DWTS Season 12 – Karina Smirnoff “It Could Be Anyone’s Game”

TV Squad recently interviewed Karina about Ralph and her past partners, controversies surrounding the show, sizing up the competition this year, and more. Here are a few takes below. Full interview at the link. She’s right about how it’s anyone’s game this year! Monday is coming right up, Everyone! 🙂

How did you feel when you found out your celebrity partner this season was Ralph Macchio?
I thought: I’m with Ralph Macchio, the ‘Karate Kid’ and Johnny Cade of ‘The Outsiders.’ I love this guy!

Does he seem to have some dancing talent?He does. He has natural rhythm. Granted we have been working really, really hard just because this show is all about: what you put in is what you’re going to get out of it. He wants to do really well so I couldn’t be happier.

Do you think you two have a chance of winning this year?You know, we are going to work our butts off to make sure we do the best that we can. At the end of the day I do want to win, and I know Ralph wants to win. We can’t just say, “Oh, we’re here to win it — all we want is the Mirror Ball trophy,” because then you forget to enjoy the actual process of the show. And it is great to interact with the celebs and the dancers. You come up with choreography, character, costumes. If you’re on this highway only to get the Mirror Ball trophy, it almost takes away all the pleasure and fun that the competition has to offer.

Can you size up your competition this year yet? Do you get a chance to see everyone dance, and who do you think might be your toughest competition this season?
You know, ‘DWTS’ is a competition of popularity, personality and dance ability, so it might not take the best dancer to win the whole show or it might be the best dancer. It depends on the popularity and the personality level as well. If the people do want to watch the journey — they want to experience the journey of the celebrity starting with no dance experience and going through all the ups and downs and learning the dances. If there is no personality it’s a little boring to watch. This season we have very colorful personalities from Kirstie Alley to Wendy Williams to Lil Romeo. We have huge popularity based celebs from WWE (Chris Jericho) and from the NFL (Hines Ward) … it’s could be anyone’s game.