Fiona O’Loughlin: ‘I’ve humiliated myself so many times in so many ways’
Australian comedian Fiona O’Loughlin reveals the challenges she overcame to bare all for Sevens All New New Monty: Guys & Gals.
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Stripping naked on national television conjured a mixed bag of emotions for this year’s batch of celebrities on The All New Monty: Guys & Gals.
And while emotions ranged from fear to laughing at themselves, they came off stage with an overwhelming feeling of liberation.
“I think I am just a professional reality TV lady now,” comedian Fiona O’Loughlin says, playing down any terror she felt at getting her clothes off on camera.
“I’ve humiliated myself so many times in so many ways, it is just like nothing. My pulse didn’t even get a bit of a quickening.”
The All New Monty: Guys & Gals is the new version of previous years specials, The Real Full Monty, The All New Monty and All New Monty: Ladies Night.
The concept is based on the hit 1997 comedy, The Full Monty, in which six everyday men find purpose and redemption by forming a male strip troupe. The reality television version is to raise awareness for men’s and women’s cancers.
Shane Jacobson and Georgie Parker host the lighthearted shenanigans while Todd McKenney works with celebrities on choreography for their big reveal.
This year’s male strippers are cricket great turned commentator Michael Slater, actor Samuel Johnson, model Tom Derickx, Better Homes and Gardens presenter Adam Dovile, former Biggest Loser trainer Shannan Ponton, AFL commentator Wayne Carey and former Home And Away actor Orpheus Pledger.
Joining O’Loughlin in the women’s act are former Miss World Australia and sports presenter Erin Holland, reality star Ash Pollard, singer-songwriter (and Russell Crowe’s ex-wife) Danielle Spencer, Olympic Gold medallist Leisel Jones, entertainer Patti Newton and Home And Away actor Sam Frost. The limited series launched on Sunday night with a further two episodes to air on Sunday’s at 7pm on Seven.
Women strip to underwear (no bra) while the males are completely naked although pyrotechnics and lighting will keep their private parts from being fully exposed. The packed audience at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre when it was filmed saw everything.
“It was both tumultuous and enjoyable,” actor Pledger says.
“I felt confident in the process that I was going to eventually end up feeling some sort of purposeful reinvigoration.”
The 27-year-old is best known for playing Mason Morgan on Home And Away from 2016 to 2019.
“I took away probably an independent personal view of the future,” he says. “And myself and all of the other things around me that I am able to call on to be there. My omnipotent message I received about the world is a lot about love. I am so pleased that I got to be a part of something that is bringing support and awareness to the cause.”
Pledger says he felt a personal connection to the message after his grandmother died of breast cancer in the past year. “It is something that most of us have been touched by,” he says.
“It is something that we all face and have to go through in some way. There is not enough conversation about the actual reality of cancer and the deaths that occur on a daily basis.”
O’Loughlin previously won reality series I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here, in which celebrities live on basic rations competing in physical and mental challenges in the South African jungle.
She has been open about her personal struggles over the years, including overcoming alcohol addiction. “I am finally out of it. I feel like I am safe at last and have been for a while. I feel so relieved, almost enough to take my top off in front of thousands of people.”
O’Loughlin, 57, has detailed her many life struggles in an autobiography that she has just finished writing. The book, the mother and grandmother explains, “had to be done”. “I want to move in to being more of a help than a hindrance to other people now,” she says. “As soon as you are sober yourself, you can’t wait to see it happen to other people. I wrote the book for that reason and just to clear the deck.”
Alcoholism and its ups and downs are what O’Loughlin was referring to when she says she has humiliated herself far more than taking her clothes off on television.
And there is the sense everyone involved is doing it for the right reasons — for cancer awareness.
“It is rare you can actually do anything joyful on the subject (of cancer),” she says. “We are in the dark ages with cancer. It is a plague. It is heartbreaking.”
As for dancing on stage, O’Loughlin described herself as “useless”. “I do actually have frontal lobe damage, I can’t learn new things quickly,” she says. “Because it was for a cause, and a happy show and not Dancing With The Stars, Todd (McKenney) couldn’t yell at me, and he didn’t, he was lovely. I was definitely the weakest link when it came to steps, they had to give me some extra days. The joy of it is that it doesn’t matter, everybody’s heart was in exactly the right place. The fun was the actual process of it all.”
The All New Monty: Guys & Gals will air on Seven on Sunday at 7pm.