Anthony Anderson Says James Van Der Beek’s Dropped Cancer Diagnosis ‘Bombshell’ During Filming (Exclusive)

Speaking with TooFab exclusively ahead of the release of his upcoming Fox special, Anderson said it was a “bombshell” when Van Der Beek confided in the group.

“James dropped [the diagnosis] on us while we were rehearsing and having a dinner on camera. And he was very forthcoming and honest,” Anderson told TooFab, before adding how different the show would have been had they filmed earlier.

“Had we talked to him six weeks prior that, he wouldn’t have been able to do the show because, the state that he was in,” Anderson revealed.

The host shared that Van Der Beek’s decision to share his stage 3 colorectal cancer diagnosis with the group “brought us even closer together and strengthen our brotherhood.”

Anderson added that it was a brave act by Van Der Beek.

“Sometimes we have to do that,” he said. “We have to get out of our own way and we have to share our stories with the world.”

Fellow costar Taye Diggs said while each of the stars on the show have their own past personal connections to cancer, Van Der Beek opening up about his diagnosis reminded the group of why they were there.

“It made it even that more immediate and much more important to be out there and kind of spread this news,” he said.

“So it was it was welcome, it was a welcome kind of wake-up call in that a lot of times when things happen in the past, it’s easy to leave them in the past,” he continued, “but when when James came on board and told us what he was literally dealing with in the moment it was a it was a very welcome reminder,.”

The heart of the two-hour strip/dance show is a message of awareness for prostate, testicular and colorectal cancer testing and research. Anderson, Van Der Beek and Diggs stripped alongside stars including Chris Jones, Tyler Posey and Bruno Tonioli.

“I was approached by Fox to do this show,” Anderson recalled of the initial stages of production. “I was familiar with The Real Full Monty, the movie, and The Real Full Monty that they’ve been doing in Europe for several years now. And so they asked if I wanted to come on board and be the first host for here stateside. And I was like, ‘Sure, I would love to.'”

“I lost my biological father and three of his siblings to cancer all within a year and a half of one another and a very dear friend of mine from college, she lost her battle with cancer right as we were filming The Full Monty,” he continued. “So it was it was important for me to do the show to bring awareness for men in particular, to go to the doctor to get checked up, get a check out for testicular, colorectal, and prostate cancer.”

As for how he managed to get a group of Hollywood’s biggest names to strip, well, he wasn’t totally truthful.

“I didn’t really tell them exactly what we would be doing,” he told TooFab. “Taye Diggs would probably come over here and say, ‘Yeah, he asked me to do the show, but he didn’t tell me I was going to get butt naked.'”

When TooFab spoke to Diggs, he admitted he had some “trepidation” once rehearsals started — saying the choreography was “not as easy as I thought” it would be.

“I’m so happy that it’s all done, shot and in the can. I will say it was in the midst of doing it, there were nerves,” he shared. “But once we were reminded why we were there and having that crew behind me, it made it all easy. It was unexpected.”

Inspired by the 1997 film The Full Monty, and based on The Real Full Monty unscripted format first broadcast on the U.K.’s ITV in 2017, the special shows the cast train and rehearse for a big strip-tease dance choreographed by Mandy Moore (So You Think You Can Dance) in front of a live audience.

The all-new two-hour special, The Real Full Monty, premieres on Monday, December 9 at 8PM ET/PT on FOX and streams the following day on HULU.