John Stamos Says Playing Coach Korn on 'Big Shot' Has Helped Him Become a Better Father
Season 2 of Big Shot is coming back sooner than you may realize!
John Stamos, the Full House star, 59, returns to season two of Big Shot (Oct. 12 on Disney+) as coach Marvyn Korn, fired from his college job and now teaching and coaching at an elite all-girls private high school.
How will Marvyn be different in season two?
He realized that real connections are more important than winning games. He connected with these girls. He certainly grew a lot from being a full-time father to Emma [Sophia Mitri Schloss]. It’s [about] choices: This time he wanted to make the right choice from his heart and not from what he thinks he should be doing, or the perception of his career.
How did you prep to play a basketball coach?
I knew the show wouldn’t work unless I really dug into being a coach, so I tapped into my dad a lot; he could be very firm. And I met a bunch of people, including Jerry West [who coached the Los Angeles Lakers]. I thanked him for allowing me to come to rehearsal. He said, “It’s not rehearsal, it’s practice.”
Marvyn was kicked out of the NCAA, so Big Shot is also about second chances. What’s your take on that?
Well, I’ve been given a second chance in my life and career. I made some bad decisions about seven, eight years ago and drove my car drunk, and I’ve since rectified that. So I believe that people, depending on what the issue is, deserve second chances. They may not deserve a third or fourth chance sometimes. I’ve never turned back. I got to have a second chance, so I do believe.
What was your first reaction when you got the script for Big Shot and they wanted you to play a sports figure?
My agents called me and said, “You’re going to get an offer on the new David E. Kelley show for Disney+,” which was really exciting. I love Disney. And I said, “Great! Is it a lawyer? Big Little Lies part three or something?” They said, “No, it’s a basketball show.” My heart sank because I’ve always wanted to work with David. But then they said, “He’s a coach.” I said, “OK, great. What’s the coach do?” My dad said I went out of my way to not like sports. I just don’t connect to it in my real life. The character I get, but it took a while.
How much awareness is Marvyn going to gain on how to be a better parent in season two?
Well, there was a great speech that I believe David wrote for the last episode of season one, where Marvyn was talking about being a father and what he thought it was. He said, “I think I finally realized what being a father is.” Basically, he was saying that for the longest time what he thought it meant to be a dad [was wrong] because he didn’t have a great dad. We learn a lot about that in the first season too; his dad dies. But he thought that it was about being a good provider.
It is that, but that’s just a small part. Later, he thought it was about spending time. Discipline, yes, that’s important, rules, boundaries. But then he finally realized that being a parent is about sacrifice and giving up your needs and desires for the good of your child. And he’s right, because I’m learning this now. You don’t get a trophy at the end of it, or a banner or a ring. But what you do get, if you do it right, and it’s worth any win, is you’re raising a child, a kid that is capable enough, and loving enough, and smart enough, and is a better echo of you.
It’s interesting how that’s paralleled into my real life being my kid’s 4 now, but it’s a lot. It’s a lot being a dad. If you want to be a good parent, it’s a lot of sacrifice, it’s a lot of common sense, it’s a lot of love, and it’s a lot of patience. Also finding the right mother for my child, which I lucked out with Caitlin [McHugh]. So it’s that.
What other changes will there be for season two?
The season starts out a little lighter. It was an hour last year; we made it shorter this season, which I think was a good choice. I always said that this show’s not going to work unless we feature the girls a little more, so we do that this season.
It starts off lighter, and then it gets back into… Last year there were some really heavy, emotional episodes, and it slowly creeps back into that. That’s my sweet spot for this show. I think since the beginning, we’ve been showing the inequalities of women’s sports versus men’s sports. And the very first episode in season two, the school becomes co-ed.
We’ve hired some really good boys this year to play the guys on the show. The tall, handsome kid, Charlie Hall, he’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ son. Talented guy. They did a great job casting those guys.
It’s fun and a little frivolous in the first three or four episodes, and then it hits. There’s a big event that happens and everybody must come together. I held off last year making Holly [Jessalyn Gilsig] and Marvyn a couple. I love that we’ve waited. You’ll see, in this season, we don’t get far either.
Most shows that I’ve been on they go, “OK, John’s on the show, let’s have him sleep with every girl.” I was on Scream Queens a couple years ago and literally every week I’m having sex with a new character. That was a big, fun, silly show, but this one, I like that we’re not rushing into a relationship and there’s a little bit of tension there.
And then what I really love is that we go through a big arc with my daughter, and with the loss of my friend Bob, I was pitching that; because when Bob Saget died, I said, “Wow, look at the tsunami of love that came pouring out for him.” To be honest and kind of funny, it was the first time I was ever jealous of the guy. What’s going to happen when I die?
I wanted that to be Marvyn’s thing. And so, we lean into that towards the end of the season. He loses someone that’s close to him and goes through that whole thing that we all go through as we start to get older. It’s like, “What are they going to say about me?” Or “What am I leaving behind? Am I leaving this world a better place?” I think like that.
Full House is a big part of your life and you have embraced it. But was there a period where it felt like a weight around your neck?
Yep, 100 percent. I stopped fighting it because I knew it wasn’t going away, and it meant a lot to people. I probably wouldn’t be where I am right now without it, and I’ve done enough outside of Full House where I can say, “I’m more than that mullet-headed guy.”
What did you do after Full House to keep your career going?
I’d worked with Jack Klugman. I’ve gravitated towards father figures a lot in my life over the years and Jack Klugman was one of the first ones. I did a show with him. The day that show ended, I said, “What do I do, Jack?” He said, “Go to the theater! Get to the theater!” I did. I went to New York. I’d never done much theater, but I just went for it. So I did a lot of that. And then I took this goofy, cheesy TV movie where I was playing a killer kidnapping Joanna Kerns from Growing Pains. I did a TV movie with her where I kidnapped her. I was like, “Come on...”
The reviews for Full House originally were, “This show’s not going to last till Thanksgiving.” Now the critic didn’t say which Thanksgiving. So, yeah, for the longest time I was like, “I don’t want to talk about it.” And then it became this cultural phenomenon really, right? This show should have been gone a long time ago. Instead it stuck around for some reason.
I still don’t understand it 100 percent, especially if I’m walking through [the room] and my 4-year-old son and the nanny are watching it. I guess it’s the indescribable love that we had for each other on the show and the characters. It’s the first sort of real adult show out of animation that kids start to watch at 4, 5, 6, so there’s a new fan born every year.
The last thing I did on Broadway, I was doing a show called Best Man. It was a Gore Vidal play with James Earl Jones and Angela Lansbury. And I got off stage after three hours with James, arguably one of the greatest actors ever, and I’m out signing autographs and it’s like, “Uncle Jesse! What is Michelle like? Uncle Jesse!” So at that point I remember very specifically I said, “The show’s not going away. I’ve got to embrace it.” I’m like, “Hi, have mercy,” whatever. But the next day I got up and I got to work with James Earl Jones again for three hours.
You were always a big fan of Disneyland, and now you work for Disney. What’s it like seeing it through the eyes of your 4-year-old son, Billy?
Not to overuse the term, but it’s magical. To be very honest, I was done with the Disney part of my life. And then I met my wife, and she’s more of a fan than I am, and then Billy always wants to go, so they pulled me back in. To see it through Billy’s eyes makes me weep.
What joy do you find in playing onstage with the Beach Boys?
Well, it’s an indescribable joy that I thought maybe I would get to do once. I never thought I could do it. Look, as a kid, Mike Love’s parents lived about a mile away, and I would ride my bike over to their house and I’d peek in on the gold and platinum records. If you would have told me back then that I’d be playing with them…but it’s been in phases.
It started in ’85, so it was like, “Wow, I can’t believe I’m playing with the Beach Boys.” To, “OK, now it’s time to be a musician.” I learned a lot from Carl Wilson about rhythm and timing. He’s passed away, unfortunately. So dig into the music, forget about being a showy whatever. Then this last phase, which I’m still in, this music right now, more than ever I can feel, is needed in this world. People can’t get enough of it because it’s comfort food. Like Full House, it feels safe, it’s optimistic.
The Beach Boys song about “Fun, Fun, Fun,” and girls, and cars, and optimism, and joy, and “Good Vibrations,” there’s never been a time where we needed that music more than now. So to watch an audience at the Greek Theatre or in Ventura County, it’s heart music. You don’t have to think about it. It bypasses the brain and goes straight to the heart.
And that’s why when I look at the audience, I’ll see a 4-year-old and a 90-year-old singing the lyrics to the song. And to be behind Mike Love, who wrote most of that stuff, and he’s projecting that out and it’s coming back at us, it’s an indescribable feeling—although, I just tried to describe it!
You have a great guitar collection. Do you have one of Elvis’ guitars?
No, I don’t have Elvis’ guitar, I have Elvis’ glasses. But this was Bob Saget’s guitar that he used onstage, and he sang all those dirty… if I play it, it’s going to be a dirty song, so maybe I shouldn’t. Because you can only play the songs that he wrote on this. “My Dog Licked My Balls,” “Danny Tanner Isn’t Gay,” you know, those type of songs. But his wife gave this to me, and it means a lot to me. One day, they were moving, and she was giving away some of his things, so she invited friends over.
You’re going to do voiceover for Spidey and His Amazing Friends and Mickey Mouse Funhouse. Are you doing those for your son, Billy, or do you just enjoy doing voiceover and creating characters?
Partially for Billy. It turned out, he was watching Mickey’s Funhouse and I got this gig as Captain Salty Bones. That’s been really fun because Salty Bones, it’s like this crazy skeleton pirate and he’s very funny and acerbic, as acerbic as you can be or as funny you can be for 3-year-olds watching the show. And then organically he moved onto Spidey and His Amazing Friends one day. And then a couple days after that, I got a call to play Ironman on there.
It’s an honor, especially the Ironman stuff. The trick has been to try to make Ironman my own. I was leaning on some of the attributes that [Robert] Downey Jr. has done. Now, I’ve finally gotten around to make it kind of real, but it’s fun. A lot of times I do it from home. Billy will sit up here with me for a few minutes while I’m doing it, and he’ll try to talk, and I’ll have to send him out. It’s just one more thing to do in show business.
Related: John Stamos Reunites With the Beach Boys for a Moving Tribute to Bob Saget