Jenna Dewan addressed whether she will still appear on The Rookie after joining season 35 of Dancing With the Stars.
“I’m doing both at the same time,” Dewan, 45, told TV Insider on Wednesday, September 2. “They’re being amazing. They’re all so excited for this opportunity, and they’re really working it out between the two productions.”
Dewan acknowledged it might be overwhelming at times, adding, “I’m gonna be slightly insane going in between filming The Rookie and coming here and doing the shows, but it’s all exciting. I’m here for the challenge, and the best people in the world are working it out.”
Both DWTS and The Rookie are currently in production, with the competition show premiering later this month. The Rookie, meanwhile, is filming season 9 with Dewan’s costars Nathan Fillion, Eric Winter, Melissa O’Neil, Alyssa Diaz, Richard T. Jones, Mekia Cox and Shawn Ashmore.
In a separate interview, Dewan addressed the backlash she has received for being cast on DWTS despite having past dance experience. (The actress was a backup dancer for Janet Jackson and appeared in the 2006 dance movie Step Up.)
“I do not know how to ballroom dance,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “Let’s be clear. It’s two different languages.”
Dewan explained how she has been challenged since being partnered with Val Chmerkovskiy.
“There’s parts of my dance training that’s helpful, obviously,” she continued. “I’ve learned choreography, I can perform, but there is a certain sense of unlearning for me. It’s a new technique, brand-new technique.”
Dewan added: “It almost threw me off initially because I had to unlearn a lot of — I don’t want to say bad habits — but just habits of the style that I’m used to.”
After signing on to season 35, Dewan said her dance background made her “a little more nervous” to compete because ballroom “feels really foreign.”
“It’s not like you’re giving me a style that I’ve done — I can go out there and do that. It has its advantages, but it also has its challenges,” she noted. “But that was part of why I wanted to do it. I really wanted to challenge myself.”
Chmerkovskiy, 40, also defended his partner’s casting.
“First of all, it’s naive to think that this show is just about dance. It’s about the human experience and the human journey and how much you’re willing to reveal yourself,” he said. “Dance is a vehicle for us to find out more about these people — and I think that’s our advantage.”
He continued: “The way I approach things is that you’re only as good as the thing that you’ve never done, so I’m going to push her and push us to showcase to the world something they haven’t seen from her yet. That’s a challenge in itself because we’ve seen her at the highest form of dance and what that expression can look like.”
Dancing With the Stars season 35 kicks off with a two-night premiere on ABC and Disney+ Tuesday, September 15, and Wednesday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET.
