John Stamos Explains Why It Took Him 20 Years to Be ‘Fearless’ With His Acting Roles

John Stamos has a career resume dating back to the early ‘80s — as well as an Emmy nomination and a People’s Choice Award under his belt — but the actor recently revealed a surprising admission regarding his approach to his craft.

Speaking exclusively to Us Weekly about his role in Hulu’s UnPrisoned , Stamos shared that it’s taken him a surprising amount of time to be completely spontaneous in his acting roles.

“Some people are brilliant right out of the gate,” he explained, citing fellow actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as examples. “It took me 20 to 25 years to be sort of just fearless and not worry about how I look, being vain. [Thinking,] ‘How did I say that line?’”

The General Hospital alum noted that he’d “get nervous” or “overthink stuff” in the past, but he worked to combat that by reminding himself of his longtime experience in the industry. “I've been doing this for a long time now, and I just have to trust myself that it's gonna be okay,” he said. “It's very difficult. I don't know about you, but I am sort of ADD.”

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“I just go for it now,” he added. “You know, it seems [that] most of the great actors I've worked with seem to be like that too — spontaneous, being in the moment.”

Stamos is putting his well-earned spontaneity to work via a guest-starring role in season 2 of Hulu’s hit comedy UnPrisoned , which premiered on July 17. In it, he plays “Murphy,” a self-proclaimed “radical healing coach” who counsels characters Paige ( Kerry Washington ), Edwin ( Delroy Lindo ) and Paige's son, Finn ( Faly Rakotohavana ).

Taking on the role of a coach, however humorously portrayed, “makes a lot of sense” to Stamos. “I can look at people; I can talk to people. I think I have a pretty good sense of character very quickly,” he related.

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“I'm so impressed with this show because the way that they balance comedy and drama is unparalleled,” Stamos enthused of the Onyx Collective series.

As for what grabbed his attention regarding the show in the first place? Stamos admits it was a personal matter — literally.

“They mentioned my name on there [during] the first season. They said something about an EMT … and they said ‘I hope he looks like John Stamos’ or something,” he quipped.

“That's happened to me a couple of times where they will mention my name on the show, and then I'll end up being on the show. Glee being one of them,” Stamos said of the musical comedy, in which he played a dentist for several Season 2 episodes. “And that mention was not nice. It was like a complete slam!”

Season 2 of UnPrisoned is available now on Hulu.

With reporting by Amanda Williams