Candace Cameron Bure's Fuller House Stunt That Went Terribly Wrong

"Fuller House" gave Candace Cameron Bure the opportunity to perform her own stunts, but that's not to say things always panned out the way they were supposed to. In fact, as Bure shared in an April 2024 episode of the "How Rude, Tanneritos!" podcast hosted by her "Full House" co-stars Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber, she had a near-death experience while rehearsing one of them.

"Fuller House" fans may remember that in Season 4, Bure's character D.J. Tanner did an "American Ninja Warrior" obstacle course in the family living room. Bure ran the full course herself, but during rehearsals, it became clear that the zipline portion of it was unsafe. "The rig was not set up correctly, and there was no safety stop on the end of it. So when I landed off the zipline and stopped, the whole mechanism, which is all metal ... and very heavy, slid right off the track and came right next to my head with an inch," she recounted. Bure added that everything happened so quickly that even her co-star Scott Weinger, who had been watching the rehearsal, couldn't even warn her of what was happening. "If I would have just even shifted my weight the tiniest bit, it would have probably broken my neck, like, landed right on top of my head," she said.

Thankfully, that didn't happen. However, it's not exactly surprising that production on the Netflix series took Bure's brush with death very seriously. 

Even though Candace Cameron Bure avoided any injuries, production wasn't willing to take any chances, and the zipline was immediately removed from the scene. According to Bure's close friend Andrea Barber, the episode's director, Mark Cendrowski was visibly unimpressed by the ordeal, and immediately said the entire course needed to be re-worked without it.

Barber also noted that the man in charge of the stunts had been fired, which isn't exactly a shock. After all, ziplining across a room is hardly the craziest stunt an actor has insisted on doing themselves, and mere negligence could have caused a horrifying situation. As it is, Jodie Sweetin pointed out that the mechanism did major damage to the set when it crashed to the ground. "There was a big gash in the stage floor, it broke the stairs, it was, like ... wild," she told "How Rude, Tanneritos!" listeners.

As the "Fuller House" co-stars remembered, the assistant director, Christian Jensen had also sensed that there was a need for everyone to take some time to calm down after the harrowing incident. "We, like, kind of stopped for a couple hours," Barber noted. Sweetin nodded in agreement, adding, "Chris Jensen was like, 'Alright, we're going to take a break.'"

It's worth noting that even though Candace Cameron Bure had a terrifying experience on set, she loved being able to do her own stunts in general. In fact, ahead of the reboot's first season in 2016, Bure told E! News that after watching her stunt double run through a routine, she had serious FOMO. "I went, 'She's not doing that, I'm doing the whole thing,'" she joked.

Bure was referring specifically to scene where D.J. Tanner jumped into the ring of a wrestling match in Season 1. She told WWE that the "Fuller House" producers weren't exactly thrilled at first. "They didn't want me to get hurt. I'm like, 'Listen, I know I can do it,'" she said. And that, she did, much to everyone's surprise. "All the producers watched the first cut and they couldn't believe that I was doing it," she told the outlet. Producers weren't the only ones to be taken aback. Bure also said the live audience had been shocked when they saw her walk out for the scene.

Jodie Sweetin did hint on "How Rude, Tanneritos!" that stunts were reined in after the zipline incident, and pointed out that had it happened prior to the wrestling scene, there was no way Bure would have been allowed to go it on her own. Just as well that wasn't the case, as it's pretty clear that Bure loved doing her own stunts while she could.