Jodie Sweetin remembers putting items back at Target because she didn’t have enough money on her debit card. “You learn humility,” the actress known for playing Stephanie Tanner on Full House said of the experience.
Sweetin, 44, discussed that period during the November 4 episode of We’re Still Here, Babe. Host Natanya Ross has known her since they were young performers and later worked alongside her at a treatment facility.
The original sitcom ended in 1995 after eight seasons, and acting jobs became sporadic. After getting sober, Sweetin took work outside Hollywood to support her two daughters, as Entertainment Weekly reported.
She wasn’t treating that job as something to endure until television called again. Sweetin told Ross she had learned to enjoy her life and was prepared to continue in treatment work if another acting opportunity never arrived.
Sweetin Earned About $2,200 a Month and Needed Help With Rent
Sweetin and her children shared what she described as a one-and-a-half-bedroom apartment, with a small sleeping area off the living room for the girls. She earned approximately $2,200 a month, and her parents covered half the rent, according to Us Weekly‘s account of the interview.
She also drove an older car after another vehicle was totaled in an accident. At the facility, she handled logistics and scheduling, describing her position as director of operations. The responsibilities introduced her to skills she hadn’t expected to develop.
People who recognized her sometimes questioned why she was working there. “Paying my bills,” she recalled answering. She said she had no embarrassment about earning a living through a regular job, even when other people struggled to reconcile it with her television career.
She Borrowed Money During Her First Week on Fuller House
When the revival began taking shape, Sweetin attended pitch meetings with Candace Cameron Bure, Andrea Barber, John Stamos and series creator Jeff Franklin. She sometimes left the treatment center for a meeting and returned afterward. Once, she missed a pitch because an important meeting at her day job meant she couldn’t leave.
Sweetin eventually quit the facility, citing several reasons, with production on Fuller House approaching. She expected the new job to cover her expenses but hadn’t accounted for the wait between starting work and receiving payment. Payroll still had to be established, and she borrowed money during her first week on the series.
By the time her first paycheck arrived, she had approximately $190 left in her bank account. She said her colleagues did not know how little money she had. The revival premiered on Netflix in February 2016 and ran for five seasons, ending in 2020.
Sweetin Previously Described a One-Cent Full House Residual Check
In an April 21 appearance on The McBride Rewind, Sweetin discussed the payments she receives from the original sitcom. “I got a one-cent check the other day,” she told host Josh McBride, as TV Insider reported.
She recalled receiving larger checks in her twenties, but said those payments had never been dependable either. Sometimes the money was a welcome surprise; other times, it amounted to enough for dinner. She attributed the decline in her rerun income to the shift toward streaming.
Streaming can generate residual payments, according to SAG-AFTRA. The union explains that these payments compensate performers for reuse beyond the original exhibition, with different schedules and terms applying to television reruns and streaming distribution.
At the time of that interview, Sweetin said she rented her home and drove a used 2023 Hyundai Sonata. “I live a normal life,” she told McBride.