTunes, Pop TV and Pluto TV.
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