Xochitl Gomez was “freaking out a little bit” over her minor Dancing With the Stars injury — but the Marvel star is not leaving the competition just yet.
“I’m all good. Trust,” Gomez, 17, exclusively told Us Weekly following the DWTS live show on Tuesday, October 31. “I just hit my knee against the altar at the very top. I couldn’t tell if it was a twist or if it was something with my kneecap — I don’t know.”
Gomez and partner Val Chmerkovskiy performed a contemporary routine to “Game of Survival” by Ruelle during DWTS Monster Night, earning the duo a score of 37 out of 40. The routine ended with Gomez climbing atop an altar, but viewers were confused when Chmerkovskiy carried her off the dance floor after their performance.
Initially, it appeared that DWTS host Alfonso Ribeiro and Chmerkovskiy were assisting in stabilizing Gomez as she stood in front of the judges’ table.
“I was like, ‘OK, let me see if I can put my foot down and I can stay on it. We’re good,’” Gomez recalled to Us. “They were asking me, ‘Are you OK?’ I’m like, ‘Yes, we’re good. Trust.’”
When they went to get their scores, Chmerkovskiy lifted Gomez’s dress, revealing what appeared to be a blood stain. Gomez, meanwhile, played it off as part of the Halloween theme.
Despite the snafu, Gomez said she had “a lot of fun” doing her contemporary routine.
The duo returned to the dance floor later in the night to compete in the “Dance Monster-thon” marathon, a four-minute competition that consisted of two dances. All the DWTS couples performed at the same time until there was one pair left standing. Any twosome visited by the Grim Reaper was sent off the dance floor. Gomez and Chmerkovskiy ultimately won the “Dance Monster-thon” and got five extra points added to their score.
“I was not expecting that,” Gomez told Us. “I was hoping, like, ‘Tap me out please.’”
As DWTS continues, Chmerkovskiy and Gomez are definitely the couple to beat — especially as they’re at the top of the leaderboard after Monster Night.
“It’s kind of crazy. I don’t really think about it that way. I just think about how the night went and if it was well deserved,” Gomez explained. “All the stuff that we did this week was pretty hard, so it felt pretty well deserved.”
The actress credited her partner for choreographing a killer contemporary routine even though he’s used to ballroom-style dances.
“I could tell it took a little bit of a toll, but it was one of those things that if you guys can get through it together, you can get through it,” Gomez gushed. “So, it was a lot of fun. I think I’d say that I carried for the contemporary and [Val] definitely carried for the dance marathon.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
