“Step by Step”’s Christine Lakin Left Child Stardom to Become a Director: ‘I Like Being Behind the Camera’

Christine Lakin left child stardom for life behind the camera, and she’s never been happier.

On the Dec. 27 episode of the Full House Rewind podcast, Lakin, 45, spoke to hosts Dave Coulier and Marla Sokoloff about her life as a child actress and the winding path that eventually saw her leave it all behind.

Lakin was 12 when she was cast on Step by Step as the tomboy in the family, Alicia "Al" Lambert. Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers starred as the two parents, who blended their families, Brady Bunch-style.

The series was executive produced by Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett, who were already very successful with series like Perfect Strangers, Full House and The Hogan Family. Lakin explained that she and Staci Keanan — who played her stepsister Dana — often talk about how “special” their show was. (The women co-host their own Step by Step rewatch podcast, Keanan and Lakin Give You Déjà Vu.)

“We all had such a great experience and I think now that so much of that comes from the top down,” she said. “They were wonderful producers. They were TV legends.”

Related: Christine Lakin Says Suzanne Somers Once Gave the Step by Step Cast ThighMasters for Christmas (Exclusive)

Lakin said that she was actually cast at the last minute when the actress who was previously cast backed out. “I'd been working professionally at that point about five years,” she said. “So mostly theater, national commercials, a couple of TV movies that shot in Atlanta, print jobs, but I had never done a TV show before.” She also was a talented dancer.

Step by Step ended in 1998. Lakin told the Full House Rewind hosts that her transition away from acting happened naturally when she was in her 20s. Since she was a dancer, she started choreographing for her theater company in Los Angeles. “I loved doing theater because it really I found such a community of friends and people and it was really just really good for my soul,” she explained.

“And weirdly enough, I kept getting nominated for theater choreography, and that got some attention from a couple of other choreographers,” she said. She started assisting other choreographers, and then she started getting called onto sets to “help actors with movement.”

Related: Step by Step's Christopher Castile, Who Quit Acting After the Show, Reflects on Dramatic Transition from Child Star to High School Teacher

“That just kicked off this other career that I wasn't really planning on, but I kept saying yes to,” she explained. “So I started choreographing for True Blood. I did Westworld. I did 90210. I did all kinds of stuff. And then somehow met somebody who called me up and asked me to come do The Goldbergs.”

She worked on that show for multiple years before she began to feel called to directing. “My life was starting to transition,” she said. “I had just become a new mom and I just thought to myself, I think I like being behind the camera more than I even like being in front of it, and I like creating things. I like doing the choreography work. I like working collaboratively with writers and directors, and I think maybe that's the job that I have been angling to do this whole time.”

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She decided to direct as much as she could and eventually, she began directing for The Goldbergs. She also directed episodes of the show’s spin-off, Schooled, and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

“It was also really inspiring because I felt like I was finally using all of this knowledge that I had after 25 years and doing the thing that I really loved and that I thought I was really good at,” she said. Having creative vision and control, she said, has been “really satisfying.”

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