Rumer Willis Says Self-Confidence Her Greatest Gift From ‘Dancing With The Stars’
It seems like a long time ago now that Rumer Willis and Val Chmerkovskiy brought home the highest scores on the season premiere of Dancing with the Stars. On Week 1, Rumer and Val received 32/40. Now, heading into the semi-finals, Rumer and Val are coming off a high note: two perfect scores in Week 8.
But the mirror ball isn’t theirs to take home yet. Rumer and Val face three more teams Monday night, including two who have also seen the top of the leaderboard: Nastia and Derek as well as Riker and Allison. Speaking to Extra, Rumer Willis said she still has a competitive spirit but has already benefited from the competition.
“I feel like my desire to win has not really changed as much the whole season. The greatest gift I’ve gotten from all of this is just having the self-confidence, and learning how to dance.”
On an earlier episode of Dancing with the Stars, Rumer opened up about painful bullying she experienced as the daughter of famous parents. She said she could never measure up to her mother, Demi Moore, who is considered a timeless beauty. When she tried to break into acting, she was judged by online critics because of her connection to Moore and her father, Bruce Willis.
“It was really hard. I would read that stuff and feel awful. I thought, ‘I don’t even get a chance?'”
Throughout the Dancing with the Stars season, Rumer’s mother has been in the audience to support her. This past weekend, Rumer honored Demi with a social media post on Mother’s Day. She shared a picture of herself as a child with her mother and included a touching caption.
“Happy Mother’s Day to this incredible woman. Thank you for bringing me into this world and teaching me what it means to be a woman. I love you so much mama. You are more beautiful every day. I will never cease to be in awe of your strength, wisdom and generosity.”
Monday night marks a departure for Dancing with the Stars. For the first time, the judges have been matched with the teams and will provide one-on-one coaching. Rumer and Val have been matched with Bruno Tonioli. Bruno had kind words for the dancers on Twitter, a sentiment that Val echoed.
I could not have wished for more professional and hard working artists then @TheRue @iamValC to bring my concept to life Monday @DancingABC
— Bruno Tonioli (@BrunoTonioli) May 10, 2015
Thank you for your vision and the uncompromisable enthusiasm to see it thru. was a game changer for us this week. https://t.co/dJ7Xj5hlgs
— Valentin (@iamValC) May 10, 2015
Dancing with the Stars airs Monday and Tuesday on ABC.
[Rumer Willis image courtesy of Getty]
