Getty Maks Chmerkovskiy
Former “Dancing With the Stars” professional dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy has opened up about how the show portrayed him for years, saying he is “disappointed” by the way he came across on TV.
Here is what he had to say about being cast as the “antagonist” of the show:
Maks Says He Was Caught Off-Guard by Being Cast As the Antagonist
In an interview on Bethenny Frankel’s podcast “Just B with Bethenny Frankel,” the two good friends talked about how Maksim was portrayed during his time on the show — he was a pro on the show from season two until season 25, winning the Mirrorball Trophy once, in season 18 with partner Meryl Davis.
The former “Real Housewives of New York” star started it by sharing that she never really thought that Maks’ personality came across on TV.
“Your personality, I don’t even think, ever comes across. You’re cute, you’re funny, you’re handsome, you can be a little tough, whatever … you have a really funny personality,” observed Bethenny.
To this, Maks said that there are a few moments in his “illustrious ‘Dancing With the Stars’ career that [he’s] still famous for.”
Things where people react by saying, “I can’t believe this guy just said that. I cannot believe he just did that.”
Indeed, for years Maks was known for being outspoken about when he thought he and his partners were criticized too harshly — he was definitely not afraid to speak his mind on the show. But he also really objects to how the producers edited the video packages together because they would pick out his most volatile moments from rehearsals.
“I was just completely always disappointed with the way I look in packages … that moment they show before you dance, and I’m like, ‘Wow, I look like an a**hole. Why am I constantly this d-bag? This is not how I feel, this is not me,'” Maks said of how the show portrayed him.
One Time He Confronted the ABC Executives About It
Maks relayed to Bethenny that one time, he talked to one of the executives about his portrayal on the show and the executive said to him, “Look, if you don’t say it, we don’t have it,” basically saying that if Maks wasn’t hot-headed in rehearsals, they wouldn’t have volatile footage to use.
But Maks argued, “But I give you 50 hours of rehearsal time [each week] … and for a 30-second piece, you’re gonna take only that?’ For a long time, I thought it was me. It’s not. It’s the way they that they need to have invented a character that’s tall, dark, sexy, nonsense, that is the, not per se, Gaston because you never really feel bad for him, but I’m like that antagonist character that was chosen to be and I didn’t know!”
He was just trying to be competitive and give the show his all and he felt like it was unfair the way they edited him.
“I was given an opportunity — ‘here you go, what do you do best?’ And I’m like, ‘I go for the win. That’s my best quality.’ You put me in the front of the line and if the end result is bow to who finishes first, I’m gonna give it my all,” said Maks, adding, “[Nobody told me] ‘hey, you know what, you can do that, you can express yourself, you can continue running your brand … but you can do it in a way that everybody doesn’t cringe on Monday night.'”
“Dancing With the Stars” returns for season 31 in the fall of 2022 on Disney Plus.
READ NEXT: ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Cheryl Burke Reveals Devastating Health Diagnosis For Her Mom Sherri