Cheryl Burke says Anna Delvey taking 'nothing' away from doing “Dancing With the Stars” 'leaves a bad taste in my mouth'
"I think she must be upset. And, again, now her wall's thicker than ever."
Cheryl Burke isn’t holding back her thoughts on Anna Delvey’s time on Dancing With the Stars.
The former pro, who starred on the series for over 25 seasons, discussed the convicted scammer and partner Ezra Sosa’s elimination, plus Delvey’s admission to host Julianne Hough that she’d be taking “nothing” away from the dance competition on Wednesday’s episode of her Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast.
“Ugh. Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth,” Burke said of Delvey's remark. “I was already, slowly, giving her another chance because she definitely showcased a little bit more of her personality, as I said a few hours ago… I think she must be upset. And, again, now her wall's thicker than ever.”
Delvey, who was born Anna Sorokin, has received backlash from DWTS fans ever since her casting was announced in September — to the point where Sosa said he found her crying in a bathroom after their first performance. Burke explained on her podcast that she believed the pair’s intro package on Tuesday, which saw them meet with Julia Fox, was helpful to remind viewers that Delvey was still a real person with real feelings.
Monica Schipper/Getty; Disney/Eric McCandless
Cheryl Burke and Anna Delvey“Julia Fox, literally, just that one sound bite from her will help, I think, as far as America goes, for those who are not understanding why maybe Anna is so standoffish,” Burke said. “Hopefully, that helps with people just to understand that, yeah, she’s got a huge wall up and this is a defense mechanism.”
The dancer noted that she could relate to Delvey appearing “sarcastic and dry” as a way to avoid being vulnerable. “However, with this show, it is forgiving only if you give it a 100 percent,” she maintained. “And I’ve always said that if you don’t give it a 100 percent vulnerability, you’re only gonna get from the show what you give, right?”
She explained she was happy that the show put Delvey and Sosa’s performance — a quickstep set to KT Tunstall’s “Suddenly I See” — in the middle of the pack, noting that it’s a more “digestible position” in the lineup for viewers. She also called their routine “really cute,” even if it was missing “body contact” from the pair.
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Burke also acknowledged that Delvey appeared to be “on the verge of tears” while receiving critiques from the judges afterward. “I can’t imagine because I’m not Anna, but I understand the negativity in the press. Like, it’s not fun,” she said. “But we also can control that by not Googling ourselves or trying not to listen to the feedback.”
Related: Anna Delvey says her favorite part of doing Dancing With the Stars was 'getting eliminated'
She also encouraged Dancing With the Stars to monitor and remove social media comments as needed because they can have a very real effect on the cast. “You can definitely put them in a certain section on Instagram where no one sees them,” she said. “I hope the social media team over there is really thoroughly doing their due diligence because it does affect everybody, especially when you’re already so, in a way, vulnerable.”
Burke added that she was totally blindsided by Tori Spelling and her partner Pasha Pashkov being sent home this week. “I did not, in any way, think it was gonna be Tori Spelling who's gonna be eliminated because of the 90210 fanbase, so I'm not sure what happened there,” she said. “Who knows? I don't know. I know that a lot of people may have just given up on the show due to Anna Delvey's casting.”
Listen to Burke discuss Delvey’s departure from DWTS in the podcast above.
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