Great Interviews With Martina Navratilova And Tony Dovolani Leading Up To DWTS Premiere

What a cool interview with Martina Navratilova. After Ellen asks her how she’s dealing with the sudden attention of her new gig on Dancing With The Stars. Martina says it’s kind of weird as she is not a self promoter. They also ask her about rehearsals, her past dance experience, the competition and much more. Here’s is just a small take of it. I love how she surprised herself with having great legs. So cute. Thanks to PureDWTS reader Jennifer for bringing this fun interview to our attention.

AfterEllen.com: My first question is, how are you dealing with all this sudden attention due to the show?
Martina Navratilova: You know, I don’t hoard attention, so it’s just kind of weird. All the press and everything that I’ve done was always for a tournament, an endorsement, a charity event, or whatever I was doing. I’ve never tried to find attention [for myself]. My manager wants me to blog and Twitter and all this dancing stuff. I just started to Twitter now! I haven’t even tweeted until now. He said “You need to do more!”

I was like, “Ahhh! I’m not a self-promoter!” I just want to dance and have a good time.

AE: Did the show come to you or did you put your name in a hat? How did it all come about?
MN: They’ve been asking me for years but I kept saying “No way! I can’t see myself in those high heels.” But then I found out the heels are not that high and once I kind of got over that I thought “Okay, I can do the dress.” And when I put the dress on, I was like, “Oh my God! I’ve got great legs!”

It was a revelation to me. My girlfriend has been trying to get me to wear dresses and I’m like, “That’s not me.” She’d say, “But you have great legs!” So I put on the dress and was like, “I do have good legs!”

ArcaMax has a new interview up wtih Tony as well where he dishes about the similarities of he and Martina’s careers and how much he deeply respects her.

“We completely relate on every level,” Tony declares. “We’re both living the American dream. After coming here from other countries, we both love the American way. We’ve both competed for the U.S. in international competitions.”

Dovolani came here from his native Kosovo at age 15 and is certainly at home here. “Put it this way: My kids are totally American,” he says. His many achievements outside “DWTS” include 2005 and 2006 World Rhythm Championships. Of course, 59-time Grand Slam titles winner Navratilova also came here as a teen. She famously asked the U.S. for political asylum at age 18 and was subsequently stripped of her Czechoslovakian citizenship.

Beyond the shared Eastern European roots and elite competitions, Dovolani deeply admires Navratilova on a personal level. Asked how she compares to past partners such as Chynna Phillips, Wendy Williams, Jane Seymour, Kate Gosselin and Melissa Rycroft, he points out, “None of the others has gone through what she’s gone through. She has a different soul, a different way,” he adds of Navratilova, who is also a breast cancer survivor. “It’s not just that she’s a gay activist, but she came out at a young age at a time very few people came out, and she said, ‘Accept me for me.'”

You can read the full story at ArcaMax.

Picture above courtesy of Martina and her twitter.

ADDING: AARP has a great new interview up with Martina. You can read it here.

ADDING 2: Below are some new interviews with Access Hollywood as well;