April 28, 2020 • 41 mins
It’s a Full House with Wells this week as he Skypes in with Andrea Barber (who you know as Kimmy Gibbler on Full House and Fuller House!)
We hear about how what was supposed to be a one-time appearance turned into an 8 year run on one of the biggest shows in history.
And she opens up about the total life change she experienced after Full House ended, and what it was like coming back for a reboot years later!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is a Wells Cast with Wells, Adams and I
Heart Radio podcast. Yep, that's that is what it is.
That's what that's what you're doing currently. You are listening
to the Wells Cast. If this is not the show
that you thought you'd be listening to while quarantining, then
I'm sorry, but buckle in, boys and girls, because guess what,
this is going to be a good one. What I
(00:21):
love about this show I get to meet people that
I would never normally meet generally. There are people that
I really really look up to. I'm a big fan of.
And I tell you what, thirty five year old Wells
is pretty pumped about today's episode, but fourteen year old
Wells is losing is minds. That's right. One of the
shows that shaped who I am today, one of their
(00:44):
stars is going to be on the Wells Cast. Mine blown.
I don't know if you guys remember, but every Friday night,
as a pre pubescent young man in the early nineties,
maybe even late eighties, you'd sit down in front of
your TV s Green with the Family, a little something
called t G I F would start. And for those
of you that don't know, t G I F was
(01:05):
some amazing programming put on every Friday night for kids
who weren't allowed to go out and go to the bar,
get drunk, do all the stuff that older kids do.
And it was listen, guys, it was lit alright. If
I could use my parlans from these times, it was
lit a f when that song hit. Oh dude, when
(01:26):
you heard this, you knew your night was going to
be off the ship. Oh the moods, right, guys. You
know we're gonna do t G I F bro t
G I F Step by Step, full House, Family Matters,
(01:48):
Oh dude, some amazing television and today on the Wells Cast,
one of the stars of Full House is going to
be on the show. Oh yeah, just sing it with me, guys.
You know you want to sing with me? If you
don't know every word of this song? What is wrong
with you? Here we go, mm hmm. Whatever happened to particulability,
(02:12):
the movement, the fable book, the Eely, Oh God, get
delivered here? Somebody telling, Oh, it's the different Purse. I
don't part this part. What is the different purse? I
don't know this person? What is this burns? Get get
(02:37):
the part that I know already right here? Everywhere you look,
you need a hold on. Yeah, guys, on the Wells
Cast today, Andrea barber A, k A Kimmy Gibbler, your
(03:03):
favorite kind of weirdo that lives next door, but you
love her. She always had DJ's back, you know she did.
She was coming after Stephanie with the fat comebacks and slams.
Oh dude, Kimmy Giler is gonna be on the Wells Cast.
So we're gonna find out how the hell she got
on that show? Was it her first show? Because guess
(03:26):
what spoiler was not what happened between rapping full House
and then starting Fuller House, because I don't really remember
her being on like other shows, you know, like Okay,
and Cameron did some stuff, and obviously, you know, Bob
Saggett and Dave Couier and all those guys were doing
a bunch of stuff. What happened to Kimmy. We're gonna
find out in just a couple of minutes right here
on the Wells Cast. Dude, Kimmy Gibbler. Guys, Okay, now
(04:09):
on the Wells Cast. So excited we have Andrea Barbera,
how are you hi? I'm doing great? Are you really
did that sound forced. Well, I mean like we're all
in this this state of like, well, I got up,
I went on a walk, I watched the news, and
(04:31):
then I started drinking, you know, basically that. Yeah, it's
like groundhog Day. Every day it's like what did you
I try skyping or or zooming with my family members,
and like we're running out of things to talk about
because there's nothing new to talk about. What did you today?
Same thing that I did yesterday? You know, it's it's yeah,
(04:54):
it's it's crazy. And I am an introvert too, so
I love I love my alone time. I of the homebody.
I like staying home on the couch and reading a
book or watching a good show. But even now, I'm
just like, man, I'm over to this how much longer?
And that's really a privileged thing to say, like these
are you know, these are first world problems. There's you know,
(05:16):
I'm happy, happy to do it, and there's there's so
many people who are very um, you know, very much
worse off. So I shouldn't complain. But but I mean,
like we're all in it together. You know. It sucks
for everybody, Yes, yes it does, that's true. We're all
just suffering the same boredom and anxiety and worry and
(05:40):
all of all of the above. What are you binging
on TV right now? I'm rebinging. I've gone back to
comfort TV. Wait, hold on, you got to the end
of television and now you're starting back over. No, I
didn't get to the end of the television, but I
got tired of the current content and I decided I
needed comfort TV, so I'll stop eating comfort food. So
(06:04):
I've gone back to Felicity, the show from twenty years ago,
which was my favorite show twenty years ago. And now
I'm rebinging the four seasons of Felicity, and I'm trying
to get like my own daughter, whose name is Felicity,
to watch it with me. But she's like, this is boring.
But I'm like, no, this is the best show, one
of the best shows in the history of television. Wait,
(06:26):
that's Carrie Russell, right, Yeah, that's that's Carrie Russell. That's
Scott Foley, Amy, Joe Johnson, the Pink Power Ranger. I mean,
there were a lot of a lot of great names.
Jennifer Garner was on it, um, she did some some
guest appearances on it too. It was it was great.
I saw that Carrie Russell is in the new Star Wars,
and I think, once you get to Star Wars, if
(06:50):
you get to do like a Star Wars or like
a Stephen King or like a Tarantino, I think, like
it's over now, Like that, you've made it, did it?
You know that she has arrived like she and she
had already arrived, and now she's even more arrived. What
do you do to top that? I don't know. You
don't just stop doing it now? You know you're done.
(07:12):
She can retire now. Yeah, I'm so excited to have
you on the show. And I was doing my intro
kind of before I called you, and I'm a couple
of years younger than you, but you were such a
big part of my Friday nights. Yeah. I played the
the t g F. I had heard the TCF theme
(07:32):
song in years and I played it and I was like,
oh my god, this brings up so much. It was
genius programming at the time, but like, but like now,
I'm like, you would never you don't program like that
on Fridays because people like go out and stuff. But
it was like stay home, order a pizza, have people
over and watch you guys. Yeah, it was a different generation.
(07:55):
It was like families were it was more about family
time and families staying in on Friday night and having
a show that they could watch together. And that that's
what Full House was originally meant to be, was a
show that kids and parents could watch together and both
of them actually enjoy it. Yeah. So yeah, that's a
different time and people are still enjoying it because there's
(08:15):
still families out there, and and people that are are
gaining a lot from that. They want It's like comfort TV.
Like I mentioned, it's it's it's a comfortable, fun, easy
show to watch. It's kind of mindless. It doesn't require
a lot of hard thinking, and so it's just a great,
feel good, feel good show you can watch, you know,
with your parents or with your kids. And um, I'm
(08:37):
proud to be to have been a part of it.
We do have a weird six degrees of Kevin Bacon thing.
I recently competed in the Worst Cooks in America Celebrity
edition on the Food Network and I went up against
Dave Koyer. No get out, Are you serious? I think
(08:58):
you might just say cut it out? But I was fine, Wait,
has this aired yet I need to look it up now.
They announced it a couple of days ago. It comes
out on May. Like I like, how I'm using my
podcast to promote my ship. It comes out on Troject.
But can I just say, um, I come from like
(09:18):
this reality TV world, and he obviously comes from like
an like an actual like talented actor television world. And
it was tough on all the actors to do reality
because it's just like really long days and so it
doesn't take long for people who aren't used to like
those hours too kind of get shitty pretty quickly, you know. Yeah,
(09:40):
and he's got crack eventually, he's not like everyone kind
of cracks. And he was so chill the entire time,
and he was the funniest guy in the room all
the time. And after we've rewrapped, I messaged him and
I was like, it's really tough to meet people that
you look up to and like we're like loved as
a kid, and if they don't like kind of meet
(10:01):
that expectation, it's always this huge letdown. And I was like, dude,
you're like one of the only people who have ever
met who I was like was so much more rad
in real life. Than he even was in my imagination,
and my imagination had already exploded. Yeah, Dave is such
an awesome guy, and he has excellent comedy endurance, like
he were used to long days on sets, and he
(10:23):
will just crack jokes the entire the entire day. Like
he it's it's hard to turn him off of the
of his you know, the comedy that's going on in
his head. He's just he's hysterical and he always wants
to make people laugh. So I can absolutely picture what
you're saying, him just cracking jokes the entire day. Was
he doing any of his like fart jokes or was
(10:44):
he doing celebrity farts. He has a whole bit about
celebrity farts. I was saying, we bring up this one story,
so we would just throw out names of people and
then he would do what the celebrity fart sounded like.
It's one of his best bits. It really, it's so good,
and it's so good. Like one day, one day, it
was like a real like a sixteen hour a day,
(11:04):
and we were all just kind of annoyed, and people
were throwing him out and he was killing he was
like killing all of us and finally, I was like
Carrie Strug at the Olympics, the moment she lands the
jump but she hurts her ankle and her one foot
goes up, and he was like, I we're done for
(11:24):
the day. I'm gonna come back tomorrow with this one.
And he like took like a solid like twelve hours
to like absorb the idea. And when he did, like, yeah,
he put in the work, you know, he did some research,
he went method on us, and when he came back
the next day he did it like literally I think
we all laughed like fifteen minute. It was so funny. Anyway,
(11:46):
he's he's so talented and he wouldn't think there's that
many fart sounds single person can produce, but it's endless.
Like I could probably do like maybe one or two
different type of fart sounds, but his range of fart
sounds is it's it's incredible, and he can really capture
(12:07):
the personality of whoever he's imitating with the fart. It's
it's incredible. It's great. It's great, especially on the show
when we have like guest stars come and he'll do
their farts like in front of them. It's very You're right,
it's very meta. It's just an incredible talent. It's I'm
gonna I'm gonna put that in his eulogy when he
(12:29):
dies and I speak at his funeral, I'm gonna talk
all about his uh fart expertise. I'm so excited to
have you on the show. I mean, like I said,
I mean, I grew up with Full House and Step
by Step and Family Matters and all the programming on
on t G. I F I don't know if anyone
kind of told you the premise of this show. This
(12:51):
show is effectively an origin story show. I like to
find out how people got to where they are and
kind of use it as a blueprint for a lot
of people who are just trying to be successful in
in whatever they do. I think I think that your
episode is going to be a little bit different because
I do want to hear your origin story. But then
I also really want to hear there's this huge watch
(13:12):
of time where you kind of left the public eye. Yes,
and I want to hear about that as well, and
then your re emergence back into the public eye. So, um,
are you Are you willing to go on this journey
with us? Yeah, totally let's do it, Okay, So I
love it. I was doing a little bit of digging
(13:33):
on Wikipedia, so I went real deep. Uh okay, So
Kimmy Gibbler wasn't like the first role that you landed.
You actually were on My sisters are going to lose
their minds because like sands to the hourglass, so are
the days of our lives? You are days of our lives.
I was. I was the first Carrie Brady and a
(13:56):
lot of people don't know that unless they're die hard
Duel fans. But yeah, no, I was the first of
the three Carry Bradies that that have done the all
of Cary Brady. My first day on set was my
sixth birthday, So yeah, I was. I was super tiny.
I was very young, and I did that show for
three and a half years and then I got fired
(14:18):
at age nine. So yeah that my first firing was
at age nine. And it was just because they wanted
to age the character. Um they needed like a hot
teenage love storyline, summer storyline, and they're like, well, you
know this, this little nine year old can't do it.
So Carrie Brady went upstairs to play with her toys
one day and came back downstairs the next day, you know,
(14:41):
five years older and soap operas are wont to do.
So did you grow up in Los Angeles? I did.
I grew up in Orange County, so you know, los
Angeles adjacent. My family was really into like community theater.
We would do like lots of plays together, or like
a Christmas Carol, and like my my very very first
(15:03):
role was playing the baby Jesus in one of like
the Nativity plays at Christmas time. And my parents were
Mary and Joseph. So that was, you know, particularly embarrassing.
But no, I sort of just fell into acting. It
wasn't something like I ever set out to do. It's
not something my parents ever thought. They didn't have like
(15:24):
big dreams for me. We were just doing this community
play and it was during an actor's strike and so
there were agents out kind of looking for for new
blood or fresh blood, and so that's how I was
discovered by my agent, Judy Savage uh, and I signed
up with her, so did my two brothers, and my
parents were like, well, this sounds cool. I guess we'll
(15:45):
give it a shot. See how it goes. And it
it's turned into this like huge thing. It turned into
like a whole career for me, literally just accidentally. I
just kept going and as long as it was fun,
I stayed with it. My parents were like, you can
quit anytime you want, Like, if it's not fun, you know,
you just write a letter to your agent and tell
her you're not doing it anymore. And I'm like, okay,
(16:07):
and it it stayed fun. It stayed fun and all
the way, you know, through the Full House years until
I turned eighteen, and then I was like, Okay, I'm done.
But you know, been there, done that. Now I'm going
to stop and go to college and do other things.
That's that's literally how we approached it. There was my
parents weren't like you know, stage parents or stage moms
or there was no pressure. Um it was just like
(16:29):
my after school sport. It was just a hobby that
I did, and I happened to be successful at it
and and make some money at the same time. So
you get fired from a soap opera at the age
of nine nine, Yes, it's hard, man, And then, um,
so I should have scarred me for life. So how
(16:51):
long between you getting fired from Days Bar Lives to
you getting hired on Full House? Oh? Not long. I
was ten. I was ten when I is cast in
the role of Kimmy Gibbler. My memory is not great.
You know, this was so long ago, um so I
would say it was yeah, less than a year. And
um I auditioned for the role of DJ first and
(17:12):
didn't get that obviously, but the producers remembered me, and
they're like, hey, you know, we think you'd be right
for this, this you know, quirky neighbor girl. Can you
come back and read for that part? And I was
like sure. So I got that role, which was only
supposed to be like a one time appearance, and then
that turned into like eight years of my life. Really,
(17:32):
this is the This is the lesson here for all
the aspiring actors is that it's not about hard work
or determination. It's just about a lot. It's really, I
literally just fell into like any sort of success that
I've had. That is true, and that isn't though. I mean,
you obviously like made an impression on them for your
read of of DJ's character. So you know, so it
(17:53):
wasn't a series. You weren't a series regular, no, not
for the first uh three or four seas in um
I was ac I was a recurring role, and so
I started out doing five episodes season one, and then
that got bumped up to like ten episodes of season two.
Now this was back in the eighties, so this is
(18:14):
we would do like twenty six episodes this season. It's
not like the streaming shows now where you you only
get like, you know, ten to thirteen episodes for a
season if you're lucky. So yeah, I think it was
probably around season four or five when I finally got
cast or I was finally bumped up to two series
regular and that was great. What was it like those
(18:34):
first couple of years, because I assume before it had
the cache that like the full house thing was, you know,
you're doing a show like kind of every year and
you're wondering if you're gonna get canceled or not, and
then all of a sudden becomes like this kind of
like cultural phenomenon and he becomes kind of part of
America's household every Friday night. What was it like being
inside of that bubble those first couple of years doing
(18:56):
the show. Yeah, we had no idea that this show
was going to become like this cult classic show that
has It's never been off the air since nineteen seven.
It's been somewhere, you know, on air for the last
thirty something years, which is crazy to think about, but
we had no idea at the time, especially the first
(19:18):
couple of years when we were got, you know, gaining
a following, and there was no social media back then,
so we didn't know how popular we were. We had
Nielsen ratings that told us that a lot of people
were watching the show, but um, we didn't really feel
it until the first time I remember really feeling how
popular the show was. UM was in one of the
(19:39):
later seasons when we went to Florida to shoot an
episode at Walt Disney World, and the crowds were just crazy,
like we had personal security and people following us into
the bathrooms and like passing notes under the stalls asking
for our autographs as we were trying to go to
the bathroom. And that just blew my mind end. And
(20:00):
so I was like, wow, like like we're really famous,
like we're actually like this is a really big deal,
this show. Um. But you know, because until then, I
didn't really feel it because they because you know, we
were just protected there on Stage twenty four at Warner Brothers.
We would just do our show and the Nielsen ratings.
The Nielsen ratings would say that we were successful, but
(20:23):
I didn't really feel that impact until we took it
out into the public. And now, you know, we get
so much attention on social media and so much love
from our fans that now I can really feel the
impact that the show has had over the last thirty years,
especially you know, people our age who are like, you know,
I grew up with the show, and now I have kids,
(20:43):
and my kids are watching the show, the old the
old full House and then the new Fuller House. Um.
You know, I can I can feel that impact more
than never because I can communicate directly with the fans now, um,
and it's just awesome. It's awesome. It's a great it's
great knowing that people feel like they grew up with me.
You know, it's a it's a really cool feeling, especially
(21:04):
when I go out in public and people people will
come up and hut, well, not anymore, but when I
when I was able to go out in public before
the quarantine, people would come up and just hug me
and feel like they feel like they knew me and
that we grew up together. And that's a it's a
really cool feeling. Is it cool or is it kind
of freaky? Though? Because from where I come from, from
the reality TV realm of things, it makes total sense
(21:27):
for people to come up to me and talk to
me as if they know me because they've watched me
on TV being me. But for you, you're playing this
part and people but they still feel like they know you.
Is it weird for them to come and kind of
invade your personal space a little bit? Uh, depends on
the day. It depends on if my kids are with
(21:48):
me too, So it's it's really only awkward when my
kids are with me, because then they're just like, oh God,
They're already embarrassed because I'm the mom. And then when
fans come up and start, you know, freaking out or whatever,
then it gets a little little bit weird. But usually
people are well meaning. I haven't had too many like
creepy encounters with people, but people are surprised that I'm
(22:09):
not at all like my character because you're right there.
I think they do expect me to be, you know,
dressed to the nines with my bacon and egg scarf,
the Kimmy Gibbler accessories, and they expect me to be
loud and obnoxious, and I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm
actually not like that at all, completely different from Kimmy Gibbler.
And and people always make note of that when they
(22:31):
when they meet me, and they always say, oh my gosh,
you're You're much shorter than I imagine. So I don't
I guess I look really tall on TV. I don't know,
but yeah, people always comment on how short I am.
I'm only five too, so I am short. I guess
I don't look that short on TV. Yeah, I mean
like when I look think back, I think of you
as taller than DJ And I mean, so, yeah, I
(22:52):
know we're the same height. Candice and I are both
five too. Yeah, we're both five to Jody's taller. Um,
she finally, you know, she finally outgrew us. So she's
I don't know how tall, how tall she is, but
um yeah, now the little the little sister finally surpassed
the rest of us. My fiance, Sarah Highland. She's on
Modern Family, and so I've become friendly and close with
(23:15):
a lot of her cast and for her little sister
who plays Alex, and for her little brother who plays Luke. I. Um,
I've talked with him a lot about it, just like
you know, like a parties and stuff. Because for Sarah
it wasn't really that wasn't really like this because she
got cast on that show when she was eighteen. But
for for them, they were kids on that show and
(23:36):
then they have to go through I think the hardest
part of anyone's life is going through puberty and just
like changing and then I can't even imagine how terrifying
that must be to do it in front of the world.
What was that like for you, having to kind of
like grow up on television? Yeah, that part was pretty awful.
(23:57):
I can totally relate to to them. Yeah. I was
on Full House from age ten to eight teen, so yeah,
all of my awkward formative years were on their on
TV forever for everyone to see. And it is weird
because yourself. I think teenagers in general are self conscious
(24:18):
about their appearance or just about how they present themselves.
And so yeah, I was playing a character, but I
still felt totally self conscious about my body. And then
I was wearing these you know, crazy wardrobe choices you know,
at the same time, um, and I hated it, Like
I hated the wardrobe. I hated having to look weirder
(24:41):
than I already felt being a teenager. You know, I
had braces, I had the bad perm. Yeah, it's it's
a really awkward time. And so I think it is
hard for child actors to grow up and and just
have all of that out, you know, on display. Um,
it's it's a hard thing. I can't say anything redeeming
(25:01):
about it except that my kids can watch it now
and make fun of me about how I looked as
a teenager. And it's hard because I I was. I
went to public school. I went to public high school.
When I wasn't working, like on my days off or
on hiatus weeks, I stayed in my regular public high school.
And so that was weird too, because kids are mean
and they're they don't know how to they don't know
how to react to you. And so you know, kids
(25:24):
were kids were pretty back then, and they would write
things on my locker they make fun of me, or
they would, um, they would gleak on me, I don't know,
like the spitting thing. Yeah, you remember gleaking. They would
gleak as I would like walk past them in the halls,
and I thought this sucks. So yeah, so it was
you know, it wasn't great growing up and and having
(25:47):
all that awkwardness on display, but um, it was still
a great experience because of because of the people, because
I gained a new family out of it, So I
wouldn't change anything. But yeah, you're right, it was. It
was gird and not fun. A lot of the time.
You watch back like old Seinfeld episodes and you're like, man,
Cramer's outfits are just are now cool, Like there he
(26:08):
was a hipster long before. And I feel like when
I watched back old episodes of Bullhouse, I'm like, Kimmy
was actually pretty dope, Like her outfits were really hip. Unfortunately,
it wasn't cool for that time, you know, right right, No,
her her style, I don't know. I I watched old
episodes and I just I just cringe some of those outfits.
(26:31):
It's fun now because I host a Kimmy Gibler costume
contest every Halloween, and so it's just a way to
kind of make fun of all of the outfits I
used to wear, and people will go all out trying
to replicate some of these iconic outfits and it's pretty
hysterical now. But yeah, at the time, no, it was
not fun wearing some of those get ups. I think
(26:53):
Jimmy Gibler's style improved considerably on Fuller House. You know,
she kind of became we were going from more of
like a Carrie Bradshaw, like a trendy you know, unique
and eccentric, but still trendy style. That's what we were
going for on Fuller House. So I had a little
bit of redemption there. The first iteration of the show
ends when you're eighteen years old? Are you? Are you relieved? Um?
(27:17):
Do you resent the show a little bit? Like making
you wear this like crazy clothes? Are you sad at
the show's ending? Like? What's your mindset at that point?
I think it was all of the above. I never
resented the show. I was definitely ready to move on
and do other things. I was sad to see it
end because you know, I was gonna miss everybody. I
didn't we didn't know that we would stay in touch
(27:39):
for the next twenty years and then come back and
do the show again. Like nobody knew that was going
to happen. So I was sad because I definitely missed
the people. But I was ready to move on. Like
I said, I didn't plan to stay in the business,
and so I kind of retired officially at eighteen uh
and went to college and studying English literature and decided,
(28:02):
you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna teacher, I'm going to
become a writer, or I'm going to do something that
is not in the public eye. That was my plan.
That was kind of my trajectory, and that was the
path I was on for twenty years until I got
a call from our show creator, Jeff Franklin, and he
was like, hey, let's do a reboot of the show,
and will you come back to show business for this?
(28:24):
And I was like, sure, of course, why not. I
would love to. That's the story in a nutshell. That's
the condensed version. So you got your bachelor's degree in
(28:45):
English lit. And then didn't you get your master's as well?
I did. I got a master's degree in Women's Studies UM.
Kind of a useless degree because well, no, it's not useless.
I mean as far as like I'm not really using
that degree, but the knowledge I gained, obviously UM is
always always valuable. And it was an incredible experience because
I actually got that degree in England. I lived in York, England,
(29:10):
for twelve months and did kind of a condensed masters
program and completed it in in twelve months and it
was an awesome experience. Does anyone in England know who
Kimmi Gibbler is? Like where people like oh, Roy, like,
oh my god, no, you know what that's That's kind
(29:32):
of a funny story too, because I did not get
recognized at all, Like for the first seven or eight
months I was there, nobody like, nobody recognized me. Nobody
did like second glances. There was no autograph requests, like nothing,
and I was just like, oh, I guess the show
just isn't popular in England and that's fine. It was
(29:53):
nice just to kind of blend in for a while.
And then one night I went out drinking with my
cool mates, my buddies, my mates, and it's for some reason,
I don't know how, but for some reason, Full House
came up and they started talking about it and I
was just like, you know, you know I was on
that show, right And they're like, yeah, of course we know.
(30:14):
And I'm like, but you never said anything, and they're
just like, yeah, we wanted to respect your privacy. I
was like, oh, so I think I did get recognized
but the you know, the British are very you know,
straight laced, and they're very polite and they want you know,
they never said anything. They just wanted to keep it
quiet and it was no big deal. It's not like
America where they're like, oh my god, you like right
(30:38):
in your face and it's like stealthy requests and and craziness.
You know, the British are very reserved. So yeah, no,
I lived a very quiet life in England that was
very free of free of celebrity if you will. Well,
that's nice. I I guess they're chilling unless you're royalty.
And then and then it's maybe maybe bad news. Oh yeah,
(31:00):
and then then they lose their Okay, so you you
moved back the States, Um, you're effectively retired and you
get married. Yes, yeah, it was. I lived a very
very normal life. I was actually I was already married
before I moved to England. So coming back from England,
my husband at the time, we bought a house. I
(31:21):
got pregnant unexpectedly when I was in England. So suddenly
I was kind of like, who you know, pivot, here's
an unexpected surprise. And so then I just started preparing
for baby and kind of abandoned, you know, a lot
of my job prospects at the time, and decided I
wanted to stay at home with my kids. So I
(31:42):
had two kids, a boy and a girl. Uh, and
I stayed at home with them for close to ten years,
and it was just like the normal stay at home
mom for for a long time. And then I got divorced,
and so that also pivot, you know, changed my life
trajectory quite a bit. Um. And you know, shortly, very
(32:08):
shortly after I got divorced, um, I got the call
about Fuller House and so that kind of turned turned
things around for me. It came into my life at
a very good time. Jeff Franklin gives you a call.
Are you like, I don't know, did. I haven't acted
in you know whatever, it was eight years. I don't
know if I'm ready for this or you like, hell yeah,
(32:29):
let's go. I was, hell yeah, let's go, which is
surprising because I hated, you know, I didn't want not
that I hated the business. I loved acting, but I
did hate like show business in general. I hate like,
I don't know, there's a there's a lot I don't
like about it, but um, No. I was on board
from the very beginning. And I think it's because of
the people. It's because of I love the cast, I
(32:50):
loved the crew. Um, we had a lot of our
same writers back and there are same our same crew
members back, our same script supervisor. Like they all they
all came back to do the show, and I what
a what a gift to be able to do this
again with the people that I love. And it wasn't
until our first show night that I was like, oh, ship,
can I do that? Like can I still act? Because
like it had been twenty years. Like this wasn't like
(33:12):
I just took a couple of years off. It had
been twenty years. And so I think Jeff Franklin even
asked me at one point, He's like, are you cool
with this? Like do you need like a coach? He
wanted to bring in like an acting coach or or
something like that. And I was like, no, I think
I was gonna wing. It'm just gonna see if I
can still do it. And it did. I just I
just fell right back into it. I think because I
(33:34):
did this character for eight years as a kid. Um,
it was just like muscle memory at that point, you know, Um,
I don't know if I can ever do any other character.
You know, I might just be forever known as Kimmy Gibler.
It was effortless. It was effort effortless, just stepping back
into those shoes and and doing this character again. It
was awesome. I love it. I love Kimmy Gibler much
(33:56):
more now than I did as a teenager, that's for sure. Okay,
so you go back to the show, is it exactly
how you remember or is it so much different? As
an annul It's exactly like I remember. I mean literally,
we were on the same stage, like the same stage,
like Stage twenty four at Warner Brothers. That's the stage
we grew up in. Like I just had a different
(34:18):
parking spot now, but we were in the same Yeah.
Now I could drive and I didn't have to do
school on set. So those were the two major differences,
is that I didn't have to do the schooling and
I didn't have to have my mom there, you know,
with my work permit. It's a little different that way,
But otherwise it was it was exactly the same. We
(34:40):
have the same sets, it's it's essentially the same people
with the addition of like the new the kids and
the new cast members, and we just fell into like
all the same inside jokes that we would tell back
in the day, especially having like Dave Clier back on
the set and Bob Sagett, like they just we all
just fell right back into that same rhythm, you know,
the same fooling around on the set and not taking
(35:03):
it seriously in the director getting annoyed at us for
taking too much time because we're telling too many jokes.
It was exactly the same um it it was. It
was kind of a mind trip to be walking up
the same stairs to go into our dressing rooms, like
it all kind of shifted, like, you know, Jodie, Cannis
and I now had the nicer dressing rooms because we
(35:23):
were the three leads instead of the you know, the
kids on the show. But otherwise it was it was
exactly the same same hair and makeup room, like, same
crafty station. It was surreal, but it was great. It
was so it's just so cool, Like I can't even
tell you how how cool it was to get to
do that again. If you had to go back to
work for one day, would you go back to work
(35:46):
from the first show or did you go back to
work for the second show. Second show, hands down, the
second show. Yeah, just because I appreciate it so much
more as an adult and I have perspective and and
you know, I'm free from all of those insecurities that
I had as a teenager where I was just like, uh,
you know, feeling just insecure about how I looked or
(36:08):
the wardrobe. You know, I I absolutely would go back,
and I go back, not just for one day. We
want we want to keep doing the show. We're so
sad that it's over. We're waiting and hoping that, you know,
ten years from now, they'll do They'll do a third
version of the show in the fullest house and we
can be like the Golden Girls or the Grandma's on
the show because we all love it so much. So
(36:30):
somewhere between Days of our Lives and full House, You've
written a book. Yes, tell us about the book. Well,
the book is called full Circle, Full Circle from Hollywood
to real life and back again, and it is my memoir.
So it is my life story up until now, you know,
age forty three. I want to write a book for
(36:52):
a lot of reasons. It's been on my bucket list
since I was you know, an English major in college.
I was like, I'm gonna write a book someday. I
want to, I want to be published someday. But I
also wanted to tell my story, mainly to talk a
lot about those twenty years in between Full House and
Fuller House, where I kind of fell off the face
of the public planet, you know, and I just kind
(37:12):
of disappeared. Like people didn't know. They were like, what
did she die? Where did she go? You know, people
just didn't know what happened to me, since I just
I just fell off the radar. So I wanted to
talk about those twenty years and what I did, because
I think there was this huge assumption that I did
nothing for those twenty years. Um, but I actually did
a lot. It just didn't do it in Hollywood or
(37:34):
in front of a camera. And a lot of what
I talked about in the book, UM is the time
period I went through with my divorce and my my
postpartum depression. And I talked a lot about mental health
and anxiety and depression and what that was like like
my my first hand experience of like I went back
(37:54):
to my old journals and my old my old diaries
and like pulled actual stuff from there and talked about
what it was like going through that. And I did
that because one, I want to help erase the stigma
surrounding mental health. And too, I think the more we
share our own personal stories, the more I think it
encourages other people to share their personal stories as as well.
(38:17):
And that's where we can really find the healing in
this UM because we can talk about it, we can
create hashtags about it. There's all these mental health awareness
days and stuff like that, but it all feels kind
of really impersonal. And so I thought, if I get
personal and I get real and I get raw, and
I just put it all out there in this book, UM,
maybe maybe it'll help somebody, or maybe it will touch
(38:41):
somebody or I don't know. I just want to use
my platform for something bigger, bigger than me, um, you know.
And so that's why that's why I wrote this book.
And UM, it was also very cathartic. It was also
very healing for me to kind of look look at
my life and examine my life in this time period.
You know, it took me um four or five months
(39:03):
to write, like the first draft, and so to be
able to analyze you know, forty years of your life
and condense it all into like a three book. Was um,
it was hard, but but also very cathartic as well.
Before I lets you go, can we do rapid fire questions? Yeah? Sure,
rapid Fire Questions with Andrea Barber. Number one favorite pizza
(39:24):
topping pineapple. Wow. Wait, why is that a surprise because
that's just a controversial answer. Well again, I don't. I
don't like ham and pineapple. It has to be just pineapple,
preferably double pineapple. All right. Favorite book Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman. The first concert you went to? It
(39:48):
was actually a Depeche Mode concert that my brother brought
me to. I was probably wildly too young to be
going to a concert at that time, so I don't
remember much of it. But my first concert that I
really really wanted to go to was the New Kids
on the Block Hanging Tough concert. Of course. Who would
you call to get you out of jail? Dave Coulier? Yeah,
(40:14):
what's one thing on your bucket list get out of
this quarantine? No? Uh, that's on my bucket list to
go to New Zealand. Do you believe in soulmates? What's
your idea of a perfect house, one that has minimal
belongings and furniture. Who's your celebrity crush Joey McIntire that
(40:35):
that would be the quickest answer you get today. What
is your nickname? Annie? Only my family calls me that
or actually, you know what a b people because Andrew
Barber there's my initials, So a lot of my close
friends will call me a b okay, uncle Jesse or
uncle Joey. Uncle Joey and he was never uncle, by
the way, but I would say Joey for sure. No
(40:56):
offense to John stay Mos. I'm just I'm just those
are to David Clier. Maybe it's the celebrity farts. I
don't know where can people find you on social media?
You can find me on Instagram at Andrea Barber or
on Twitter at Andrea Barber. And I also have a
Facebook page, but I'm never on it. Andrew Barber, thank
you so much for being on the Wells Cast. This
(41:19):
was I mean, like, thirty five year old Wells is
pretty pumped about this, but like like twelve year old
Wells is losing his faking mind right now. I'm so
glad this was so much fun. Thanks for having me
on be safe out there, um, try to stay sane
during the quarantine. And again, thank you so much, no problem,
(41:40):
thank you, Bye Ny. Subscribe to Wells Cast on I
Heart Radio, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
It's the Internet Cast.
This is a Wells Cast with Wells, Adams and I
Heart Radio podcast. Yep, that's that is what it is.
That's what that's what you're doing currently. You are listening
to the Wells Cast. If this is not the show
that you thought you'd be listening to while quarantining, then
I'm sorry, but buckle in, boys and girls, because guess what,
this is going to be a good one. What I
(00:21):
love about this show I get to meet people that
I would never normally meet generally. There are people that
I really really look up to. I'm a big fan of.
And I tell you what, thirty five year old Wells
is pretty pumped about today's episode, but fourteen year old
Wells is losing is minds. That's right. One of the
shows that shaped who I am today, one of their
(00:44):
stars is going to be on the Wells Cast. Mine blown.
I don't know if you guys remember, but every Friday night,
as a pre pubescent young man in the early nineties,
maybe even late eighties, you'd sit down in front of
your TV s Green with the Family, a little something
called t G I F would start. And for those
of you that don't know, t G I F was
(01:05):
some amazing programming put on every Friday night for kids
who weren't allowed to go out and go to the bar,
get drunk, do all the stuff that older kids do.
And it was listen, guys, it was lit alright. If
I could use my parlans from these times, it was
lit a f when that song hit. Oh dude, when
(01:26):
you heard this, you knew your night was going to
be off the ship. Oh the moods, right, guys. You
know we're gonna do t G I F bro t
G I F Step by Step, full House, Family Matters,
(01:48):
Oh dude, some amazing television and today on the Wells Cast,
one of the stars of Full House is going to
be on the show. Oh yeah, just sing it with me, guys.
You know you want to sing with me? If you
don't know every word of this song? What is wrong
with you? Here we go, mm hmm. Whatever happened to particulability,
(02:12):
the movement, the fable book, the Eely, Oh God, get
delivered here? Somebody telling, Oh, it's the different Purse. I
don't part this part. What is the different purse? I
don't know this person? What is this burns? Get get
(02:37):
the part that I know already right here? Everywhere you look,
you need a hold on. Yeah, guys, on the Wells
Cast today, Andrea barber A, k A Kimmy Gibbler, your
(03:03):
favorite kind of weirdo that lives next door, but you
love her. She always had DJ's back, you know she did.
She was coming after Stephanie with the fat comebacks and slams.
Oh dude, Kimmy Giler is gonna be on the Wells Cast.
So we're gonna find out how the hell she got
on that show? Was it her first show? Because guess
(03:26):
what spoiler was not what happened between rapping full House
and then starting Fuller House, because I don't really remember
her being on like other shows, you know, like Okay,
and Cameron did some stuff, and obviously, you know, Bob
Saggett and Dave Couier and all those guys were doing
a bunch of stuff. What happened to Kimmy. We're gonna
find out in just a couple of minutes right here
on the Wells Cast. Dude, Kimmy Gibbler. Guys, Okay, now
(04:09):
on the Wells Cast. So excited we have Andrea Barbera,
how are you hi? I'm doing great? Are you really
did that sound forced. Well, I mean like we're all
in this this state of like, well, I got up,
I went on a walk, I watched the news, and
(04:31):
then I started drinking, you know, basically that. Yeah, it's
like groundhog Day. Every day it's like what did you
I try skyping or or zooming with my family members,
and like we're running out of things to talk about
because there's nothing new to talk about. What did you today?
Same thing that I did yesterday? You know, it's it's yeah,
(04:54):
it's it's crazy. And I am an introvert too, so
I love I love my alone time. I of the homebody.
I like staying home on the couch and reading a
book or watching a good show. But even now, I'm
just like, man, I'm over to this how much longer?
And that's really a privileged thing to say, like these
are you know, these are first world problems. There's you know,
(05:16):
I'm happy, happy to do it, and there's there's so
many people who are very um, you know, very much
worse off. So I shouldn't complain. But but I mean,
like we're all in it together. You know. It sucks
for everybody, Yes, yes it does, that's true. We're all
just suffering the same boredom and anxiety and worry and
(05:40):
all of all of the above. What are you binging
on TV right now? I'm rebinging. I've gone back to
comfort TV. Wait, hold on, you got to the end
of television and now you're starting back over. No, I
didn't get to the end of the television, but I
got tired of the current content and I decided I
needed comfort TV, so I'll stop eating comfort food. So
(06:04):
I've gone back to Felicity, the show from twenty years ago,
which was my favorite show twenty years ago. And now
I'm rebinging the four seasons of Felicity, and I'm trying
to get like my own daughter, whose name is Felicity,
to watch it with me. But she's like, this is boring.
But I'm like, no, this is the best show, one
of the best shows in the history of television. Wait,
(06:26):
that's Carrie Russell, right, Yeah, that's that's Carrie Russell. That's
Scott Foley, Amy, Joe Johnson, the Pink Power Ranger. I mean,
there were a lot of a lot of great names.
Jennifer Garner was on it, um, she did some some
guest appearances on it too. It was it was great.
I saw that Carrie Russell is in the new Star Wars,
and I think, once you get to Star Wars, if
(06:50):
you get to do like a Star Wars or like
a Stephen King or like a Tarantino, I think, like
it's over now, Like that, you've made it, did it?
You know that she has arrived like she and she
had already arrived, and now she's even more arrived. What
do you do to top that? I don't know. You
don't just stop doing it now? You know you're done.
(07:12):
She can retire now. Yeah, I'm so excited to have
you on the show. And I was doing my intro
kind of before I called you, and I'm a couple
of years younger than you, but you were such a
big part of my Friday nights. Yeah. I played the
the t g F. I had heard the TCF theme
(07:32):
song in years and I played it and I was like,
oh my god, this brings up so much. It was
genius programming at the time, but like, but like now,
I'm like, you would never you don't program like that
on Fridays because people like go out and stuff. But
it was like stay home, order a pizza, have people
over and watch you guys. Yeah, it was a different generation.
(07:55):
It was like families were it was more about family
time and families staying in on Friday night and having
a show that they could watch together. And that that's
what Full House was originally meant to be, was a
show that kids and parents could watch together and both
of them actually enjoy it. Yeah. So yeah, that's a
different time and people are still enjoying it because there's
(08:15):
still families out there, and and people that are are
gaining a lot from that. They want It's like comfort TV.
Like I mentioned, it's it's it's a comfortable, fun, easy
show to watch. It's kind of mindless. It doesn't require
a lot of hard thinking, and so it's just a great,
feel good, feel good show you can watch, you know,
with your parents or with your kids. And um, I'm
(08:37):
proud to be to have been a part of it.
We do have a weird six degrees of Kevin Bacon thing.
I recently competed in the Worst Cooks in America Celebrity
edition on the Food Network and I went up against
Dave Koyer. No get out, Are you serious? I think
(08:58):
you might just say cut it out? But I was fine, Wait,
has this aired yet I need to look it up now.
They announced it a couple of days ago. It comes
out on May. Like I like, how I'm using my
podcast to promote my ship. It comes out on Troject.
But can I just say, um, I come from like
(09:18):
this reality TV world, and he obviously comes from like
an like an actual like talented actor television world. And
it was tough on all the actors to do reality
because it's just like really long days and so it
doesn't take long for people who aren't used to like
those hours too kind of get shitty pretty quickly, you know. Yeah,
(09:40):
and he's got crack eventually, he's not like everyone kind
of cracks. And he was so chill the entire time,
and he was the funniest guy in the room all
the time. And after we've rewrapped, I messaged him and
I was like, it's really tough to meet people that
you look up to and like we're like loved as
a kid, and if they don't like kind of meet
(10:01):
that expectation, it's always this huge letdown. And I was like, dude,
you're like one of the only people who have ever
met who I was like was so much more rad
in real life. Than he even was in my imagination,
and my imagination had already exploded. Yeah, Dave is such
an awesome guy, and he has excellent comedy endurance, like
he were used to long days on sets, and he
(10:23):
will just crack jokes the entire the entire day. Like
he it's it's hard to turn him off of the
of his you know, the comedy that's going on in
his head. He's just he's hysterical and he always wants
to make people laugh. So I can absolutely picture what
you're saying, him just cracking jokes the entire day. Was
he doing any of his like fart jokes or was
(10:44):
he doing celebrity farts. He has a whole bit about
celebrity farts. I was saying, we bring up this one story,
so we would just throw out names of people and
then he would do what the celebrity fart sounded like.
It's one of his best bits. It really, it's so good,
and it's so good. Like one day, one day, it
was like a real like a sixteen hour a day,
(11:04):
and we were all just kind of annoyed, and people
were throwing him out and he was killing he was
like killing all of us and finally, I was like
Carrie Strug at the Olympics, the moment she lands the
jump but she hurts her ankle and her one foot
goes up, and he was like, I we're done for
(11:24):
the day. I'm gonna come back tomorrow with this one.
And he like took like a solid like twelve hours
to like absorb the idea. And when he did, like, yeah,
he put in the work, you know, he did some research,
he went method on us, and when he came back
the next day he did it like literally I think
we all laughed like fifteen minute. It was so funny. Anyway,
(11:46):
he's he's so talented and he wouldn't think there's that
many fart sounds single person can produce, but it's endless.
Like I could probably do like maybe one or two
different type of fart sounds, but his range of fart
sounds is it's it's incredible, and he can really capture
(12:07):
the personality of whoever he's imitating with the fart. It's
it's incredible. It's great. It's great, especially on the show
when we have like guest stars come and he'll do
their farts like in front of them. It's very You're right,
it's very meta. It's just an incredible talent. It's I'm
gonna I'm gonna put that in his eulogy when he
(12:29):
dies and I speak at his funeral, I'm gonna talk
all about his uh fart expertise. I'm so excited to
have you on the show. I mean, like I said,
I mean, I grew up with Full House and Step
by Step and Family Matters and all the programming on
on t G. I F I don't know if anyone
kind of told you the premise of this show. This
(12:51):
show is effectively an origin story show. I like to
find out how people got to where they are and
kind of use it as a blueprint for a lot
of people who are just trying to be successful in
in whatever they do. I think I think that your
episode is going to be a little bit different because
I do want to hear your origin story. But then
I also really want to hear there's this huge watch
(13:12):
of time where you kind of left the public eye. Yes,
and I want to hear about that as well, and
then your re emergence back into the public eye. So, um,
are you Are you willing to go on this journey
with us? Yeah, totally let's do it, Okay, So I
love it. I was doing a little bit of digging
(13:33):
on Wikipedia, so I went real deep. Uh okay, So
Kimmy Gibbler wasn't like the first role that you landed.
You actually were on My sisters are going to lose
their minds because like sands to the hourglass, so are
the days of our lives? You are days of our lives.
I was. I was the first Carrie Brady and a
(13:56):
lot of people don't know that unless they're die hard
Duel fans. But yeah, no, I was the first of
the three Carry Bradies that that have done the all
of Cary Brady. My first day on set was my
sixth birthday, So yeah, I was. I was super tiny.
I was very young, and I did that show for
three and a half years and then I got fired
(14:18):
at age nine. So yeah that my first firing was
at age nine. And it was just because they wanted
to age the character. Um they needed like a hot
teenage love storyline, summer storyline, and they're like, well, you
know this, this little nine year old can't do it.
So Carrie Brady went upstairs to play with her toys
one day and came back downstairs the next day, you know,
(14:41):
five years older and soap operas are wont to do.
So did you grow up in Los Angeles? I did.
I grew up in Orange County, so you know, los
Angeles adjacent. My family was really into like community theater.
We would do like lots of plays together, or like
a Christmas Carol, and like my my very very first
(15:03):
role was playing the baby Jesus in one of like
the Nativity plays at Christmas time. And my parents were
Mary and Joseph. So that was, you know, particularly embarrassing.
But no, I sort of just fell into acting. It
wasn't something like I ever set out to do. It's
not something my parents ever thought. They didn't have like
(15:24):
big dreams for me. We were just doing this community
play and it was during an actor's strike and so
there were agents out kind of looking for for new
blood or fresh blood, and so that's how I was
discovered by my agent, Judy Savage uh, and I signed
up with her, so did my two brothers, and my
parents were like, well, this sounds cool. I guess we'll
(15:45):
give it a shot. See how it goes. And it
it's turned into this like huge thing. It turned into
like a whole career for me, literally just accidentally. I
just kept going and as long as it was fun,
I stayed with it. My parents were like, you can
quit anytime you want, Like, if it's not fun, you know,
you just write a letter to your agent and tell
her you're not doing it anymore. And I'm like, okay,
(16:07):
and it it stayed fun. It stayed fun and all
the way, you know, through the Full House years until
I turned eighteen, and then I was like, Okay, I'm done.
But you know, been there, done that. Now I'm going
to stop and go to college and do other things.
That's that's literally how we approached it. There was my
parents weren't like you know, stage parents or stage moms
or there was no pressure. Um it was just like
(16:29):
my after school sport. It was just a hobby that
I did, and I happened to be successful at it
and and make some money at the same time. So
you get fired from a soap opera at the age
of nine nine, Yes, it's hard, man, And then, um,
so I should have scarred me for life. So how
(16:51):
long between you getting fired from Days Bar Lives to
you getting hired on Full House? Oh? Not long. I
was ten. I was ten when I is cast in
the role of Kimmy Gibbler. My memory is not great.
You know, this was so long ago, um so I
would say it was yeah, less than a year. And
um I auditioned for the role of DJ first and
(17:12):
didn't get that obviously, but the producers remembered me, and
they're like, hey, you know, we think you'd be right
for this, this you know, quirky neighbor girl. Can you
come back and read for that part? And I was
like sure. So I got that role, which was only
supposed to be like a one time appearance, and then
that turned into like eight years of my life. Really,
(17:32):
this is the This is the lesson here for all
the aspiring actors is that it's not about hard work
or determination. It's just about a lot. It's really, I
literally just fell into like any sort of success that
I've had. That is true, and that isn't though. I mean,
you obviously like made an impression on them for your
read of of DJ's character. So you know, so it
(17:53):
wasn't a series. You weren't a series regular, no, not
for the first uh three or four seas in um
I was ac I was a recurring role, and so
I started out doing five episodes season one, and then
that got bumped up to like ten episodes of season two.
Now this was back in the eighties, so this is
(18:14):
we would do like twenty six episodes this season. It's
not like the streaming shows now where you you only
get like, you know, ten to thirteen episodes for a
season if you're lucky. So yeah, I think it was
probably around season four or five when I finally got
cast or I was finally bumped up to two series
regular and that was great. What was it like those
(18:34):
first couple of years, because I assume before it had
the cache that like the full house thing was, you know,
you're doing a show like kind of every year and
you're wondering if you're gonna get canceled or not, and
then all of a sudden becomes like this kind of
like cultural phenomenon and he becomes kind of part of
America's household every Friday night. What was it like being
inside of that bubble those first couple of years doing
(18:56):
the show. Yeah, we had no idea that this show
was going to become like this cult classic show that
has It's never been off the air since nineteen seven.
It's been somewhere, you know, on air for the last
thirty something years, which is crazy to think about, but
we had no idea at the time, especially the first
(19:18):
couple of years when we were got, you know, gaining
a following, and there was no social media back then,
so we didn't know how popular we were. We had
Nielsen ratings that told us that a lot of people
were watching the show, but um, we didn't really feel
it until the first time I remember really feeling how
popular the show was. UM was in one of the
(19:39):
later seasons when we went to Florida to shoot an
episode at Walt Disney World, and the crowds were just crazy,
like we had personal security and people following us into
the bathrooms and like passing notes under the stalls asking
for our autographs as we were trying to go to
the bathroom. And that just blew my mind end. And
(20:00):
so I was like, wow, like like we're really famous,
like we're actually like this is a really big deal,
this show. Um. But you know, because until then, I
didn't really feel it because they because you know, we
were just protected there on Stage twenty four at Warner Brothers.
We would just do our show and the Nielsen ratings.
The Nielsen ratings would say that we were successful, but
(20:23):
I didn't really feel that impact until we took it
out into the public. And now, you know, we get
so much attention on social media and so much love
from our fans that now I can really feel the
impact that the show has had over the last thirty years,
especially you know, people our age who are like, you know,
I grew up with the show, and now I have kids,
(20:43):
and my kids are watching the show, the old the
old full House and then the new Fuller House. Um.
You know, I can I can feel that impact more
than never because I can communicate directly with the fans now, um,
and it's just awesome. It's awesome. It's a great it's
great knowing that people feel like they grew up with me.
You know, it's a it's a really cool feeling, especially
(21:04):
when I go out in public and people people will
come up and hut, well, not anymore, but when I
when I was able to go out in public before
the quarantine, people would come up and just hug me
and feel like they feel like they knew me and
that we grew up together. And that's a it's a
really cool feeling. Is it cool or is it kind
of freaky? Though? Because from where I come from, from
the reality TV realm of things, it makes total sense
(21:27):
for people to come up to me and talk to
me as if they know me because they've watched me
on TV being me. But for you, you're playing this
part and people but they still feel like they know you.
Is it weird for them to come and kind of
invade your personal space a little bit? Uh, depends on
the day. It depends on if my kids are with
(21:48):
me too, So it's it's really only awkward when my
kids are with me, because then they're just like, oh God,
They're already embarrassed because I'm the mom. And then when
fans come up and start, you know, freaking out or whatever,
then it gets a little little bit weird. But usually
people are well meaning. I haven't had too many like
creepy encounters with people, but people are surprised that I'm
(22:09):
not at all like my character because you're right there.
I think they do expect me to be, you know,
dressed to the nines with my bacon and egg scarf,
the Kimmy Gibbler accessories, and they expect me to be
loud and obnoxious, and I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm
actually not like that at all, completely different from Kimmy Gibbler.
And and people always make note of that when they
(22:31):
when they meet me, and they always say, oh my gosh,
you're You're much shorter than I imagine. So I don't
I guess I look really tall on TV. I don't know,
but yeah, people always comment on how short I am.
I'm only five too, so I am short. I guess
I don't look that short on TV. Yeah, I mean
like when I look think back, I think of you
as taller than DJ And I mean, so, yeah, I
(22:52):
know we're the same height. Candice and I are both
five too. Yeah, we're both five to Jody's taller. Um,
she finally, you know, she finally outgrew us. So she's
I don't know how tall, how tall she is, but
um yeah, now the little the little sister finally surpassed
the rest of us. My fiance, Sarah Highland. She's on
Modern Family, and so I've become friendly and close with
(23:15):
a lot of her cast and for her little sister
who plays Alex, and for her little brother who plays Luke. I. Um,
I've talked with him a lot about it, just like
you know, like a parties and stuff. Because for Sarah
it wasn't really that wasn't really like this because she
got cast on that show when she was eighteen. But
for for them, they were kids on that show and
(23:36):
then they have to go through I think the hardest
part of anyone's life is going through puberty and just
like changing and then I can't even imagine how terrifying
that must be to do it in front of the world.
What was that like for you, having to kind of
like grow up on television? Yeah, that part was pretty awful.
(23:57):
I can totally relate to to them. Yeah. I was
on Full House from age ten to eight teen, so yeah,
all of my awkward formative years were on their on
TV forever for everyone to see. And it is weird
because yourself. I think teenagers in general are self conscious
(24:18):
about their appearance or just about how they present themselves.
And so yeah, I was playing a character, but I
still felt totally self conscious about my body. And then
I was wearing these you know, crazy wardrobe choices you know,
at the same time, um, and I hated it, Like
I hated the wardrobe. I hated having to look weirder
(24:41):
than I already felt being a teenager. You know, I
had braces, I had the bad perm. Yeah, it's it's
a really awkward time. And so I think it is
hard for child actors to grow up and and just
have all of that out, you know, on display. Um,
it's it's a hard thing. I can't say anything redeeming
(25:01):
about it except that my kids can watch it now
and make fun of me about how I looked as
a teenager. And it's hard because I I was. I
went to public school. I went to public high school.
When I wasn't working, like on my days off or
on hiatus weeks, I stayed in my regular public high school.
And so that was weird too, because kids are mean
and they're they don't know how to they don't know
how to react to you. And so you know, kids
(25:24):
were kids were pretty back then, and they would write
things on my locker they make fun of me, or
they would, um, they would gleak on me, I don't know,
like the spitting thing. Yeah, you remember gleaking. They would
gleak as I would like walk past them in the halls,
and I thought this sucks. So yeah, so it was
you know, it wasn't great growing up and and having
(25:47):
all that awkwardness on display, but um, it was still
a great experience because of because of the people, because
I gained a new family out of it, So I
wouldn't change anything. But yeah, you're right, it was. It
was gird and not fun. A lot of the time.
You watch back like old Seinfeld episodes and you're like, man,
Cramer's outfits are just are now cool, Like there he
(26:08):
was a hipster long before. And I feel like when
I watched back old episodes of Bullhouse, I'm like, Kimmy
was actually pretty dope, Like her outfits were really hip. Unfortunately,
it wasn't cool for that time, you know, right right, No,
her her style, I don't know. I I watched old
episodes and I just I just cringe some of those outfits.
(26:31):
It's fun now because I host a Kimmy Gibler costume
contest every Halloween, and so it's just a way to
kind of make fun of all of the outfits I
used to wear, and people will go all out trying
to replicate some of these iconic outfits and it's pretty
hysterical now. But yeah, at the time, no, it was
not fun wearing some of those get ups. I think
(26:53):
Jimmy Gibler's style improved considerably on Fuller House. You know,
she kind of became we were going from more of
like a Carrie Bradshaw, like a trendy you know, unique
and eccentric, but still trendy style. That's what we were
going for on Fuller House. So I had a little
bit of redemption there. The first iteration of the show
ends when you're eighteen years old? Are you? Are you relieved? Um?
(27:17):
Do you resent the show a little bit? Like making
you wear this like crazy clothes? Are you sad at
the show's ending? Like? What's your mindset at that point?
I think it was all of the above. I never
resented the show. I was definitely ready to move on
and do other things. I was sad to see it
end because you know, I was gonna miss everybody. I
didn't we didn't know that we would stay in touch
(27:39):
for the next twenty years and then come back and
do the show again. Like nobody knew that was going
to happen. So I was sad because I definitely missed
the people. But I was ready to move on. Like
I said, I didn't plan to stay in the business,
and so I kind of retired officially at eighteen uh
and went to college and studying English literature and decided,
(28:02):
you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna teacher, I'm going to
become a writer, or I'm going to do something that
is not in the public eye. That was my plan.
That was kind of my trajectory, and that was the
path I was on for twenty years until I got
a call from our show creator, Jeff Franklin, and he
was like, hey, let's do a reboot of the show,
and will you come back to show business for this?
(28:24):
And I was like, sure, of course, why not. I
would love to. That's the story in a nutshell. That's
the condensed version. So you got your bachelor's degree in
(28:45):
English lit. And then didn't you get your master's as well?
I did. I got a master's degree in Women's Studies UM.
Kind of a useless degree because well, no, it's not useless.
I mean as far as like I'm not really using
that degree, but the knowledge I gained, obviously UM is
always always valuable. And it was an incredible experience because
I actually got that degree in England. I lived in York, England,
(29:10):
for twelve months and did kind of a condensed masters
program and completed it in in twelve months and it
was an awesome experience. Does anyone in England know who
Kimmi Gibbler is? Like where people like oh, Roy, like,
oh my god, no, you know what that's That's kind
(29:32):
of a funny story too, because I did not get
recognized at all, Like for the first seven or eight
months I was there, nobody like, nobody recognized me. Nobody
did like second glances. There was no autograph requests, like nothing,
and I was just like, oh, I guess the show
just isn't popular in England and that's fine. It was
(29:53):
nice just to kind of blend in for a while.
And then one night I went out drinking with my
cool mates, my buddies, my mates, and it's for some reason,
I don't know how, but for some reason, Full House
came up and they started talking about it and I
was just like, you know, you know I was on
that show, right And they're like, yeah, of course we know.
(30:14):
And I'm like, but you never said anything, and they're
just like, yeah, we wanted to respect your privacy. I
was like, oh, so I think I did get recognized
but the you know, the British are very you know,
straight laced, and they're very polite and they want you know,
they never said anything. They just wanted to keep it
quiet and it was no big deal. It's not like
America where they're like, oh my god, you like right
(30:38):
in your face and it's like stealthy requests and and craziness.
You know, the British are very reserved. So yeah, no,
I lived a very quiet life in England that was
very free of free of celebrity if you will. Well,
that's nice. I I guess they're chilling unless you're royalty.
And then and then it's maybe maybe bad news. Oh yeah,
(31:00):
and then then they lose their Okay, so you you
moved back the States, Um, you're effectively retired and you
get married. Yes, yeah, it was. I lived a very
very normal life. I was actually I was already married
before I moved to England. So coming back from England,
my husband at the time, we bought a house. I
(31:21):
got pregnant unexpectedly when I was in England. So suddenly
I was kind of like, who you know, pivot, here's
an unexpected surprise. And so then I just started preparing
for baby and kind of abandoned, you know, a lot
of my job prospects at the time, and decided I
wanted to stay at home with my kids. So I
(31:42):
had two kids, a boy and a girl. Uh, and
I stayed at home with them for close to ten years,
and it was just like the normal stay at home
mom for for a long time. And then I got divorced,
and so that also pivot, you know, changed my life
trajectory quite a bit. Um. And you know, shortly, very
(32:08):
shortly after I got divorced, um, I got the call
about Fuller House and so that kind of turned turned
things around for me. It came into my life at
a very good time. Jeff Franklin gives you a call.
Are you like, I don't know, did. I haven't acted
in you know whatever, it was eight years. I don't
know if I'm ready for this or you like, hell yeah,
(32:29):
let's go. I was, hell yeah, let's go, which is
surprising because I hated, you know, I didn't want not
that I hated the business. I loved acting, but I
did hate like show business in general. I hate like,
I don't know, there's a there's a lot I don't
like about it, but um, No. I was on board
from the very beginning. And I think it's because of
the people. It's because of I love the cast, I
(32:50):
loved the crew. Um, we had a lot of our
same writers back and there are same our same crew
members back, our same script supervisor. Like they all they
all came back to do the show, and I what
a what a gift to be able to do this
again with the people that I love. And it wasn't
until our first show night that I was like, oh, ship,
can I do that? Like can I still act? Because
like it had been twenty years. Like this wasn't like
(33:12):
I just took a couple of years off. It had
been twenty years. And so I think Jeff Franklin even
asked me at one point, He's like, are you cool
with this? Like do you need like a coach? He
wanted to bring in like an acting coach or or
something like that. And I was like, no, I think
I was gonna wing. It'm just gonna see if I
can still do it. And it did. I just I
just fell right back into it. I think because I
(33:34):
did this character for eight years as a kid. Um,
it was just like muscle memory at that point, you know, Um,
I don't know if I can ever do any other character.
You know, I might just be forever known as Kimmy Gibler.
It was effortless. It was effort effortless, just stepping back
into those shoes and and doing this character again. It
was awesome. I love it. I love Kimmy Gibler much
(33:56):
more now than I did as a teenager, that's for sure. Okay,
so you go back to the show, is it exactly
how you remember or is it so much different? As
an annul It's exactly like I remember. I mean literally,
we were on the same stage, like the same stage,
like Stage twenty four at Warner Brothers. That's the stage
we grew up in. Like I just had a different
(34:18):
parking spot now, but we were in the same Yeah.
Now I could drive and I didn't have to do
school on set. So those were the two major differences,
is that I didn't have to do the schooling and
I didn't have to have my mom there, you know,
with my work permit. It's a little different that way,
But otherwise it was it was exactly the same. We
(34:40):
have the same sets, it's it's essentially the same people
with the addition of like the new the kids and
the new cast members, and we just fell into like
all the same inside jokes that we would tell back
in the day, especially having like Dave Clier back on
the set and Bob Sagett, like they just we all
just fell right back into that same rhythm, you know,
the same fooling around on the set and not taking
(35:03):
it seriously in the director getting annoyed at us for
taking too much time because we're telling too many jokes.
It was exactly the same um it it was. It
was kind of a mind trip to be walking up
the same stairs to go into our dressing rooms, like
it all kind of shifted, like, you know, Jodie, Cannis
and I now had the nicer dressing rooms because we
(35:23):
were the three leads instead of the you know, the
kids on the show. But otherwise it was it was
exactly the same same hair and makeup room, like, same
crafty station. It was surreal, but it was great. It
was so it's just so cool, Like I can't even
tell you how how cool it was to get to
do that again. If you had to go back to
work for one day, would you go back to work
(35:46):
from the first show or did you go back to
work for the second show. Second show, hands down, the
second show. Yeah, just because I appreciate it so much
more as an adult and I have perspective and and
you know, I'm free from all of those insecurities that
I had as a teenager where I was just like, uh,
you know, feeling just insecure about how I looked or
(36:08):
the wardrobe. You know, I I absolutely would go back,
and I go back, not just for one day. We
want we want to keep doing the show. We're so
sad that it's over. We're waiting and hoping that, you know,
ten years from now, they'll do They'll do a third
version of the show in the fullest house and we
can be like the Golden Girls or the Grandma's on
the show because we all love it so much. So
(36:30):
somewhere between Days of our Lives and full House, You've
written a book. Yes, tell us about the book. Well,
the book is called full Circle, Full Circle from Hollywood
to real life and back again, and it is my memoir.
So it is my life story up until now, you know,
age forty three. I want to write a book for
(36:52):
a lot of reasons. It's been on my bucket list
since I was you know, an English major in college.
I was like, I'm gonna write a book someday. I
want to, I want to be published someday. But I
also wanted to tell my story, mainly to talk a
lot about those twenty years in between Full House and
Fuller House, where I kind of fell off the face
of the public planet, you know, and I just kind
(37:12):
of disappeared. Like people didn't know. They were like, what
did she die? Where did she go? You know, people
just didn't know what happened to me, since I just
I just fell off the radar. So I wanted to
talk about those twenty years and what I did, because
I think there was this huge assumption that I did
nothing for those twenty years. Um, but I actually did
a lot. It just didn't do it in Hollywood or
(37:34):
in front of a camera. And a lot of what
I talked about in the book, UM is the time
period I went through with my divorce and my my
postpartum depression. And I talked a lot about mental health
and anxiety and depression and what that was like like
my my first hand experience of like I went back
(37:54):
to my old journals and my old my old diaries
and like pulled actual stuff from there and talked about
what it was like going through that. And I did
that because one, I want to help erase the stigma
surrounding mental health. And too, I think the more we
share our own personal stories, the more I think it
encourages other people to share their personal stories as as well.
(38:17):
And that's where we can really find the healing in
this UM because we can talk about it, we can
create hashtags about it. There's all these mental health awareness
days and stuff like that, but it all feels kind
of really impersonal. And so I thought, if I get
personal and I get real and I get raw, and
I just put it all out there in this book, UM,
maybe maybe it'll help somebody, or maybe it will touch
(38:41):
somebody or I don't know. I just want to use
my platform for something bigger, bigger than me, um, you know.
And so that's why that's why I wrote this book.
And UM, it was also very cathartic. It was also
very healing for me to kind of look look at
my life and examine my life in this time period.
You know, it took me um four or five months
(39:03):
to write, like the first draft, and so to be
able to analyze you know, forty years of your life
and condense it all into like a three book. Was um,
it was hard, but but also very cathartic as well.
Before I lets you go, can we do rapid fire questions? Yeah? Sure,
rapid Fire Questions with Andrea Barber. Number one favorite pizza
(39:24):
topping pineapple. Wow. Wait, why is that a surprise because
that's just a controversial answer. Well again, I don't. I
don't like ham and pineapple. It has to be just pineapple,
preferably double pineapple. All right. Favorite book Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman. The first concert you went to? It
(39:48):
was actually a Depeche Mode concert that my brother brought
me to. I was probably wildly too young to be
going to a concert at that time, so I don't
remember much of it. But my first concert that I
really really wanted to go to was the New Kids
on the Block Hanging Tough concert. Of course. Who would
you call to get you out of jail? Dave Coulier? Yeah,
(40:14):
what's one thing on your bucket list get out of
this quarantine? No? Uh, that's on my bucket list to
go to New Zealand. Do you believe in soulmates? What's
your idea of a perfect house, one that has minimal
belongings and furniture. Who's your celebrity crush Joey McIntire that
(40:35):
that would be the quickest answer you get today. What
is your nickname? Annie? Only my family calls me that
or actually, you know what a b people because Andrew
Barber there's my initials, So a lot of my close
friends will call me a b okay, uncle Jesse or
uncle Joey. Uncle Joey and he was never uncle, by
the way, but I would say Joey for sure. No
(40:56):
offense to John stay Mos. I'm just I'm just those
are to David Clier. Maybe it's the celebrity farts. I
don't know where can people find you on social media?
You can find me on Instagram at Andrea Barber or
on Twitter at Andrea Barber. And I also have a
Facebook page, but I'm never on it. Andrew Barber, thank
you so much for being on the Wells Cast. This
(41:19):
was I mean, like, thirty five year old Wells is
pretty pumped about this, but like like twelve year old
Wells is losing his faking mind right now. I'm so
glad this was so much fun. Thanks for having me
on be safe out there, um, try to stay sane
during the quarantine. And again, thank you so much, no problem,
(41:40):
thank you, Bye Ny. Subscribe to Wells Cast on I
Heart Radio, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
It's the Internet Cast.
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