Celebrating Baby Tommy: The Most Underrated ‘Fuller House’ Character
Move over, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen! Step aside, Blake and Dylan Tuomy-Wilhoit. A new set of twins has entered the Full House/Fuller House universe: Dashiell and Fox Messitt. The Messitt twins are stealing the hearts of Netflix viewers everywhere as they share the part of Tommy Fuller, the lovable, silent baby son of DJ Fuller (née Tanner). While the rest of the cast is great, the Messitt twins steal every scene that one of them is in, be it with a cute costume, a wry gaze, an adorable smile, or just by triggering general mayhem (RIP, Uncle Jesse’s cheeseburgers).
While chatting with Full House/Fuller House creator Jeff Franklin, we didn’t miss an opportunity to grill him about the Messitt twins, gush about our favorite scenes, and get a preview of all the cute Baby Tommy action in Season 2.
Yahoo TV: How did you find Dashiell and Fox Messitt? How did you know they were the right babies for the job?
Jeff Franklin: We saw numerous five-, six-, seven-, eight-, nine-month-old twins. It was a process of elimination, the same way we found Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Who is comfortable with strangers? Who is in a good mood? Who looks like they’re going to have big, bright, smiley faces on camera? Who smells good? Who is not throwing up?
Talk about a grueling casting process! How do you decide which twin will play Tommy in each scene? Is one twin better at sitting still than the other? Is one better suited to comedy?
We did that with the Olsen twins, for sure. Their roles would change, but there were definitely times where Mary-Kate would play the goofier scenes and Ashley would play the hard scenes. So far, we’ve only done 26 episodes in two seasons. That would be one season in the old days. So Dashiell and Fox haven’t really emerged as different personalities yet. Whoever is in the best mood, really, gets to work in a particular scene.
One of my favorite scenes from Season 1 was in the “Love Is in the Air” episode when Baby Tommy steals Uncle Jesse’s double cheeseburgers. Are the twins cheeseburger fiends?
No, that was one of those little magic moments that this show always seems to have. Thankfully, the twin involved didn’t glom the burger in rehearsal! He pounced during the show. We get really lucky sometimes.
There’s also a scene in Episode 4, “The Not-So-Great Escape,” when Baby Tommy keeps tricking Stephanie into looking up at the ceiling.
Yes, I remember.
Do you have any idea what the baby was looking at up there?
For the first couple shows, both babies were fascinated with the boom mic and kept looking up during our shoot. Rather than worrying about it, we said, “You know what? Let’s write this in and see if we can make this into something funny.” Sure enough, it was perfect. The cameras were rolling, and he just kept looking at the boom mic, but then kept looking back to Stephanie and back up there again. It just was really magic. Magic again.
In the same episode, Stephanie, Max, and Tommy get skunked and have to bathe in tomato soup. How did the lucky Messitt twin handle that situation?
That was not one of the twins’ favorite moments. Basically, we just warned the mom, “We’re going to torture one of your kids for a week, and hopefully that’s OK with you.” He wasn’t thrilled with being in a vat of tomato soup, but he was in there long enough to give us what we needed. As far as the twin was concerned, cheeseburgers were much preferable to tomato juice.
One of my favorite episodes last season was “War of the Roses,” when Becky kept changing Tommy’s outfit. Can you give us an estimate of how many outfit changes Baby Tommy will undergo this season?
I would say at least 20 different outfits. What he wears is part of his mystique.
Obviously, Baby Tommy isn’t talking yet. Any idea of what Baby Tommy’s first catchphrase will be?
No, but I’ll be really happy once he’s learning lines.
For any Baby Tommy fans like myself, is there a really juicy moment we should be looking out for in Season 2?
Watch the first episode. Tommy goes from crawling to walking, and things will never be the same.
Fuller House Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
