When I signed up for 'Dancing with the Stars,' I was nervous. If I threw everything off, there are 10-15 million people watching, and that would be a negative viewpoint of deaf people, and I didn't want that.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
If I were trying to avoid embarrassment, I wouldn't have stumbled my way through 'Dancing with the Stars.'
When I first joined 'Dancing with the Stars,' I did not want to do it. It's not what I like, it's not what I believe in... the judges are fake, this is fake, that is fake... there is not a lot of reality.
When I was first on 'Dancing With The Stars', people were really shocked and surprised.
They did ask me to do 'Dancing With The Stars;' I said I can do one show, but on that show you have to come up with a new number every week, and I told them that I think I'm a little past that stage.
I think I'm a lot funnier and goofier than people were able to see on 'Dancing With the Stars.'
It's one of the reasons I want to do 'Dancing with the Stars': it's a platform to educate.
I recently read an article on how I was dropped from a film because I couldn't dance! It was so ridiculous that I decided to shut up about it. Let people say what they want to. It's such a waste of time.
I can not remember even thinking that I was deaf when I was dancing.
When I was a kid, I'd read about celebrities who didn't want to talk to their fans after a show. I told myself, 'That's terrible, and I would never do that.'
With dance and theatre, I think people get very nervous about not knowing the right things. They feel like they've missed something, or that they're not bright enough to watch it. It's not a test.