Dancing With The Stars alum Maksim Chmerkovskiy brutally criticized Anna Delvey‘s big debut on the series, announcing on a recent podcast that the convicted con-artist’s “personality is not really going to help her in this competition” – and neither will her dancing skills, according to the pro dancer.
Chmerkovskiy blasted Delvey during a recent appearance on The TMZ Podcast, where he shared his expert opinion on her cha-cha routine and shed some light on how they typically go about casting celebrities on the show.
“She wasn’t great,” he said. He added that she appeared to be “kind of standoffish in a lot of things,” though he wasn’t buying the excuse that she was nervous.
“You can blame the nerves and say, ‘Hey, everybody’s human and this person is not used to that stage.’ Bulls—,” he 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.”
He continued, “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 shitty dancer, and [her] personality is not really going to help her in this competition.”
Delvey made her debut during the Dancing with the Stars Season 33 premiere Monday, Sept. 16 with her partner Ezra Sosa. The duo’s cha-cha performance – set to Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” – ranked amongst the evening’s lowest with a score of 18 out of 30.
She’s become quite infamous since New York magazine published a profile detailing how she swindled several people and businesses out of an estimated $275,000 while posing as a German heiress. Her crime spree was adapted for television in the Netflix series Inventing Anna.
Delvey has since completed her prison time but was taken into custody by ICE for overstaying her visa. She is now living in New York City under house arrest but has received permission from ICE to compete on the dance show.
On TMZ’s podcast, Chmerkovskiy criticized the show’s producers for casting Delvey at all.
“Then there’s like, ‘OK, so who’s going to draw attention?’ And now you’re talking about someone like an Anna character, right?” he 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 that he is “absolutely not” a fan of Delvey, whom he accused of being 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,'” he said. “Will I believe anything this lady says? Absolutely not.”
Delvey’s casting has been extensively criticized by several people – including the ladies of The View. But DWTS judge Carrie Ann Inaba urged viewers to give her a fair shot.
“I would just like to say, let’s all just give this a chance, because I can imagine that this is scary for you,” she said after Delvey’s first performance. “And I’m not pro or for or against anything that you’ve done, but this is about your dancing here. Let’s all give her that space, please.”