America fell in love with the Tanner family on ABC’s Full House back in the late ‘80s, and the show’s run in syndication attracted and kept even more fans of multiple generations. Of course we loved dorky dad Danny Tanner, the odd-couple uncles Joey and Jesse who were helping him raise his daughters, and sassy sisters DJ and Stephanie. But Full House just wouldn’t have been the same without Michelle, who was played by 9-month-old twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Creator Jeff Franklin recalled the “bizarre” process of casting the youngest Tanner sister, and it sounds like the Olsen twins won the part pretty quickly!
In case that little factoid didn’t quite sink in, Ashley and Mary-Kate (who turned 37 in June) were just 6 months old when they auditioned and won the part of Michelle Tanner — a role they continued to play for the duration of Full House’s eight-season run. Jeff Franklin spoke with Dave Coulier on the Full House Rewind podcast about what goes into casting characters that young, explaining:
