Taye Diggs Opens Up About Joining 'Real Full Monty', How Family Reacted To Sexy Dance
Taye Diggs is gearing up to bare it all on TV.
During an interview with Us Weekly released Sunday, the "All American" actor opened up about starring in the upcoming Fox special "The Real Full Monty," in which he and several other male celebrities will perform a striptease dance for a cause.
Asked how his family feels about the idea of him dancing nude on television, Diggs revealed that he had not yet told them about it at the time of the interview.
"Oh Lord, they don't know. I be forgetting, but I didn't even realize until you told me. Oh my goodness, I gotta do that. That's going to be on TV," he said.
Diggs admitted that he was not yet ready for it before sharing insight into his and the rest of the cast's preparations for the special.
The actor said that he initially thought it was just a "cute" thing to do to promote cancer testing and research, but he ended up learning "a lot" about himself in the process.
"That whole experience was like an acting exercise because you hear it, you know, I assumed we're going to learn a dance. But the choreographer literally worked with us and how we moved inside our body, how confident we were, and how to break through blocks," he explained.
"We were sharing insecure moments that we've had to deal with. It was a really interesting [experience], and we learned a lot about each other and ourselves," Diggs added.
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As for whether he did extreme workouts or diet for the project, Diggs responded, "Absolutely not. I didn't do it this time."
In addition to joining the special "really, really late," the 53-year-old "Rent" star explained that he was at "the age where it's like if I don't have to, [I won't do it]."
Diggs will be joined by "Dawson's Creek" star James Van Der Beek, "Teen Wolf" actor Tyler Posey, NFL player Chris Jones, "Dancing with the Stars" judge Bruno Tonioli and "Black-ish" star Anthony Anderson on "The Real Full Monty," according to Variety.
Anderson will also executive produce the two-hour special, which aims to raise awareness for prostate, testicular and colorectal cancer testing and research.
The special will show the stars training and rehearsing for the striptease dance, which was choreographed by dancer and "So You Think You Can Dance" star Mandy Moore.
"Don't die of embarrassment. Get checked! That's the message behind 'The Real Full Monty' special," Anderson said in a statement obtained by the magazine.
He added, "I am honored to lead the charge of rallying these fearless men to bare it all, in order to provoke, inspire and in this case, beg you to get screened for cancer."
The special was based on the British unscripted format of the same name, which first aired on ITV in 2017.
The British TV special was in turn inspired by "The Full Monty," a 1997 film about a group of men who create their own male striptease act to earn money.
"The Real Full Monty" will air on Fox in the fall.
