Exit Interviews: Billy and José

Entertainment Weekly did a couple of great exit interviews with Billy and José. Check out their website. Here are some highlights:

Billy Bell:

This year you also had your knee injury. What happened?
I have a slightly torn [section] of my knee. Basically just soft tissue attached to ligaments. So yea. It kind of basically just messed up the tracking in my knee, and was causing me a lot of pain. So I went through a lot of physical therapy throughout the week to get it better, or a little less painful. And I wore a big old knee brace while dancing, and that helped out a lot.

It was a bit controversial that you decided not to dance, even though the doctor gave you the go-ahead. What was the reasoning for you sitting out?
My entire reasoning for sitting out was because I’m a huge believer in prevention. And I thought, if I feel something tearing, why am I going to continue to tear it when I can stop, let it heal, and continue in the competition? Especially because, in the grand scheme of things, the show is such a small part of someone’s career. I was just thinking ahead of time. Whether I won or lost the competition. It’s better to win or lose the competition and be able to dance, than win or lose the competition and be like, oh, great, now my knee’s completely messed up and I’ll never be able to dance.

Last night, Nigel called you an androgynous dancer. Do you think of yourself that way?
You know, I don’t really mind being androgynous. I think anything to set you apart is good. That’s kind of been the hot topic, I feel like. Everyone’s been on this androgynous case. I don’t really mind.

Who do you think is going to win the whole thing?
It’s so hard! All four have such potential to really take it. I think AdéChiké is gaining so much momentum in the competition, whereas Kent has had it. He’s had the tween support the whole time. They love him. And then Lauren is the only girl, so she’s definitely got a huge chunk of vote right there. And Robert — I kind of think he’s a dark horse. I think he’s going to sneak up. He could take it.

José Ruiz:
And what about the judges’ critiques? Do you think they were too easy on you at times?

At the end of the day, it’s a TV show. Sometimes it’s almost like you’re picked to be criticized more than other people. And sometimes it’s a week where you do really good, and you get praised. It happens. Some weeks I know maybe they may have gone easy on me, and other weeks I think their critiques were good, and I think they were right in what they said. Of course, I don’t think all the critiques and everything they said was good, but at the same time you can’t really think about things like that. For me, it’s just that I love to dance. It’s not really about the critiques.

Do you have a favorite routine?
I really enjoyed my b-boy routine with Dominic. That was a good one. It was in my own style, and it’s the first time that they’ve ever had breaking as a genre on this show.

Not even Lauren [Froderman] and Lauren [Gottlieb]? They played up your crushes this season.
[Laughs] Yes! Lauren [Gottlieb] is cool. She’s a good soul. She really helped me out. That week that I danced with her really opened me up. It just really showed what I could do. That was the first time that I got contemporary. I definitely am grateful for that.

They both seem like really chill guys. Looking forward to seeing them on tour! Check out www.ew.com for the full interviews (plus search SYTYCD for other interviews)