Xochitl Gomez, Val Chmerkovskiy share mantra for competing on 'Dancing With the Stars' after earning season's 1st perfect score

It's nearly impossible to miss the chemistry between Dancing With the Stars partners Xochitl Gomez and Val Chmerkovskiy. In a recent sit-down with Yahoo Entertainment, the duo shared details about the exhilarating journey of performing in front of millions of viewers on the competition show.

"Going into it, I was like 'OK, I'm only going to get to week five so I'm just gonna have fun,'" says 17-year-old Gomez. Now nine weeks into the competition, the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness star and her partner are getting ready to quickstep into the Nov. 21 Taylor Swift-themed show.

Ahead of the big night, Gomez and Chmerkovskiy, 37, are feeling confident after securing the season's first perfect score on Nov. 14 with their tango to Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)."

Seeing 10s across the board felt like a "full-circle moment" for Gomez, who grew up watching the show with her family and friends. But nailing the dance moves as a competitor isn't as easy as it looks on TV.

"You begin to take the competition a bit seriously and then things happen," she explains. "You have a quick change in the middle of your dance or, like, falling and hurting your ankle, things like that. You can go from being carefree to being worried and stressed. But now at this point in the competition, I want to cherish everything because it's almost over."

Gomez and Chmerkovskiy had to adjust their routine for Nov. 7's episode after the actress shared on TikTok that she sprained her ankle in rehearsals while attempting a cartwheel for their jazz performance to Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl." Chmerkovskiy did the cartwheel during the live show instead.

"It was so freaky," she says, especially since she already suffered an ankle injury the week prior. "I didn't want it to get to my head because if you do, then you kind of go down a rabbit hole. But if you push it away and laugh about it, it almost doesn't hurt as bad."

Chmerkovskiy says "it was a challenge that we faced and I'm just happy that it didn't turn into something more serious, that we had a good attitude about it and that we were able to move on."

"It brought us closer together as a team," Gomez adds.

"It takes two to tango," Chmerkovskiy agrees. "You gotta do what you gotta do. We're there for each other."

The camaraderie between the partners is the real deal, but Gomez says she wasn't expecting it at first.

"You see all these people and the relationships they make on the show, and you wonder, do these people really get along, like, how real is that?" she explains. "And so, actually being on the show, it's funny because we really do get along with everyone."

"This is one of those projects that I know will one day end for me, and so, while I'm still here, I get the chance to work with someone like Xochitl and we try to cherish every single moment," Chmerkovskiy says.

With only six couples remaining in Season 32 — Gomez and Chmerkovskiy; former Bachelorette Charity Lawson and Artem Chigvintsev; Vanderpump Rules star Ariana Maddix and Pasha Pashkov; singer-songwriter Jason Mraz and Daniella Karagach; YouTuber Harry Jowsey and Rylee Arnold; and How I Met Your Mother star Alyson Hannigan and Sasha Farber — the competition is fierce.

"There are strengths they all individually bring to the competition," Chmerkovskiy says of the other pairs. "So it really becomes about preference and about detail and about which couples can kinda squeeze those special moments out of their performance and connect to the audience at home."

That's why the duo is rehearsing overtime for the show's celebration of Taylor Swift. They're performing a quickstep to "Paper Rings," a song from Swift's 2019 album Lover.

"The song is very carefree and it’s about celebrating new friendships and new relationships," Chmerkovskiy explains. "It's very complimentary of Xochitl and I just having so much fun at rehearsals."

Keeping "a sense of joy," says Chmerkovskiy, is what keeps them going.

"Our mantra is 'Just have fun,' but I think it goes deeper than that," he explains. "At the end of the day, we don't want to look back and regret anything — regardless of the result. I've had seasons where I ended up actually winning, looking back at it and realizing, 'Man, I wish I enjoyed that a little bit more.' So now, we are reminding ourselves in real-time to just have fun."