John Stamos Struggled to Play a 'Sports Guy' for 'Big Shot'
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John Stamos is as cool as they come. It's kind of his whole thing, right? How many people saw Uncle Jesse from Full House (whether on Nick at Nite or during the original run, no judgment here) and started immediately identifying this guy as the coolest guy? The actor's been playing on and off again with The Beach Boys since 1985, for pete's sake. All the while, he's seemingly managed to age in reverse too.
Over Zoom, the 57-year-old actor was dressed in a sharp maroon suit jacket, and still looked as sharp and in-shape as ever. Sure, your first thought may be to go all the way back to Full House, but it's worth remembering that Stamos has kept busy in recent years—and doing pretty different damn things from what you'd expect. That includes a role as a therapist in Netflix's dark campy thriller You and a pivotal character in the second season of Ryan Murphy's FOX slasher, Scream Queens.
Like everyone else, Stamos felt uncertain about his career and life at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic last year; he says that it felt like things were "out of control," before he eventually realized that things "were never in control."
Stamos shifted his thinking to instead focus on what he could do. And that meant taking a lesson from Big Shot, the new Disney+ series where he plays Marvyn Korn, an acclaimed NCAA Men's Basketball coach who loses his job due to an angry outburst during a game, and needs to reset with the only coaching job he can find—at a private all-girls high school.
And the past year or so and Big Shot both teach a similar lesson, he says.
"You just have to be your best at this time," Stamos says with a smile. "The world needs all of us to do our very best, and to be as kind as we can, and as loving. To be as charitable, to be as grateful for the things we have. I think those are the tentpoles."
And he even sees a silver lining leaking through from all of this—Big Shot shut down production and picked back up during the pandemic, and he realized that you know, we're going to need some new content to just make us all feel good. Because the real world has enough of that other stuff.
"When they wanted us to go back, I was like ‘I don’t know. Maybe we should wait,’" he says. "And then I realized that when this would air, which is now, we’re going to need shows like this."
We talked with the eternally cool actor about Big Shot, sports, and the opposite of what his character, Marvyn Korn initially does—keep a level head.
How are you?
I’m good, thank you. Healthy!
Perfect for us, then.
Yeah.
When making Big Shot, did you have any favorite coaches—from TV and movies, but also real life—that inspired the character?
Well, I went into a deep dive of Bobby Knight. Are you a sports guy?
Yeah! Big time.
I’m not. And it was the biggest acting challenge. My family saw a few episodes the other day, and in Episode 2, I think, Holly [Marvyn's assistant coach] says, ‘You’re just an entitled jock.’ And they started laughing. I said ‘What’s so funny?’ They said ‘Entitled, we get. But ‘Jock’—no one’s ever called you a jock.’
That was my biggest challenge. I watched a lot of Bobby Knight stuff—I thought he was really a colorful character. I looked at Pat Riley for the look, Rick Pitino. I spent time with Jerry West, who’s a great Laker. He was a real kind man. He took me to hang out with the guys, and straighten me out. I called it ‘rehearsal,’ and he said ‘no, son, it’s practice.’ I asked a lot of dumb questions that day.
He texted me the other day. He saw the trailer—he hasn’t seen the pilot yet. Jerry West, to me, was just a very kind man—a gentleman. But I know sports fans would like this.
He said, [READING OFF SCREEN] “John, I just finished watching the trailer. I found you very much like coaches that I’ve had in my life. I’m certainly not an actor, but you’ve done a great job capturing the image that many coaches try to convey to young people. I think I mentioned many coaches have enjoyed working with women more than men. I’m anxious to see more, and I’m wishing you great success going forward.” That’s pretty cool.
Do you have any go-to for when you’re feeling extra stressed? What do you use to reign yourself back in?
That’s a good one. Certainly music. I use music. I meditate. When I joined The Beach Boys, or started hanging out with them, they were all meditating. Mike Love, all of them were in India with Maharishi, and so they made me take a [Transcendental Meditation] course. I don’t do it enough, but that always helps. And then, I just look at my kid. I mean, he is just the brightest, most beautiful star in my life. I could look at him and go ‘awww.’ You know?
Right.
We’re gonna get through this. There were times when we thought we’re not. What has happened to the world? For me, anyway, I’ve been in a place where I needed to straighten up. I needed to get my act together. To get healthy, certainly—Men’s Health—and you would do that because the world was still going. And you’d pull up your pants, and you’d be like ‘OK, I’m getting back on the conveyor belt, I’m going.’ Well this time, the world wasn’t going either. Right? And you go [LOOKS TO BOTH SIDES] ‘What am I going to do? But I think, internally, all of us just started going, going, and then the world is now starting up, and we have to be ready for it.
We don’t want to look back at this time and say ‘aw, man, I wasted that time. I sat around and felt sorry for myself, and the world. I watched too much news.’ You know? We don’t want to do that. Hopefully I’m not.
This interview has been edited for content and clarity.
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