‘The Full Monty’ Cast Explains How the Hulu Series Differs From the Movie: ‘You Can’t Be Stripping in Front of People Every Day’

The entire cast of 1997’s feel-good hit “The Full Monty” is back for Hulu’s new series of the same name — even Wim Snape, who played young Nathan at age 11, returns to play the much more sensible son of Robert Carlyle’s charming but unreliable Gaz. But some things are different this time around as the crew reunites for the Hulu sequel series (which drops June 14), with Oscar-nominated scripter Simon Beaufoy co-writing with Alice Nutter.

The series finds the crew still trying various get-rich schemes with mixed to dismal results. The movie, which saw the unemployed steelworkers of Sheffield secretly becoming strippers to raise some cash — and their low self-esteem —ended on a high as the lads gave the enthusiastic hometown audience “the full monty,” that is, full frontal nudity. (Which, ironically, was not shown in the R-rated movie.)

Ahead of the premiere, TheWrap spoke with Carlyle and Snape, as well as returning stars Mark Addy as lovably glum Dave, Lesley Sharp as his once-supportive but now fed-up wife Jean, and Steve Huison as shy Lomper, who now runs a cafe with his husband, about returning to their characters. Talitha Wing is a new addition to the cast as Gaz’s estranged daughter Destiny, who has even less respect for authority than her Dad, but who winds up closer to him over the course of the season.

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The cast addressed why fans looking for a consistently upbeat series — and who expect more stripping— should look elsewhere. “You can’t be stripping in front of people every day,” quipped Huison. “We’re not trying to recreate the film here. We’re using these characters to show this story and the state of the nation at the moment. It’s not an exercise in nostalgia at all. If people think that they’re going to see old men stripping, that’s not really going to be a selling point.” Addy laughingly chimed in with, “That’s not the demographic we wish to attract.”

TheWrap: Had the cast stayed in touch this whole time?

Steve Huison: Some of us quite a bit. Yeah.

Mark Addy: Yeah, not all of us. Some were living out of the UK. Lesley and I bumped into each other on several occasions in the interim and I see quite a lot of Steve. We knew each other before the movie. We’ve kind of been in touch. But the readthrough for the series was the first time we’d all been in the same room together since we were shooting the movie.

Robert Carlyle: Sadly, I have to say, no. I mean, it’s difficult. You make any film, any TV show, you’re together for a short period of time, and you become like a family and you think you’re gonna be friends forever. Of course, as soon as you finish it, you’re off on your next job. But also, I’ve been living in Vancouver for about the past 14 years now. I always regretted that I never kept in touch.

Wim, how common is it for a child star to come back and play the adult version of a character he played before?

Wim Snape (Nathan): Not very, I don’t think. I can’t think of another situation. I was 11 years old when I played Nathan in the film, I’m now 38. And I’ve had a bit of a life in between. I’ve been to drama school and I’ve traveled the world and had a family of my own. And being able to revert back to the blueprint for the series and having Simon Beaufoy and Alice Nutter understand this world so well, being able to talk to them and have conversations about where they see these characters is a literal dream.

What was it like to come back to these characters and this cast?

Huison: It’s really lovely to have the opportunity to explore the characters more. You’ve got a concentrated story in 90 minutes in a movie, whereas with this, we’ve got eight hours to really delve into each character and look at where they’re at and how they’ve developed in the last 25 years, whatever’s come along their way in the 25 years to form them into the people that they are now.

Most of the characters are not happy with where they are now: Lomper has a kind of wild plan to impress his husband, Gaz is still a terrible father, Horse may get his benefits cut, and Dave and Jean seem on the verge of splitting up.

Addy: They’re all still facing issues of one kind or another, whether it’s financial worries of familial issues. The movie was about guys coping with becoming recently unemployed and their masculinity feeling threatened and so forth. Now, we’re talking about 25 years later: The NHS is in crisis and chronically underfunded… the care system, anything that’s geared towards helping, has been stripped apart and robbed. And the unfairness of that is what Simon wanted to explore through the eyes of these characters.

The film ended on this really high moment. And then in the series, there’s a lot more bleakness, I would say, but with occasional bright spots. Do you think people are going to be like, ‘Hey, I was looking for the stripping and the happiness?’

Huison: Well, life’s not like that is it? You can’t be stripping in front of people every day. Obviously, at that point, they reached the crescendo at the end of that film, but it gave them a social structure together, it gave them friendship, it gave them confidence to say, ‘Now you carry on with your life.” We’re not trying to recreate the film here. We’re using these characters to show this story and the state of the nation at the moment. It’s not an exercise in nostalgia at all. If people think that they’re going to see old men stripping, I mean, think about it, that’s not really going to be a selling point.

Addy: That’s not the demographic we wish to attract. [Laughs]

Huison: But what you’ve got is the characters that hopefully you love and cherish from back then. And [I hope] that curiosity is going to make you want to see what they are doing today and look at the poor situations that they’ve found themselves in now.

Addy: Hopefully we can do it in the same way as the film, with humor with it, that they’re facing this adversity, but with heart and with love and with humor and kindness.

Snape: What the writers do so magically is they balance that bleakness with the comedy and the humor that these characters exude. I think it’s a really beautiful, balanced piece.

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