James Van Der Beek is third place in our early odds to win “Dancing with the Stars” this season, but he’s definitely the one Hannah Brown is keeping an eye on.
“James is going to be great,” Brown told “Entertainment Tonight” when asked who her biggest competition is (watch below). “I watched ‘Dawson’s Creek’ with my babysitter when I wasn’t supposed to, so I love James.”
Way to make us all feel really old.
Van Der Beek, of course, already sort of has some “Dancing” experience, thanks to his arc on “Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23,” on which that version of James Van Der Beek was so good, he had Dean Cain shaking in his dance shoes.
Brown is no dance neophyte herself, having grown up dancing until she quit when she was a teen. But ballroom is a completely different beast. “Ballroom dancing is so articulate,” she said. “Your hips have to be a certain way, legs have to be straight at one time and bent another. I am unfortunately a perfectionist at heart, so it’s really hard to allow myself to not be good. I wanna just be good right off the bat, and that’s not gonna happen.”
In fact, this early adjustment period has been so difficult, it’s reminded the “Bachelorette” star of her pageant days and the insecurities she had. “Going into this dance world is kind of sending me back into that pageant mind. I danced when I was younger, a lot of insecurities came from that,” she revealed. “So being put back in that environment has really messed with my mind a little bit.”
Brown teased that her music and first dance is “really energetic,” which means she likely has the cha-cha or salsa, two upbeat Week 1 staples. Her partner won’t be officially revealed until premiere night (click here if you want to know), but she shared that he’s tough on her.
“My dance partner is really passionate, which means he’s really tough on me. He’s also really fun too,” she said. “I think everybody’s going to want to sing along, dance along to my first dance on ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ It’s so fun. Really energetic and shows my personality. It’s gonna be really good. It is an iconic song.
“I know the dance. I have it to music,” she continued. “It is definitely not clean yet, but I feel pretty confident. I feel like I could go out and dance it. Now, is it up to what I think I could be? No, but I still got some time.”
“Dancing with the Stars” premieres Monday, Sept. 16 at 8/7c on ABC.
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