Candace Cameron Bure Talks Fuller House, The View and DWTS

Candace Cameron Bure has a full plate these days. Between shooting episodes of Fuller House, the Full House reboot for Netflix, and guest-hosting episodes of The View (some have reported she’s in negotiations to join full-time next season), the actress has written a book about her experience on Dancing With the Stars, Dancing Through Life: Steps of Courage and Conviction. Bure took a few minutes to discuss everything from motherhood to her faith to, of course, returning to television as D.J. Tanner.

Why did you decide to write a whole book about your Dancing With the Stars experience?

Bure: Two reasons. After doing that show, I learned so much about myself in such a short amount of time. Each week really was filled with these huge life lessons, which I didn’t think I could learn at the age that I’m at. So that in itself was quite a shock and surprised me. And the other reason was that I had wanted to write a book about conviction, and yet I never felt that I had the right platform to write it. So after DWTS, it was the perfect place to write about courage and conviction, and then share the experience and all the life lessons. I was actually scheduled to write a book on a different topic, and after I had done DWTS, a week later I called my publisher and said, “Hey, can we switch gears? Because I really want to write about this and I think it would be perfect, and it’s so fresh in my mind, let me just do this,” and they were on board.

What was the original topic going to be?

Motherhood.

You write about struggling with modesty on Dancing With the Stars. What do you think is the biggest misconception about Christian womanhood in America?

I think that so many people—and it can be both people of faith and secular people—I feel like things are often put to the extreme one way or another, and there’s not a lot of common sense that goes along with it. It’s like you hear from people that aren’t Christians, and when they mock you, they want to say, “Oh, shouldn’t you be in a turtleneck and something covering your ankles?” That’s not silly in certain cultures, but for living in America, obviously that’s something that’s said with such sarcasm, they’re trying to get at you.

And yet within Christians, everyone has a different set of standards, and that’s why it was important for me to say, “Hey, these are what my convictions are, you may not agree with my conviction as a Christian, but at the end of the day, I will stand before God on my own, you’ll stand before God on your own, so if you have a different standard, great, you’re gonna talk to him about it, I’m gonna talk to him about it, I’ll have to deal with my own consequences.” That’s where I stand, but I feel like the biggest misconception about the word “modesty” in general is just that it’s restricted to hemlines and necklines and clothes, when modesty is so much more about our character, and the way we carry ourselves, and the way we speak and act. That was the thing that I wanted to get across the most, because the Bible doesn’t really talk about hemlines.

Are Christians treated differently from secular Americans on reality shows?

I didn’t feel that I was treated differently by the people running the show or the executives. I work in a secular industry, and so I don’t ever expect anything to change for me—nor do most people change anything for me, not that I want that or ask that. But [among viewers], from Christian to Christian, it definitely can be more challenging in that area, because you are held to a certain standard, and the standards vary as to where everyone is in their faith walk. Some people are more liberal or more conservative, so there can be a lot of judgment in that regard, which makes it more challenging to live out your faith in front of everyone.

With that in mind, what do you think of the level of scrutiny around the Duggars’ show 19 Kids and Counting?

That is a very different situation. But I was actually disappointed at how people reacted, both people of faith and not of faith. That was such a sad situation to me, when that was something that happened so long ago, and it was mortifying that it was made public information when that should have never happened. Had that not been someone in the public eye, that never would have been exposed. That aspect, it was horrible, and I’m sure that the family had already gone through the grief at the time. To bring it up so many years later, and then really be scrutinized over it, I just thought was wrong in every way.

How is shooting going for Fuller House?

Fabulous. It has been amazing, it has been one of the best experiences ever, it feels like we never, ever left. Truly, we’re all having the time of our lives. And the show is really good, I know the live audience loved our first taping. So fingers crossed that everyone’s gonna love it. I really feel like we have a good thing on our hands.

Last time you worked with John Stamos and Bob Saget, you were a teenager. How is it different to work with them now as an adult?

Not really different at all. They are the same people, and we are laughing just as hard. I think we kids were more professional than they were back in the day, and I say that lovingly. They were always just joking on set, and we were like, “Hey, we’re working!” The same is true right now. The three of us girls, Jodie [Sweetin], Andrea [Barber] and I, we’re still saying the same thing, “Hey, we’re trying to work!” It feels so good to all be back together, working together — obviously we see each other all the time, we’re great friends, but it is such a pleasure for all of us to get to work again.

So many child stars end up having troubled young adulthoods, and that didn’t happen to you. Why do you think that is?

I always attribute that to my parents and the household that I grew up in, although I know other people that have had great parents but have gone through hard times. I think faith is a big factor, that was just always foundational for us, and carried through and then became more important to me as I became an adult. It’s the two of those things, and maybe my innate personality.

You’ve been guest hosting on The View a bit lately.

It’s been great, I’ve loved every time I’ve guest-hosted on the show and looking forward to more. It’s just a different medium for me to actually be myself and to express some of my opinions and viewpoints. I don’t know that there’s a lot of conservative actors out there willing to be so open about that, so I think it’s a unique opportunity for me.