Maks Chmerkovsky doesn’t mince his words when it comes to his thoughts on convicted serious criminals Anna Delvey‘s cast Dancing with the stars.

While we are talking about the cast of the 13 celebrities for each season of DWTS On the “TMZ Podcast” on Monday, Sept. 23, Chmerkovskiy, 44, analyzed the types of contestants he looks for based on certain archetypes, including popular but older icons, former athletes, young rising stars and more. However, when it came to Delvey’s controversial casting for the current season of the long-running show, the professional dancer did not hold back his disapproval.

“So those are the qualities that you put together. And then the question comes, ‘OK, so who’s going to draw attention?’ And now you’re talking about someone like an Anna character, right?” Chmerkovskiy began. “My struggle here… I can see both sides. I can be on the production side and the audience side and understand everything. But if you want an ankle bracelet and you’re like, ‘Damn, that’s going to draw attention,’ and the scandalousness of it all – I mean, there are so many other people to choose from.”

Asked if he was a fan of the 33-year-old Delvey, Chmerkovskiy replied: “Absolutely not. It doesn’t matter (who I would choose as a replacement). For me, (Delvey’s) job was that of a professional liar. You bring this person (on stage) and say, ‘Here’s a platform that a lot of people have waited their entire careers to be a part of,’ to also get a moment of personal story (where they) can say, ‘This is who I really am.’ Am I going to believe anything this lady says? Absolutely not.”

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Chmerkovskiy subsequently criticized Delvey’s cha-cha dance – in which she wore a rhinestone-encrusted ankle bracelet – saying he thought she was “not that great” and that she was “quite aloof about a lot of things.”

“You can blame it on nerves and say, ‘Hey, everyone is human and this person is not used to this stage.’ Bullshit,” he said. “Wait a minute – didn’t she trick people into thinking she was so and so special? And that takes a lot of courage. It takes a lot of self-control to present yourself in a certain way, even when you’re so nervous. I don’t believe in that ‘she was nervous’ stuff. She’s a shy dancer and (her) personality isn’t really going to help her in this competition.”

When asked how far Delvey would go in the competition alongside his partner and newcomer, Ezra SosaChmerkovskiy replied: “I don’t care. She’s not someone I look at… I’m not saying anything that no one else is saying.”

Delvey was arrested in 2017 and charged with multiple counts of grand theft and petty theft. She was released from prison on parole in 2021 and placed under house arrest a year later after being taken into custody for overstaying her visa. (A famous new York The magazine profile about her was adapted for the 2022 Netflix series The invention of Anna.)

“When you’re working with someone, with her story, for example, you have no choice but to go with it,” Sosa, 23, explained in a recent interview on the “Lightweights” podcast. “The only way to really win people over is to take her for who she is and her story and go with it. Even though some people might not like it, no matter what happens, they’re still going to watch it.”

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After their debut appearance on the season premiere earlier this month, Sosa and Delvey denied sensing a noticeable energy shift in the audience during their performance.

“When we go out there and dance, it’s just the two of us on the dance floor and we honestly don’t even notice the crowd,” Sosa told exclusively We weekly“Even when we finished dancing, we weren’t really thinking about applause or anything like that.”

Delvey added: “It’s hard to say because we’ve only just come off the stage. I’m not sure how the crowd reacted yet, so it’s hard to say.”

Dancing with the stars airs simultaneously on ABC and Disney+ on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET. Episodes can be streamed the next day on Hulu and Disney+.