Eric Roberts on Joining 'DWTS': I Think Everybody Appreciates a Good Bad Guy'

Wouldn’t it be fitting if Eric Roberts and his professional Dancing with the Stars partner Britt Stewart were able to take to the ballroom floor this season, performing to “Titanium,” the rhythmic song by David Guetta featuring Sia, because the 68-year-old actor says he will be doing the cha cha cha with two titanium hips!

“When I was offered the show 19 years ago, I was a complete physical specimen,” Eric, who says he was the first celebrity to have been offered a spot on DWTS, tells Parade in this exclusive interview. “Now I walk with a slight little gimp, so Britt’s having me pay attention to my stances and my poses and things that I do not do well.”

As the story goes, Eric was in China making a movie when the offer came in for Season 1 of Dancing with the Stars and Eric wanted to say yes because he and wife Eliza had just watched Mad Hot Ballroom and had decided they were going to take ballroom dance lessons. But the movie in China had one day overlap with Dancing with the Stars, and they wouldn’t let him go—and he didn’t even end up filming that day.

Fast forward to 19 years later and the timing finally worked in Eric’s favor.

“It’s been my wife’s favorite show ever since it’s been on the air,” he says. “She just loves it, but I was always busy. I was always working. I was making movies, always on the road. And then we came to this year, and their schedule and our schedule melded together. So, here we are with Britt.”

In all that time, Eric and Eliza never got around to taking those ballroom dance lessons, so Eric is coming in a complete novice, which means Britt has her job cut out for her making sure he has the right moves.

“Sometimes not being a dancer is not necessarily a bad thing,” she says. “Sometimes you’re able to really have a full journey from start to finish. I keep telling Eric that, yes, we prioritize dance. It is called Dancing with the Stars for a reason. But it’s also about so much more of the journey. It’s about the connection. It’s about the personality. It’s about the audience connecting with who Eric is and who we are as a competing couple.”

Eric isn't worried about making a connection or personality. After all, his first job as an actor was at age 4, so he's a pro in that sense, but when it comes to dance, he knows he has a ways to go.

“I look at the floor all the time,” he points out. “She says, ‘Look at me!’ So, we’re doing a lot of that. I am honestly a novice and she’s honestly not, so we’re having to bring me up to speed. It’s a lot of work for her and it’s a lot of repetition for me. But I’m doing the show because it’s my wife’s favorite show.”

Related: Dancing with the Stars Shocker: Britt Stewart Was Not Trained in Ballroom Dance When She Joined the Show

And as much as Dancing with the Stars is about dancing, it also is a popularity contest. The contestants coming in from Bachelor nation, for example, have a built in fanbase, but someone like Eric, who has played a lot of villains in his career, may have to win over hearts—and votes—with his performance.

“I think everybody appreciates a good bad guy,” Eric says. “That’s how I’m looking at it.”

And Britt adds, “In the age of social media—Instagram and TikTok, there are some heavy hitters as far as follower counts. But I am also a believer that people can fall in love with somebody on Dancing with the Stars, and I don’t want people to forget that Eric has been in the entertainment industry for almost his whole life. So, I think he’s coming in with a really strong fan base and a very loyal fan base that will vote for him each week. Or at least we hope so.”

During our pre-DWTS chat, Eric and Britt also talked about their strategy for the season, how the male celebrities are at a bit of a disadvantage, Eric’s upcoming memoir Runaway Train: or, The Story of My Life So Far, and Britt’s upcoming wedding to former DWTS partner Daniel Durant.

So, as a fan you had seen Britt perform before. Were you very excited when they picked her as your partner?

Eric: Britt is my favorite dancer on the show, but don’t tell anybody because I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. Britt’s my favorite dancer, yeah. Britt moves like a whole chorus line at once. She’s incredible.

Britt, what is your approach to teaching Eric how to do ballroom?

Britt: My approach is getting through it. No, I’m just joking. That’s what Eric says.

That’s the only reason why I said it.

Eric: Yeah, when they say to me, “What’s your goal?” I say to get through it.

Britt: One of my favorite things I love about being a pro on Dancing with the Stars is I’ve never had one partner that’s like the other. I mean, the closest thing that I can relate to is he’s an actor and I’ve had actors in the past. But I love getting into Eric’s mind and the way that he moves and how he learns. And so, my approach is really starting with basics and the fundamentals to make sure that he’s learning each dance style correctly. But at the end of the day, I want this process to be enjoyable, and I want us to exuberate joy and just have so much fun, so when the audience is watching us in the ballroom, they feel us more so than just be like, “Whoa, that was a cool dance move.” I want them to see that we’re having a good time.

The one thing that I do think puts Eric at a disadvantage is that the male has to lead. Things like locking in the frame and all the technical stuff the judges talk about, does that have you concerned at all?

Eric: Concerned? It has me petrified.

Britt: He says petrified, and I say that that’s something that we’re working on. That’s something that we are rehearsing and that I’m teaching Eric. He knows how to be the leading man on screen, and so having that translate into the ballroom is something that we’re working on. And I can say that he is natural. He’s a natural leader, and so we’re just working on refining it.

Britt, when you’re doing the choreography, is there a strategy to it because maybe he has strengths that you can play to? Or maybe themes you could pull together that would make people relate better.

Britt: Again, I’m bringing in that joy. I’m bringing fun into my choreography. And yes, I do have to be very strategic because he is a novice dancer. I need to be strategic about what is going to look good on his body and the choreography that might look better on somebody else.

Eric: And we do stuff sometimes and she’ll go, “No, we’re going to drop that.”

Britt: Yeah. I think that there’s a lot of times in this process, it moves really fast, but there’s also flexibility to it as well. And then, of course, I’m drawing on his strengths as an actor. So, in every single dance that I’m choreographing, I’m making sure that there is a strong personality performance aspect to the choreography.

You mentioned talking about choreographing him to what looks good on his body. But what about having to wear satins and the sequins, Eric? Is that something that you’re comfortable with?

Eric: Well, I’m just going to wear tassels over my breasts and a little hoop skirt. My first costume, I saw part of it yesterday, it’s dashing. It’s dark and it’s cool and it’s made out of material that they make stuff for dancers that I didn’t know about. It’s this really light stuff, it’s like air. But it doesn’t look light. It looks like clothes and it’s not; it’s dancer stuff. That was fun.

DWTS premieres on the 17th, the same day that your memoir comes out.

Eric: Who knew that was going to happen! I wished so much that I had done Dancing with the Stars before we got through with the memoir; it could be a great chapter, and I could have a picture of us. But I was ahead of schedule.

What was the inspiration for the memoir, Runaway Train: or, The Story of My Life So Far, and how down and dirty do you get?

Eric: Everybody, even people I don’t know, say, “When are you going to write a book?” And I was never interested in writing a book because you must be honest if you’re going to put it in permanent print and I like to either delete or embellish. I mean, I’m an actor. What do you want from me?

But my wife took over and said, “You have to write the book. We get thousands of requests for you to write a book. You’ve got to write a book.” So, I said, “OK, well then I’m going to write it, but you have to keep me honest.”

Then I met a guy named Sam Kashner. I did an interview for Vanity Fair and the Vanity Fair publisher liked the interview so much he said, “This should be a book.” So, we all kind of ran into each other.

I said, “Well, I want Sam to be my writer. I’ll be the talker, and he’ll put it down pretty.” They said, “OK, you can have Sam Kashner,’ and I said “Well, let’s go write a book.” We wrote the book. I got a pass from the wife about the honesty and here we go.

Related: Dancing with the Stars Casts a Very Controversial Celeb for Season 33

I’m sure you have tales to tell.

Eric: One of my favorite stories, it’s in the book, that I’ve also told in interviews, but I’ll repeat to you. It’s kind of a preview of the fun my life has been. In my first movie, Sterling Hayden played my grandfather. I worked three weeks of days before I had my first night shoot with him—his first day was a night shoot. And I arrive at about 5 o’clock, and I get a knock at my door “Mr. Hayden would like to talk to you in his trailer.”

So, I go over there and knock on the door. “Mr. Hayden?” He says, “Come on in young man.” So, I went in there. “Have a seat young man.” And there’s hashish smoke all in his trailer, and he’s smoking a pipe. And I say to Mr. Hayden, “What are you doing, pal?” “I’m getting stoned. Do you get stoned?” I said, “I’ve been known to.” “Well, let’s get stoned.” I said, “I can’t work stoned because I can’t talk stoned, so I can’t do that.” “Well, I can. So, what are you shooting tonight?” I said, “Scene 87.” “I know the number. What happens?” I was scared to death. And then he says to me, “Are you good at improv?” I said, “I’m OK.” “Good. That’s what we’re doing tonight.” And it’s the best scene in the movie.

He’s one of those kind of actors. He just transcends anything that’s here and he goes where he has to be. He was just a miracle. I loved him so much. And we found out we were neighbors up in Connecticut.

Dancing with the Stars returns for its 33rd season Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. ET, simulcast LIVE on ABC and Disney+, and available next day on Hulu.

Next, Everything to Know About Dancing with the Stars Season 33