When character actor Andy Shrub makes a wish to be a leading man, he magically begins to photograph as John Stamos ... provoking the unholy wrath of Stamos. (18 mins)

After Alex Eastburg and Rob Meltzer finished the script for
I Am Stamos, they had one big problem: They didn’t know John Stamos. And they didn’t know anyone who knew John Stamos. But that didn’t really matter, because they didn’t have any money to hire him anyway. Also, they weren’t sure how keen John would be to play himself in film in which an actor steals his identity and ruins his life. Make that three big problems.

But Rob and Alex were fans of Stamos' guest appearances on The Larry Sanders Show and had recently been blown away by his performance in Cabaret on Broadway. They wrote the script with him in mind and swore not to make the film with anyone else in the title role.

Alex and Rob also had someone specific in mind when they wrote the role of protagonist Andy Shrub, veteran character actor Robert Peters. Robert read the script and quickly signed on. And in one of those lucky cosmic coincidences, Robert and John Stamos shared a mutual friend. So that’s how Alex and Rob got the script to John Stamos – through a friend of a friend.

One month later, Alex, Rob and Robert were sitting in a Burbank diner waiting to meet the man himself. The trio knew there were only two reasons that John would have agreed to meet with them. Either he was amused by the idea of playing himself in a film in which his identity is stolen and his life is ruined, or he was not amused and he was out for vengeance.

When John arrived, he was smiling. And it was not the kind of smile you see on the face of someone who’s waiting for the right moment to lunge across the table and start kicking ass. In fact, he immediately put everyone at ease by saying he loved the script and was committed to seeing it made.

With John officially on board, an amazing cast and crew was assembled and everyone began begging, cajoling and calling in the favors necessary to produce the project on a limited budget. In the end, it is only because of the donations of equipment, facilities, labor and time by more companies and individuals than can be listed here that I Am Stamos exists.

And to those who were kind enough to help us, we are eternally grateful.