James Van Der Beek Jokes That He Isn’t Sure His Kids Will Vote for Him on ‘Dancing With the Stars’

You may think that James Van Der Beek‘s five kids would be easy votes for him on Dancing With the Stars season 28, but you’d be mistaken! Turns out they have another favorite: Queer Eye star Karamo Brown!

“They were pretty chill about it until they found out Karamo was going to be on and then they were super excited and starstruck that I was going to meet Karamo,” he exclusively told Closer Weekly at the cast reveal at Planet Hollywood in New York City of his children being in awe of the Netflix star. “[They] would not guarantee me that they would vote for me instead of him! My daughter goes, ‘Daddy, it’s a dancing competition. [I’ll vote for] whoever dances better!'”

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Hopefully James, 42, will be able to use his “willingness to jump in and commit” to give him a one-up on the the rest of the competition — which includes the likes of supermodel Christie Brinkley and The Supremes singer Mary Wilson. That said, he admitted that just thinking about “how sore I’m going to be” is a real fear. “Soreness is definitely going to be something,” he said. “It’s gonna be real.”

While he admits he has done sports and is in training for a project he’ll do after DWTS, he notes that “dancing is a whole different beast” because of all the “different angles, different foot placements.”

All that said, James is looking forward to cutting loose on the ballroom floor.

“I’m excited to get on stage,” James gushed about deciding to do the show now after being asked many times before. “I started out in the theater, and it’s been years since I’ve done any kind of stage work and I love to dance. I love to move, and it’s challenging and it’s crazy. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

As for whether or not his Dawson’s Creek family will reunite to support him, he isn’t making any promises. “Oh, it would be fun for sure,” he remarked, [but] I think everybody’s pretty busy working right now.”

We can’t wait to see James bust a move when Dancing With the Stars season 28 premieres Monday, September 16, on ABC.

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