Getty Maks Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd attend Kiss The Stars Breast Cancer Awareness Cocktail Hour
Former Dancing With the Stars pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy nearly won season one of Fox’s new show The Masked Dancer, and he recently opened up about whether or not he’d be returning to DWTS in the future.
Maks Chmerkovskiy spoke with Hollywood Life about a possible future return to Dancing With the Stars, which the professional dancer mostly shot down.
“I’m a professional father, and I want to be that forever,” he told the outlet. “Having said that, Dancing With the Stars and Maks, I think that we parted ways a long time ago.”
Chmerkovskiy Parted Ways With ‘Dancing With the Stars’ & Has No Plans to Return
In the interview with Hollywood Life, Chmerkovskiy said he doesn’t have plans to return to Dancing With the Stars.
“Dancing With the Stars and Maks, I think that we parted ways a long time ago,” he shared. “I think this show is going through a lot and has to figure out to get back to what it was without having to deal with Maks.”
He added, “That’s why I’m not thinking about it, and I think that it also leads me to be free to do other things. Even Masked Dancer, for example, was going on at the same time as Dancing With the Stars. I’m me. I rep me, I rep dance and everything that it stands for and can be attached to.”
Chmerkovskiy Says He Only Wants Less Stressful Jobs
Chmerkovskiy said that The Masked Dancer was a great experience.
“If I am an asset to a program that can benefit from me, I’ll hear about it and we’ll have a conversation,” he told Hollywood Life. “But after the experience of Masked Dancer and having the application that I have now the way that we did it, I promise you, I’m happy as a clam.”
He added, “I just would not want to take a job that is stressful to the extent that I was stressed back in the day. I’m a different man. I’m a changed person. If that new Maks is of value to the show in the form that I want to be a part of it, great. But I’m so excited about all the other opportunities and projects that I have going on. I don’t think about that show in particular. ”
Chmerkovskiy also said that his role on The Masked Dancer was comparable to that of a celebrity on Dancing With the Stars where he was able to show up and not have to do any of the choreography or losing sleep.
“The biggest example that I brought up was that I don’t want a situation where somebody comes up and is like, listen, you’re a pro dancer, right?” he said. “We want you to choreograph this next dance or just do whatever you feel like doing. I did not want that.”
Chmerkovskiy also revealed to People that he was injured while filming The Masked Dancer, which was embarrassing to him.
“I pulled my shoulder during the ribbon dance, the second number that we did, where I was told that I’m Will Ferrell,” said Chmerkovskiy, adding, “I didn’t even tell anybody. I was embarrassed. I was like, ‘Bro, you’re basically not doing anything. And you look like a giant pillow. Don’t talk about your injuries.’”
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