Danielle Fishel is getting vulnerable ahead of her next Dancing With the Stars performance, revealing that her Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Night routine has stirred up deep personal emotions and self-doubt.
On the latest episode of her Danielle With the Stars podcast, released Monday, November 3, the Boy Meets World alum, 44, shared that she and professional partner Pasha Pashkov will perform a contemporary dance to Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” The number, she explained, carries a message that resonates powerfully and painfully with her own experiences as a woman in the public eye.
“We are telling the story about how difficult it can be to be a woman in society where we are somehow always too much and also never enough,” Fishel said. “No matter what choice you make, whether you work inside the home or outside the home … there’s no winning.”
Danielle Fishel went on to describe the conflicting pressures women face from body image criticism to societal double standards adding that decades in Hollywood have only amplified those struggles.
“Having been in the public eye and on TV since I was 10 years old, I have been under a microscope, and my choices have been scrutinized,” she said. “I’ve made terrible mistakes … and I’m resistant to [the dance] because it’s triggering so many things in me.”
Danielle Fishel revealed that rehearsals for the performance have resurfaced “a lot of negative self-talk” and “disordered eating” habits from her past. The actress admitted that, instead of embracing the dance, her emotions have made her want to “pull away” from the process.
“So it’s been a rough week,” she told guest and former DWTS pro Louis van Amstel. “But I think the fact that I realized it made me wake up and think … this dance actually means something.”
Van Amstel, who competed as a DWTS pro for 11 seasons, praised Fishel’s honesty and encouraged her to channel her nerves into strength.
“You’ve made it so far,” he told her. “You can take the nerves and give up, or you take the nerves and switch on, use the adrenaline and say, ‘People at home, watch this.’”
Pashkov, her dance partner, echoed those sentiments on Instagram, calling the process “transformative.”
“Not easy, but when we get over the hump it is life changing!” he wrote in response to a clip from Fishel’s podcast shared by Pod Meets World.
Danielle Fishel’s husband, Jenson Karp, also shared his support online, writing, “Love you and am just absolutely blown away by your courage. Leave it all on that floor.”
Despite her emotional hurdles, Fishel has found bright spots in her DWTS journey. This week, she’s serving as one of two team captains for Season 34’s first group competition.
Her squad, dubbed “Team Chicago,” will dance to Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4,” facing off against Andy Richter’s “Team Kool,” which will perform to Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration.” Fishel’s team includes Whitney Leavitt, Jordan Chiles, Dylan Efron, their professional partners, and DWTS cohost Alfonso Ribeiro.
“If I do say so myself, I picked an all-star team,” Fishel joked. “I had a full strategy going into it, and my strategy paid off.”
Still, the actress admitted that being surrounded by more experienced dancers can feel intimidating.
“I am by far the weakest, at least female, link on the team,” she confessed. “Everybody is picking this up really fast, and I really need this to slow down.”
Van Amstel reassured her that she’s not the weakest link just the one with the “least experience.”
“The pressure is on them, not you,” he said. “Everyone knows you have grown from week 1 to now, leaps and bounds, and you have the likability factor.”
As she heads into week 8 of the competition, Fishel is taking van Amstel’s advice to heart especially his final piece of guidance: to strip away all remaining layers and let her “emotional self” shine through.
“We haven’t met, but you’re a kind person,” he told her. “But I would say, ‘F kind.’ Go for it.”Fishel and Pashkov most recently scored straight 8s for their Halloween jazz routine on October 28, advancing after The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Jen Affleck and partner Jan Ravinik were eliminated. The pair will compete this week against remaining contestants Richter, Leavitt, Efron, Chiles, Robert Irwin, Elaine Hendrix and Alix Earle.