James Van Der Beek Is ‘Feeling Strong’ & ‘in a Good Place’ Amid Cancer Battle (Exclusive)

James Van Der Beek, Anthony Anderson, Taye Diggs, Tyler Posey and Bruno Tonioli sat down with “Extra’s” Melvin Robert to dish on their new special “The Real Full Monty,” inspired by the beloved 1997 film. 

In the special, the fellas, brought together by Anthony, rehearse and perform a revealing striptease number, all to help raise awareness for prostate, testicular, and colorectal cancer testing and research.

Anthony told Melvin, “Cancer affects us all unfortunately and so I would love to continue to do this on an annual with these guys or whoever would love to share their story and bring awareness to what we’re doing.”

The message hits especially close to home for James, who is battling colon cancer. 

He shared the update, “I’m feeling good. I’m feeling strong. I am in a good place.”

Van Der Beek said of the concept, “We were all on board for the message, why it was important. We all recognized it, said yes, and then there was the actual doing of it, at which point most of our brains were like, ‘What are you saying?’”

So just how much of the “full monty” will we see? 

Anthony teased, “All of it. It’s called ‘The Real Fully Monty’ for a reason.’”

James joked, “It was full,” which made Anthony laugh.

Tyler insisted, “If we can show ourselves literally to millions of people, you can do it with your doctor,” adding that the concept, “hooked me immediately.”

Bruno said of filming the special, “We got embarrassed… There is one thing being at home and sunbathing naked,” but stripping for a good cause was another story. “I’ve never done that before… We were all very nervous.”

He said he also loved working as a team after performing solo for so long.

Tonioli shared, “Being back in a team and working as a team and learning together… I loved it,” adding everyone “had such a laugh.”

James poked fun at Bruno saying, “I will say though having been on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ I didn’t know how much I needed to watch Bruno struggle to learn a dance in a short amount of time. I was like this is very cathartic.”

Bruno replied he hadn’t danced with a group in 40 years, and said he “struggled” at first, but ultimately “loved it.”

Meanwhile, Anthony, Taye and James are all dads, and they shared what their kids think! 

Anderson shares Nathan, 24, and Kyra, 28, with ex-wife Alvina Stewart. He explained, “I didn’t tell them… I was going to be doing ‘The Full Monty,’ like, now my son is asking me… ‘Hey Dad so what’s ‘The Full Monty’ about?’ Now I got to sit up there and explain to him, like, ‘Oh, it’s this little show I did with a couple of my boys…We learned a dance or two and got naked in front of hundreds of people.’”

Taye, who is the father of Walker, 15, with ex-wife Idina Menzel, said he’s proud to be setting a good example. “When you are trying to lead by example, this is one of those situations where I feel good about this one… It will hit.”

James, who has six kids with wife Kimberly, recalled telling his 14-year-old daughter.

“I said, ‘Listen, there’s this special, it’s going to raise awareness for early cancer detection. It’s a dance,’” he said, “and she’s like, ‘Well, yeah, what’s the catch?’ I said, ‘Well, it’s based on this movie, these guys strip naked, and so we’d have to do it naked in a theater in Los Angeles,’ and she thought about it and she goes, ‘I don’t really see the downside,’ and I was like, ‘Wow, either you raised yourself or I did something right.’”

His 12-year-old son had a different reaction. James shared, “He’s like, ‘You’re gonna get naked? That’s weird, man.’ I’m like, ‘Well, thanks for keeping it real, bud.’”