Karamo Brown is taking his time on Dancing With the Stars very seriously — and that means putting his adoration for fellow competitor James Van Der Beek aside.
“It’s been great to be on Dancing With the Stars, I am pushing myself because I want to win,” the Queer Eye star, 38, told Us Weekly at the Los Angeles LGBT’s Hearts of Gold Concert on Saturday, September 21. “Every day I go into James Van Der Beek’s trailer and I’m like, ‘I’m coming for you. I’m coming for you. Yes, you were my crush when I was 15, but now, you’re my competition.’”
Brown added: “And so it feels really good and, you know, it’s about just bringing people a lot of joy, the same thing we do on Queer Eye. And so yeah, it’s been nice.”
The Netflix star is paired with Jenna Johnson on the reality TV dance competition, while the Dawson’s Creek alum, 42, is partnered up with Emma Slater. During the first episode, Brown and Johnson scored a 17 out of 30 for their salsa to Lizzo’s hit song “Juice.”
Van Der Beek, meanwhile, found himself as the show’s frontrunner after he stole the show during his tango with Slater which earned them a 21 out of 30, the best score of the night.
Brown also opened up to Us about the headline-making controversy surrounding the casting of former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, whom he was slammed for calling a “good guy.”
“You know, what we show on Queer Eye is that it’s always positive to reach out to people who are different from you, and that’s the motto of Queer Eye. And so we just hope that the world still embraces talking to each other and loving each other,” he explained. “You know, last night, I was with the presidential candidates. I was with Joe Biden, I was with Kamala Harris, I was with Elizabeth Warren. We were having some real conversations about how divided our country is right now and what work needs to happen, and that work starts with every single one of us as Americans. And so I’m proud that, Queer Eye and the cast, we’re leading that charge.”
With reporting by Emily Marcus
