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James Van Der Beek, Anthony Anderson, Taye Diggs, Tyler Posey and Bruno Tonioli sit down with Extra’s Melvin Roberts for a new special inspired by the hit 1997 film We talked about “The Real Full Monty”.
The special will feature Anthony’s crew rehearsing and performing an explicit striptease show to raise awareness for prostate, testicular and colorectal cancer testing and research.
Anthony told Melvin, “Cancer unfortunately affects all of us, so I’d like to thank these people and share their stories to raise awareness of what we’re doing.” I would like to continue this activity with people every year.”
This message hits especially close to home for James, who is battling colon cancer.
He shared an update. I feel strong. I’m in a good place. ”
Van der Beek said of the concept: We all realize that, we say yes, and we end up actually doing it, and at that point most of our brains are like, ‘What are you talking about? ” It was like that. ”
So, how often can we watch “The Full Monty”?
Anthony teased, “Everything. There’s a reason it’s called The Real Fully Monty.”
“It was full,” James joked, making Anthony laugh.
Tyler claimed, “If you can literally show yourself to millions of people, you can do it with a doctor,” adding that the concept “fascinated me right away.”
Bruno said of filming the special, “It was embarrassing…It’s one thing to stay home and sunbathe naked,” but stripping for a cause was another story. “We’ve never done anything like this before…We were all so nervous.”
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He said he also loves working as a team after performing solo for so long.
“It was so much fun to come back and work as a team and learn together,” Tonioli said, adding that everyone had “a lot of laughs.”
James teased Bruno, saying, “Even though I was on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ I didn’t know I needed to see how hard Bruno had to learn to dance in such a short amount of time. I found this very cathartic.”
Bruno responded that it was the first time he had danced with a group in 40 years, and said that at first it was “hard” but in the end he “loved it.”
Meanwhile, Anthony, Tay, and James are all fathers and shared their thoughts on their children.
Anderson has two children, Nathan, 24, and Kyla, 28, with ex-wife Alvina Stewart. He explained: “I didn’t tell them…I was going to do ‘The Full Monty,’ but now my son asked me…’Hey, Dad, so I was going to do ‘The Full Monty.’ What do you mean?’ Now I have to sit there and explain to him, ‘Oh, this is a little show that I did with some of my sons…we did one dance or something. I learned two things and got naked in front of hundreds of people.”
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Tay, who is father to 15-year-old Walker with ex-wife Idina Menzel, said he was proud to be setting a good example. “When you’re trying to lead by example, this is one of those situations where I feel good about it, it’s always a hit.”
James, who has six children with his wife Kimberly, recalled telling his 14-year-old daughter:
“I said, ‘Listen, I have this special program that raises awareness for early detection of cancer. It’s a dance,’ he said. I said, “It’s based on this movie and they’re going to be naked, so they’re going to have to do it naked in a theater in Los Angeles.” And she thought about it and said, “I’m not like that.” Said. Look at the bad side.’ And I thought, ‘Wow, either you elevated yourself or I did something right. ”
My 12-year-old son had a different reaction. James said: “He’s like, ‘Are you going to get naked? That’s weird, dude.’ I’m like, ‘Well, thanks for telling me the truth, Bud.'”
“The Real Full Monty” will premiere on FOX on December 9th.
