PREVIEW

James Van Der Beek 'feeling strong and in a good place' amid cancer battle. The Dawson's Creek star announced in November that he had been diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer. Now the 47-year-old has told how he's coping with his treatment. Speaking to Extra he said, "I'm feeling good. I'm feeling strong. I am in a good place.” The actor is working alongside Anthony Anderson, Taye Diggs, Tyler Posey and Bruno Tonioli in a one-off stage show, The Real Full Monty, inspired by the British film, which was made in 1997. In the show, the men rehearse and perform a striptease number, in order to help raise awareness for prostate, testicular, and colorectal cancer testing and research. ”We were all on board for the message, why it was important. We all recognised 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?’" Anthony admitted the men aren't shy. When asked exactly how much flesh they'll be showing, he replied: ”All of it. It's called 'The Real Fully Monty' for a reason.’" James admitted the hardest part of taking part in the show was telling his six children he was going to be appearing naked on stage. The actor, who has six kids with wife Kimberly, recalled telling his 14-year-old daughter what he was doing. ”I said, 'Listen, there's this special, it's going to raise awareness for early cancer detection. It's a dance,' 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 theatre 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.’" However, his 12-year-old son wasn't so keen on the idea. ”He's like, 'You're gonna get naked? That's weird, man.' I'm like, 'Well, thanks for keeping it real, bud.’"
Instructions: THIS VIDEO MUST NOT BE EDITED FOR LENGTH TO COMBINE WITH OTHER CONTENT