He’s currently lighting up our screens week after week on Dancing With The Stars. But actor Samuel Johnson says the show is taking an emotional toll on him.
Last week, his moving performance was dedicated to his sister Connie, who died of breast cancer in 2017. The dance floored viewers, but things were even more raw behind the scenes.
“I was crying every time we rehearsed it,” the 2017 TV WEEK Gold Logie winner admits. “It was a bold and raw out-of-body experience.”
Samuel’s dance wowed viewers.
Had she been here, Samuel says the powerful piece would have affected his sister.
“This dance would have destroyed Connie,” he says.
“It’s a tough one. I wouldn’t have been able to have her in the room if she were alive, because we’d both break.”
For Samuel, who co-founded the charity Love Your Sister with Connie in 2012, this dance was the perfect way to honour her memory.
“She wasn’t just a cancer patient,” Samuel, 41, says. “I’ve been telling her cancer story for years in an effort to inspire donations and to remind women to check their boobs. But now I also get to tell the story of my sister.
“I had her for 40 years and can’t think of anything more beautiful to do than sharing that story.”
Samuel and his dance partner Jorja Freeman.
Ultimately, no matter how hard Samuel is being pushed, he’s rising to the challenge – and focused on Love Your Sister’s goal of raising $10 million for cancer research.
“I’ve never come close to wanting to give up,” he says of his DWTS experience. “When you embrace something fully, you tend not to reach those thresholds – it doesn’t get too hard if you want to be there!”
Dancing With The Stars airs Monday, 7:30pm, on Network 10.
