Andrea Barber Says 'Full House' Producers Told Her To 'Stuff' Her Bra
By Kelly Coffey-Behrens on June 25, 2024 at 3:48 PM EDT
Andrea Barber grew up on television and is best known for her role as Kimmy Gibbler on the sitcom "Full House,"which centered around widowed father Danny Tanner (Bob Saget), who asks his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis (John Stamos) and his best friend Joey Gladstone (Dave Coulier) to help raise his three daughters: D.J. (Candace Cameron Bure), Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin), and Michelle (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who shared the role).
Looking back at filming, Andrea Barber, who was 13 at the time, recalled one time when the producers had asked her to "stuff" her bra to make her chest look larger, which now leaves a sour taste in her mouth.
'Full House' Producers Told Andrea Barber To Do This 'Ridiculous' Thing
On the latest episode of her podcast "How Rude, Tanneritos!," which she co-hosts with Jodie Sweetin, 42, opened up about the one time "Full House" producers asked her to stuff her bra as she was "flat-chested."
In the episode “Back to School Blues,” Kimmy Gibbler (Barber) and D.J. Tanner (Candace Cameron Bure) start junior high but find it hard to fit in with the older crowd. Naturally, the two decided to give themselves a huge 80s makeover with an excessive amount of makeup, mini dresses, and fishnet stockings.
“I was dying when I watched that,” Sweetin, who portrayed Stephanie Tanner, said on the podcast. “Hilarious. Ridiculous. What are your thoughts on it today?”
Barber then admitted that while she was "mortified" watching it back, that episode was still a "core memory" for the actress.
Andrea Barber Had To Stuff Her Bra
“I was pretty flat at that age, which is not a big deal. That's very normal," Barber recalled. "But then when they wanted to — like okay, they wanted me to wear falsies, but then, of course, the joke’s gotta work. So, I had, like, producers coming up to me in between takes and giving notes to wardrobe saying, ‘We need it stuffed more. We need it bigger.’ And that was mortifying to have men looking at my boobs.”
Sweetin also admitted that watching that episode back and seeing how production dressed Bure and Barber's characters was a bit unsettling as they were only 13 at the time.
Jodie Sweetin Chimes In
“It is a storyline that's not, like, made up. It is exactly what kids do. My kids do it. You know, every generation goes through different, like, oh, it's a miniskirt, it's a crop top, it's a, you know, baggy pants and whatever," she said. "Like, it's always something that they're trying to do."
"But, yeah, I definitely like, when I watched that scene, that was all I could think of was like, ‘Oh my god.’ Because, you know, like, it's just pointing out something that you know is already very obvious in your real life that now you have to deal with outside of the joke you're making on the show," the actress added.
Rewatching 'Full House' Years Later
Sweetin continued, “The joke's funny in the scene, but then after that scene, you have to go and exist in the world with everyone having seen that joke. Which when you're an adult, you don't care. When you're a kid, oh my god.”
The Kimmy Gibbler actress admitted she was "beat red" when watching the episode back, recalling how the producers asked her to pad her bra to make her chest bigger.
“I don't think we needed it,” she recalled of the padding. “I think they got the point across with the fishnets and the tight skirts and the crazy, you know, the wild teased hair. I think that was enough. We didn't need the falsies as well.”
“I keep thinking, ‘What if it was my daughter, my 13-year-old, out there and where men are talking about the size of her bust?’ ” Barber added. “I would have a problem with that if I was the mom.”
Did The 'Full House' Moment Scar Andrea Barber?
While she now disagrees with this, Barber said she isn't scarred by the moment, but she does think the joke should have been changed.
“I'm fine now. I wasn't scarred by it,” she added, but “I'd be like, ‘Guys, this is — change the joke. There's a different — there's a better joke out there.’ ”
Sweetin then said that she doesn’t think the scene was intentionally inappropriate as it "was a very normal storyline of stuff that we all knew that."
"But, yeah, definitely looking back on it now, you're like, ‘I don't know that I love that,'" she continued as Barber said she "didn't love" that moment and "that memory has stuck with" her.