“I had no idea I’d be getting naked,” Diggs admits to TooFab after longtime friend, Anthony Anderson, asked him to take part in the special. “But he’s that type of friend where the first day of rehearsals, we dug into it.”
Taye Diggs is getting naked — for a good cause!
TooFab spoke to Diggs ahead of the release of his upcoming Fox special, The Real Fully Monty, where shared why, when longtime friend Anthony Anderson called him to be on the show, he had to say yes.
“Anthony Anderson called me, and he said, you know, we’re doing this thing. It’s going to be really cute. The cause is cancer. We’re using people that have been affected personally. ‘Do you want to do it?'” Diggs recalled. “And I said, yes. I had no idea I’d be getting naked.”
He continued, “But he’s that type of friend where the first day of rehearsals, you know, we dug into it and it wasn’t just a simple dance number with choreography.”
While seeing Diggs strip alongside Anderson, James Van Der Beek and other stars is definitely front and center of the special, at the heart of the two-hour show is a message of awareness for prostate, testicular and colorectal cancer testing and research.
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 cast will train and rehearse for the performance, leading to a big strip-tease dance choreographed by Mandy Moore (So You Think You Can Dance) in front of a live audience.
“We all told our stories of who we lost and why we felt like we needed to be there and it ended up being way more than a favor,” Diggs added of the moving special.
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Diggs also dished on his upcoming new role as a judge on The Magnolia Network’s new singing competition series, Second Chance Stage, which sees music competition show contestants get a second chance at making their dreams come true.
“I gotta say this has been a very exciting time in my life because I am making choices to do things differently and to step outside comfort zone. And I’m enjoying it. I never thought … I loved watching shows like American Idol and The Voice. I never thought I would enjoy being a judge,” Diggs explained. “And with Second Chance Stage, it hits differently because you have these folks that weren’t allowed to live their dream originally. And now they have a second chance, so they’re different people, they’re performing differently.”
“But then the stakes are so high that it can be overwhelming. It was very, very emotional,” he continued. “And me and the two other judges took our jobs very, very seriously. And we felt it was an honor to be able to provide these performers with more opportunities. So that’s been awesome.”
Diggs added, “They get an opportunity to talk about their first chance. That’s very, very moving. And you very rarely get an opportunity to hear that in other talent shows. So we’re very, very proud.”
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Elsewhere, during his chat with TooFab, Diggs touched on his recent Lifetime movie, Terry McMillan Presents: Forever which saw him reunite with his How Stella Got Her Groove Back co-star, Meagan Good, after 20 years.
“It was exciting to get to know the new versions of each other. We worked together years ago. We were both kids. And we’ve both done pretty well. And acting alongside her, I was very impressed. She is… something else. And that’s always great when you realize that someone you’re acting with is special. And we took advantage of that,” Diggs shared.
“And she helped make that project really… I’m very, very proud of it. And she played a major role in that,” he added.
The role also was one that Diggs was able to draw on personally, with the themes of divorce and parenting present throughout the film.
The Set It Up actor shares 15-year-old son, Walker, with ex-wife, Idina Menzel, whom he split from in 2013 after 10 years of marriage.
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“Well, I’ll be frank. I didn’t have to draw on them because I’ve been through it and they have, they make me who I am today. So I knew that this character would have all of those qualities. It almost felt like cheating, but it always feels good when you can take something that most people think is negative and do something positive,” Diggs, who was promoting his partnership with Lysol Air Sanitizer, which kills 99.9% of airborne viruses and bacteria to eliminate odors in the air in your home, explained.
“And that was the most obvious situation where I could take something. I was going through a terrible time, but now I can use that feeling here and, you know, benefit the peace. So very rarely does the world work out like that. But I took advantage of it.”
Touching on his partnership with Lysol, Diggs shared how important it is to him to protect both him and his son from germs, especially as football season is in full swing.
Joey Andrew
Joey Andrew
“I’ll be honest. I’ve turned into one of those parents that I’m hyper aware of germs. I’ve got a kid. I’ve got two dogs. I’m getting older and it takes me a long time to come back from a cold. This was perfect timing with Lysol’s air sanitizer,” the 53-year-old actor shared. “On weekends when you’re having a game show day where everybody’s in your living room and people are breathing, it just makes me feel better knowing that I can get rid of some of the germs.”
To see more from Diggs, including whether or not he thinks he as a future on All American after his exit from the Netflix show, below.
