Bob Saget
Bob Saget is playing a dad again. Wait! Don't roll your eyes. This time the actor, who is known for playing the doting father of three on TV's Full House and the ever-affable host of America's Funniest Home Videos, is neither doting nor affable. He's playing a Wall Street insider trader circa mid-1980s with a family that he manages rather than cherishes in Paul Weitz's Privilege at Second Stage. In real life, Saget is in fact a doting father of three girls, but he's not as syrupy sweet as his TV persona might lead one to believe. His stand-up material he began his career as a comedian and never gave it up is peppered with racy and dirty jokes. His sense of humor, as he puts it, is "sick." Saget chatted with Broadway.com on his cell phone recently as he was enjoying a sunny afternoon walking to rehearsal.
How did you decide to make your New York stage debut in this show?
The decision got made for me. [Playwright] Paul Weitz knew me. He knew my stand-up and knew that I had a wickedness and a darkness about me. I read the script in about an hour, and I just loved it.
Wait a minute. A wickedness and darkness? That might come as a surprise to fans of your very G-rated TV persona from Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos.
I've always been like this. Even when I did Full House, my stand-up was always PG-19. I guess it's R-rated now—in a good way. I'm not purposely dirty—I just do what I find funny. I'm actually headlining The House of Blues in Vegas on June 4, so I'll come out of doing this play in mid-May, and then I'll just kind of detox for a while with my kids and hangout in L.A. Then I'll go do some stand-up. It's a chance to vent.
What moved you about the script when you first read Privilege?
It's a very poignant piece, and it deals with stuff that I love: issues dealing with growing up. Even though being privileged is the subject matter—kids that have seemingly been given everything—I love exploring what I went through as a teenage boy and what turns people in life. It's really about a family—a disconnected family—and what it sometimes takes in life to give people some kind of connection. I just loved it. I was very sad when I read it because of the things people do to themselves. This character is so 180 of me.
He has so many issues! And yet he still thinks he's right. I don't think he's as high-end as [convicted Wall Street insider traders] Ivan Boesky or Michael Milken, but he's up there. He can't believe that it's a few million dollars that's the issue. It's a small thing like shoplifting and getting caught when you're wealthy. It's just really interesting to me that he does love his kids, but he also does what he thinks he's supposed to do to show that he loves them. He comes in to manage his kids like he's managing a meeting. I'm more of a guy who can be overly demonstrative and sometimes a little bit overbearing. I can't help but hug my kids! Even when I did Full House, it was my silly idea to go, "Oh, let's hug all the time! That will be one of the things we do!"
How do you balance the hugging-all-the-time-TV-dad image with your true self?
I don't even think about it anymore because so many young people now know that I have a very sick sense of humor, and they really do like it. I'll go do stand-up for college audiences and they know another side of me from watching the HBO stuff and movies that I've done. It's really wonderful. They scream my name. Sometimes they yell my line from Half Baked, which is not appropriate for human consumption or for your article. It's really nice because they all grew up watching Full House. Sure, some people only know me as that, but I don't think about the image.
It seems like the Full House cast is very close-knit. Do you feel protective of the Olsen twins?
They're like my daughters. Well, they're not like my daughters exactly. They're more like really, really dear friends. We're very close. We went out to dinner one night: my three daughters, Mary-Kate, Ashley and her boyfriend. They all came to my show. There's just a lot of love. Candace Cameron Bure, who was DJ, is coming to see it this weekend. There's a lot of support. It's a nice feeling to know you didn't just do crappy showbiz thing with child actors. They are all just good souls—all the kids who were on the show are unusually smart and good people. We really all love each other. It has nothing to do with anything, except we had a lot of fun when we did it. We laughed a lot in between scenes. I don't think it's a fun thing normally to be an actor as a kid, but they had a good time.
How did you make it fun for them?
It was like a crazy playhouse. John [Stamos], Dave [Coulier] and I acted like morons in between scenes. It was all silliness and poop jokes. I mean, it was pretty much as adolescent as it gets. And the kids just remember laughing all the time, so when we're together, we just laugh. We let Dave do his party tricks. He makes funny sounds that are wrong in public. It's just silly. It's like being with the family you want to be with. Not that I don't want to be with my own family.
Have your daughters seen Privilege yet?
My daughters saw it a couple of times. My oldest saw it three times! It's exciting for them. They keep saying, "My God, that's not you. I've never seen you so not be you!" They had a wonderful time here in New York. They saw a lot of theater. They're 18, 15 and 12. Oh, my 15 year old got her learner's permit yesterday! I'll be back home in about month, and I'm like, "You don't really need to drive with anybody. You just wait till I get back and let me yell at you while you pump the brake."
When was the last time you performed in a play?
It was like a long time ago; it's been 17 or 18 years. And then I went and did the TV and movie stuff and got blessed with that. This is one of the best experiences I've had. I get to work with Carolyn McCormick, who's so talented, and the two kids, Conor Donovan and Harry Zittel, and Florencia Lozano. She does tons of stage work and is a total pro.
How is it for you to work with children again?
I'm learning from them! These two kids love what they do. They love the craft of it. They love what we're doing. In a very short amount of time, we've all gotten into each other's heads. We know each other. You feel what they're going through. I get so much from them. It's remarkable. Harry has got so much emotion and Conor is amazing. They both are.
What are you learning?
It's exponential growth for me. I'm learning so much every time I do it. There's no fear. It's 300 people, you're right there, and you've got to be real. You can't be thinking about anything else. When you're in that zone, it's just crazy—and very fulfilling. I just told my parents the other day that it's one of the best things I've ever done in my life.
It's so supportive! My friend John Stamos said something to me—to some people it might seem woo-woo or whatever—but he said, "At eight o'clock at night everything in this part of town goes off at the same time." It's a magical thing. There's nothing like it. Getting to be part of that for the first time in my life is very moving for me. I feel very fortunate. I feel privileged. I really do.
That word!
I knew I was going to be using that word as a buzzword whenever I was asked what's it like to be doing this!
Would you like to do more theater?
I would. We'll see how received I am. We'll see if I need ice packs afterwards. I guess it was David Mamet who said, "We play the cards we were dealt." Well, maybe it was Shakespeare. Did they even have cards? Anway, whatever door is going to open for me, I'm going to go through it. And whatever door closes, I'm not going to force it open. What I love is doing the play, and there's nothing more moment to moment than that. That's all I need right now.