Dave Coulier is standing by his former Full House costar Candace Cameron Bure following her public drama with Miss Benny.
The actor, 63, who played Joey Gladstone on the hit ’90s sitcom, subtly addressed the feud while discussing an episode of the show’s sequel, Fuller House, titled “The Prom.” Coulier directed the 2018 episode, which was nominated for a GLAAD Award.
“It was really nice to have that happen, for people to be recognized, for that episode to be recognized,” he told Yahoo Entertainment before dropping his new “Full House Rewind” podcast on Friday, July 21. “We were always a show that was very inclusive, and we tackled a lot of subjects that sitcoms really traditionally didn’t talk about, you know, like drugs and alcohol with kids, growing up and all of the things that can happen along the journey of adolescence.”
The episode featured Miss Benny, 24, as Casey, the show’s first openly gay character. Coulier declined to comment on Miss Benny’s claims that Cameron Bure, 47, attempted to get the character written off of Fuller House. He instead praised Cameron Bure for her leadership on the set of the revival series, which ran from 2016 to 2020.
“Candace was kind of the driving force of Fuller House. She was a producer and she was kind of the leader of the wolf pack with the girls and I thought she was tremendous,” he added. “I was so proud of those girls.”
Coulier emphasized that he has “always been Switzerland” when it comes to disputes involving Full House cast members.
“Everybody kind of tells me, ‘Oh, here’s what she said.’ But we’re like a family, you know? We bicker, we argue, we call people out on their stuff. We have problems with each other, but at the end of the day, we love each other and we kind work through it,” he explained. “I mean, we’ve been through pickups, cancellations, births, deaths, marriages, divorces — the stuff that any family goes through.”
Coulier asserted that the cast remains close despite Fuller House ending. “We text on someone’s birthday, we say congratulations for things, we ask each other for help,” he said. “It’s really a wonderful family. I don’t think any of us in the very beginning expected that to happen for the rest of our lives. So I keep in touch with everybody.”
Earlier this month, Miss Benny made headlines after claiming Casey was nearly axed from the Netflix sitcom at Cameron Bure’s request.
“One of the Tanner sisters is very publicly not for the girls,” Miss Benny shared in a TikTok clip. “I remember I got sat down by the writers and the studio to basically warn me how this person allegedly was trying to get the character removed and not have a queer character on the show.”
Miss Benny didn’t name Cameron Bure in the video but did use a hashtag for the actress, adding, “To this day, despite working on the show every day for two weeks straight, I have only had a conversation with one of the Tanner sisters.”
In Fuller House, Cameron Bure and Jodie Sweetin reprised their roles as D.J. Tanner and Stephanie Tanner, respectively. Cameron Bure — who has previously been criticized for her comments about the LGBTQIA+ community — denied Miss Benny’s allegations.
“I never asked Miss Benny’s character to be removed from Fuller House and did not ask the writers, producers or studio executives to not have queer characters on the show,” she told TVLine in a statement amid the backlash. “Fuller House has always welcomed a wide range of characters. I thought Miss Benny did a great job as ‘Casey’ on the show. We didn’t share any scenes together, so we didn’t get a chance to talk much while filming on set. I wish Miss Benny only the best.”
