You’re training right now right?
Yeah.
How long have you been doing that for?
We’re about 8 days so far, 8 or 9 days, we’ve had one day off.
Can you kind of just explain that process to everyone?
I’m not sure how I came to be lucky enough to be dancing with Cheryl Burke, that’s the producers, they matched everybody up. My first day, I walked in meeting my partner and boom, there’s Cheryl Burke and it blew me away. But what was so funny is that she’s won twice and I always thought maybe the producers would stick Cheryl with somebody who was a little less apt at dancing, thinking that it would give a chance to the other dancers to really flourish. So my first thought was, “Yeah Cheryl Burke!” And then my second thought was like, “Oh my god, I’m that guy!” But you know what, we’re having a great time. And it’s coming together slowly but surely. I swear to God, we’ve been dancing and it’s been a bit of struggle, but there are moments where I am looking into her eyes and I’m not thinking about the dance, I’m just completely delighted that my body is moving to the music and you know, and that I get it. And then I trip.
Have you gotten to see any of the other dancers, any of the other contestants?
Yes, we had a little “getting to know you” party with several of my opponents and the other dancers. And that was really nice, they’ve never done that before. In years gone by they’ve only allowed the other dancers and the celebrities to meet on the day of the first filming. So this was like a real nice “hey, how are you doing, getting to know you.” And
Paulina Porizkova is as beautiful now as she ever was, just gorgeous.
Did you get to see Vincent Pastore before he left the show?
No, I don’t know where he was rehearsing. I did not see him though.
You don’t have any idea who is going to be replacing him, do you?
I really don’t know.
Of all the other competitors, who do you think is looking like the toughest competition out there for you?
Of the women I think it’s got to be
Layla Ali. I mean the girl is used to doing footwork. You know, she’s athletic. I met her the other day and she like, was sizing me up and she says, “Look, don’t think that just because you got Cheryl that you’re going to win this thing.” And then she walked away and I said to her partner, who I believe his name is
Max [Maksim Chmerkovskiy], I said, “So is she throwing you around, is she boxing you?” And he said, “Well actually she’s very feminine.” So you know, that was a very classy response by Max and gave me some insight into the fact that you know what, she’s definitely a bulldog in the ring but she’s very feminine on the inside and she’s going to be able to bring that to her dance. And I think from the guys, the toughest competition for me will probably be
Joey Fatone being that his N’SYNC experience, even though it wasn’t ballroom dancing, it was certainly dancing and connecting moves to the music.
Any parting words or predictions for the show?
You know, I’m putting all my predictions on the Internet. I’ve got a myspace page going up shortly. I’ve got a little exploratory page up now but I’m getting ready to put out a real page and then a website and you know, I’ll have a blog and some behind the scenes pictures and insights and little video jpegs of what’s going on inside my head at the time so you can look for more there.
(Interview Conducted by Oscar Dahl)
Photo Courtesy of imdb.com