British actor Hugo Speer, who appeared in the hit film The Full Monty, has given his account of how he believes he was unfairly sacked from the forthcoming Disney spin-off television series.
Speer, who played Guy in the 1997 film – about six unemployed steel workers from Sheffield who form a striptease group – which stormed to a surprising box office of $250million, had joined several other members of the film cast in reprising his role for the TV sequel.
But his time on production came to an abrupt end in May last year, after he was sacked for “in appropriate conduct” during filming in Manchester, northern England.
Speer has now told the UK’s Daily Mail that Disney terminated his contract after he was seen naked in his trailer by a female runner who had knocked on his door and then opened it without waiting. Speer told the newspaper he hid himself behind the wardrobe and thought no more about it until, six days later, he was told there had been a couple of complaints – referring to this incident and another, when he’d walked naked past his open trailer door.
Speer reports that he was kept away from set while the company investigated and then told his contract had been terminated on the production. His character was then written out for the rest of the series.
Speer, who’s not worked since, told the Daily Mail: “It was tragi-comic, but they didn’t realise how badly affected I was. I went into massive, deep shock. As you can see, I’m still kind of there.
“They’ve taken my job. They’ve taken my reputation. They’ve taken my money. They’ve taken my mental health.”
A spokesperson for Disney told the Mail: “Last year, we were made aware of allegations of inappropriate conduct by Hugo Speer on the set of The Full Monty. As is policy, an independent investigation was launched. Upon its completion, the decision was made to terminate his contract, with immediate effect.”
