Pop Culture

Harry Hamlin Told Dylan Efron That ‘DWTS’ Takes Olympian-Level Grit

September 29, 2025

On Let’s Not Talk About the Husband, Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna turned their experience on Dancing with the Stars into a masterclass in what it really takes to survive the show. The Emmy-nominated actor shared his own ballroom battle scars and gave Dylan Efron the kind of advice only someone who’s been there can offer.

Before he ever met Efron, Hamlin knew firsthand the terror of stepping onto that stage. Even with decades of live theater under his belt, nothing compared to the heart-pounding fear of dancing in front of millions. “When they called my name and they said I was going out to do the cha cha, what was the feeling in my heart? Oh my God,” Hamlin remembers. “I’ve never danced before, and I had to dance in front of 20 million people. Apparently, I did okay. But it was terrifying.”

That fear shaped the advice he later gave to Efron, who is currently competing on the popular show. “I won’t say break a leg,” Hamlin told him. “People have broken legs doing that show, I think, haven’t they? Well, I think ankles. If you injure yourself, you’re effed. It’s over for you.”

**Why Hamlin sees DWTS as an Olympian challenge**

Hamlin and Rinna both know what the show demands physically and emotionally. “Anybody who does Dancing with the Stars, you have to know that anybody who takes that on is a superhero,” Hamlin says. “You have to be an Olympian. You have to have won the Super Bowl, really, to win that contest. It’s so hard.” The physical demands include rigorous training, long hours, and the risk of injury. At the same time, the emotional toll is evident in the nerves and fear that every contestant faces.

That intensity is exactly why Hamlin wanted to prepare Efron for the experience. “The audience doesn’t really have any clue how terrified everybody is when they come out there for that first day. It is nuts,” he explains, “so we gave him a lot of extra love.”

The reality of ballroom battle scars

Hamlin also shared the darker side of the competition—the physical toll it takes. While on tour after the show, he dealt with a herniated disc that nearly ended his ability to dance at all. “There was a chiropractor backstage, and I said, ‘Hey, man, I gotta go out in five minutes. Can you fix me?’ And he said, ‘Oh, no problem. I’ll fix you right up.’ And he ended up herniating my disc,” Hamlin recalls.

A doctor later warned him, “You’ll never dance again. You’ll never run again. You need surgery immediately.” Instead, Hamlin pushed through, getting an epidural and finishing another 30 shows. “It was messed up for a long time. We had chiropractors in every city,” he says.

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Let’s Not Talk About the Husband (@letsnottalk.aboutthehusband)

Rinna remembered the toll on her body, too. Partnered with Louis van Amstel during her run, she made it all the way to the semifinals but described the physical pain as brutal. “We would do these spins, and he grabbed me, you know, like here. And you do that like 45,000 times. And oh my God, by the end of it, I could barely breathe. It was so painful,” she recalls. Hamlin added that he remembered her “hobbling” across the bedroom like someone decades older.

What Dylan Efron faces now on DWTS

Efron may have the advantage of athleticism, youth, and a certain last name. Still, as Hamlin pointed out, none of that cancels out the fear that comes with the ballroom. “You could get halfway through the dance and just tweak out completely and like fall down,” he says. Even Ted Danson once told him, “Man, you got balls of steel,” after watching his first performance.

That mixture of nerves, adrenaline, and sheer determination is the rite of passage every contestant faces. And it’s what Hamlin wanted Efron to understand: DWTS is a trial by fire. Injuries can end a run in seconds, and confidence can crumble under the lights. For those who survive, like Hamlin and Rinna, the transformation is undeniable.

For Dylan Efron, Hamlin’s parting words said it all. This isn’t about breaking a leg, it’s about proving you can handle a stage that demands the same stamina as an Olympian.