Everyone remembers the precocious 10-year-old from the TV hit, Full House. Well, Candace Cameron Bure, or “DJ Tanner,” is all grown up and cracking open new chapters in life—while keeping a thumb on one of the first few pages. With a family of her own, she still finds the time to entertain her fans of all interests; whether it be through her books, her performance on Dancing With The Stars, or acting (and producing) murder mystery films, she continues to impress the world with her talent and ambition. Oh, and we can’t forget the upcoming Netflix nostalgia coming to us in 2016: Fuller House.
With her two books, Reshaping It All and Balancing It All, already on the shelves, Bure is set to add one more on Aug. 1: Dancing Through Life: Steps Of Courage And Conviction (B&H Publishing). And she is currently appearing in the film series, Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery—not to mention the Fuller House filming is coming up quickly, too. Luckily, Candace Cameron Bure was able to answer a few questions about her new work—and how she does it.
So, I know you’re set to release a new book, Dancing Through Life. But this isn’t your first out. Can you tell me what you discuss in your others?
Sure. My other book, Reshaping It All, that was about putting faith into the forefront of your relationship with food. And then my second book was called Balancing It All, and I took a lot of my personal stories and how I managed to juggle being a working mom and an actress, author, producer… I have three kids and my husband is a professional athlete and now has an online label and so it’s all about balancing life and prioritizing.
And for this one, I noticed you talk about your time on Dancing With The Stars—have you had prior experience with dancing before the show?
I didn’t—that was my first experience with dancing. And, I mean, it was such an amazing experience. That’s why I wrote the book… Well, in the book itself I used the platform of Dancing With The Stars to write about something I wanted to write about for a really long time, which is about having courage and conviction and staying true to yourself and your values and living that life. So, I used the platform of Dancing With The Stars because it was a wonderful experience—and a really scary experience where I had to step out of my comfort zone and yet, stay true to myself.
What were some of the other hardships you faced while on the show, other than stepping out of your comfort zone?
Well, the examples that I used in the book are more particular to the show on Dancing With The Stars, but I just used that as an example for bigger life issues that everyone can relate to no matter what you do, or where you’re at in your life. So, there’s things like where you’re dealing with those difficult weeks when you go through life, or when you’re on highs, then go to lows, and some of the things in my life that really ground me and help me are my faith and having a prayer team and a community of friends that help you get through the tough times.
And setting boundaries, having your own convictions and it’s tough to do something that goes against what you believe, or maybe how you can set boundaries that you can compromise to be able to move forward and yet not go against your own convictions. I also talk about hateful things that are on social media and how we deal with which people when they don’t agree with us and they can be mean and how we respond and handle those reactions and lots of stuff.
How has writing Dancing Through Life helped you through all of that?
My whole experience just grew me more than I’ve ever grown in such a short amount of time in my life and it was a true life-changing experience and it was the experience on the show itself that changed me. But writing the book, for me, was more about really wanting to share it with all of my readers, because I learned so much about myself and I saw that I can do so much more than I ever thought I was capable of. And, so, my goal for the book is for the readers to understand that they, too, are capable of more than what they probably think they are.
And I know that your faith is extremely important to you; how has it helped you through growing up in Hollywood and in the spotlight—and maintain such a positive reputation?
Yeah, my faith is incredibly important to me and my life. It’s really the foundation of who I am and it’s something that I’m outspoken about and I couldn’t imagine living life without my faith. So, I don’t really know what else to say about that because it really is my everything.
How are you able to balance everything that you do? You’re a mother, a wife, actress, producer, author… Isn’t it difficult to manage it all?
Well, yeah, my second book, Balancing It All, is really what it’s all about. But it comes down to prioritizing. I’m a real go-getter, I’m a really hard worker and there’s lots of things I want to achieve in my life and, I mean, it is difficult to really balance and do all the things that I do in my life along with my family. I make family the priority and being mom and wife always comes first, but my work is very important as well. But I manage and, like I said, we’re all capable of doing a lot of things but it’s really about buckling down and figuring out what the priorities are first and I think the rest of it falls in line.
Well, speaking of acting, I saw you have a new Hallmark film coming out called Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery. Can you tell me a little about the film?
Yeah! This is the second movie in the Teagarden Mystery series. So, I play Aurora Teagarden and she’s a librarian that is the president of this unsolved murder mystery club, so they read books about unsolved murder mysteries. But real-life murders happen around her in her town, and so these are all the stories about Aurora because she finds herself in the middle of these real murders and she’s always trying to figure them out, but the police don’t really want her help. This is based on the books by Charlaine Harris and they’re all best-selling books, so this is the second installment and there’s nine books and they’re fun. They’re detective-type movies and family-friendly; kind of in the name of Murder She Wrote type of thing so, they’re great. They’re fun for everyone to watch.
Nine books in the series? Will you be making all nine into movies?
Yeah! At this point we’re planning on making all of them.
Wow, that’s a lot of work! What’s the production process like?
Well… I produce these movies as well, so the production aspect takes a few months before we actually start filming the movie and then once we start filming it, that’s like a three- to four-week process. And then there’s all the postproduction, which is editing the movie and sound and all that kind of stuff, which takes several months. So it takes quite a few months to make a film, although that’s incredibly quick to have four or five months to put a complete film together is relatively quick in the scheme of things. But for me, it’s a good chunk of time. But a lot of the filming process, we usually are filming in Vancouver so I’m gone for about four weeks, but then all the postproduction and everything like that I can do from Los Angeles—a lot of it is calling and emails back and forth so, I’m still able to do a lot of it from home and only be gone for just the filming process.
And, of course, we’re all wondering… It’s been so long since Full House ended. What were your initial feelings toward Fuller House?
Oh! We’re all incredibly excited. I’m very excited. This has been a long time coming. They’ve had the idea for the show for many, many years actually. And it just took a long time for all of the pieces of the puzzle to come together to be able to do Fuller House, so… We start production next week and we can’t wait to do the show. And the audience and fans are so excited for it, which thrilled us.
Has your history with Full House ever posed any difficulties like type-casting, or something else along those lines?
No, it really didn’t for me. I finished, for me, at a good time in my life and I actually took a 10-year break because I got married and wanted to stay home and raise my family and my children. So, when I really came back into the business, which was seven or eight years ago… I probably will always be remembered as DJ Tanner from Full House but it never posed any kind of issues for me.
That’s always a relief. But what are your feelings about returning to the screen as DJ Tanner?
It’s a little bit of a mixed bag of emotions. It’s so nostalgic that there are so many memories behind it and it’s a little bit surreal, and yet it’s exciting because we get to revisit this character that I loved and has been a part of me my whole life.
So, we know that you’ve got a book out on Aug. 1, a Hallmark film out in late July, and you’re picking up filming for Fuller House by the end of July. What next?
Well, I’m shooting Fuller House through the end of the year. I’ll also be visiting The View because I’ve been guest co-hosting that recently and then I have my new book coming out and then I have several movies that I’ll be doing over the next few years with the Hallmark channel. And I’m already thinking about another book that I’ll be writing, so I have a lot on my plate over the next three or four years.
Candace Cameron Bure’s new book, Dancing Through Life, hits the shelves Aug. 1. And to go along with that, her newest film, Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, can be seen on the Hallmark channel on July 29 and 31 at 9 p.m., and on Aug. 1 at 3 p.m. For more news on Candace’s projects, visit her site at candacecameronbure.net.
