Laurie Hernandez has a lot to thank her lipstick for. The Olympian, who is competing on Dancing With the Stars season 23 with professional partner Val Chmerkovskiy, received a 31 out of 40 for her tango to Crystal Lake's "Into the Sunset" and she's feeling "great."
"I feel great, girl," Hernandez told E! News' Sibley Scoles. "Wow. It was really hard to channel all the emotions that I was supposed to have during the tango, but once they put on this lipstick that was it. I was like, ‘I am good now, I am this.'"
Still, she said it takes some time to get her into the mindset for the dance. "Well, right before we even started I was just like, ‘OK, got to focus, got to have my tango face on,'" she said. And then her package aired. "It's still a little hard for me to get into that serious character, but I'm working on it."
Another thing she's working on? Extending her neck. "The only thing that's ever happened during dancing was I'm trying to extend my neck and the next day I wake up and I'm like oh man, my neck is sore ‘cause I'm so little and he's so tall. Compared to me, he's a giant," she admitted.
And then there are the heels. "The heels. Girl, my feet hurt," she said.
Working on extending her neck, rehearsing and just living her life doesn't leave a lot of time for politics it seems. When asked if she's political and following the debates, Hernandez said no.
"I watch Law & Order sometimes. Does that count? I just know Mariska Hargitay and Ice T right. I just know their regular names," she said. "There's Amanda and Amaro…"
Hernandez has immunity, but find out who goes home on Dancing With the Stars on Tuesday, Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. on ABC.