Maksim Chmerkovskiy will definitely not be voting for Anna Delvey on Dancing with the Stars.
On Monday (Sept. 23), the 44-year-old pro dancer, who appeared on 17 seasons of the ABC dancing competition series, appeared on the TMZ Podcast where he broke down the different archetypes the show usually looks for when it comes to casting including beloved older icons, retired athletes, and young rising stars.
When Anna‘s controversial casting was mentioned, Maks didn’t hold back while slamming both her and the show.
Keep reading to find out more…“So those are the kind of qualities you put together. And then there’s like, ‘OK, so who’s going to draw attention?’ And now you’re talking about someone like an Anna character, right?” Maks said. “So my struggle here … I can see both sides. I can also be on the production side and I can be on the viewer side and understand it all.”
“But if you want an ankle [bracelet] and sort of this, ‘Damn, this is going to draw attention,’ and the scandalousness of it all – I mean, there’s so many other people you can choose from,” he added.
When asked if he’s a fan of Anna, 33, Maks responded, “Absolutely not. It doesn’t matter [who I would choose as a replacement]. To me, [Anna’s] job was a professional liar. You’re gonna bring that person [on stage] and say, ‘Here’s a platform that a lot of people waited their entire actual career to be a part of,’ to also get a moment of a personal story [where they] can say, ‘This is who I actually am.’ Will I believe anything this lady says? Absolutely not.”
Maks then went on to critique the cha-cha Anna danced in the season premiere with her partner Ezra Sosa, saying that he thought that “she wasn’t great” and that she was “very kind of standoffish in a lot of things.”
“You can blame the nerves and say, ‘Hey, everybody’s human and this person is not used to that stage.’ Bulls–t,” Maks said. “Hold on a second — didn’t she con people into believing she was, like, fully fashion this and special like that? And that takes a lot of guts. It takes a lot of self-control to present yourself a certain way, even if you’re so nervous. I don’t buy this ‘she was nervous’ stuff. She’s a sh-tty dancer, and [her] personality is not really going to help her in this competition.”
When asked how far he thinks Anna will go in the competition, Maks said, “I don’t care. She’s not somebody I tune in to watch … I’m not saying anything that no one else is saying.”
Anna recently responded to all of the backlash she’s faced for her casting on the show.
New episodes of Dancing with the Stars air live on Tuesdays at 8pm ET on ABC.
