Ezra Sosa shared a message for Dancing With the Stars partner Julia Stiles after she received a shockingly low score during Horror Movie Night.
“This one is for you, Julia. ❤️,” he began in an Instagram post shared Thursday, October 29. “I hope you take a moment to remind yourself just how incredibly proud you should be of what you accomplished this past week. I don’t think people will ever fully understand what it took just to get you onto that ballroom floor.”
Sosa, 25, praised Stiles, 45, for her hard work despite “an incredibly painful injury, losing two full days of rehearsal, reworking practically our entire routine, and having to completely change our opening the day before the show,” noting the pair faced “easily one of our most challenging weeks yet.”
The ballroom pro called his partner a “firecracker,” emphasizing how she never gave up.
“Even through the pain, all she wanted to do was keep going. I was literally the one having to tell her to STOP and rest. That’s just who she is. She gives everything she has,” he wrote. “And somehow, through ALL of that, she walked onto that ballroom floor and PERFORMED. And what makes me even prouder? She walked into rehearsal today ready to work EVEN HARDER.”
Sosa gushed that he wished Stiles could see herself the way he views her, “because what I see is a woman with so much strength, heart, and determination. Someone who refuses to give up, even when the odds are stacked against her.”
Stiles and Sosa opened the Halloween-themed episode on Tuesday, October 27, with an Argentine tango inspired by the movie The Omen. Rehearsal footage showed a tense moment between the duo, with Stiles telling Sosa she doesn’t “respond well to frustration.”
The pair ultimately worked through their rough patch — Stiles jokingly called Sosa “a cranky bitch” — but their performance drew some less-than-stellar feedback from the judges. Carrie Ann Inaba said the actress looked “stiff” during the routine, while Derek Hough noted the performance felt “timid.” Overall, the duo scored 26 out of 40 points — including a 4 from guest judge Shirley Ballas.
Julia Stiles proved Andy Cohen’s previous assertion that she couldn’t dance wrong after commanding the Dancing With the Stars stage during the season 35 two-night premiere. “Derek [Hough] said it best,” Stiles, 45, succinctly told Us exclusively after the Wednesday, September 16, live broadcast, referring to the DWTS judge’s diss to Cohen, 58. In rehearsal […]
Though it wasn’t their highest scoring routine, Sosa is still proud of how far Stiles has come since the season began.
“I don’t love and respect you because of our scores or how perfectly a routine goes. I love and respect you because of who you are when things DON’T go perfectly,” he wrote via Instagram. “Years from now, I won’t remember the scores. I’ll remember how hard you fought to be there and how we got through it together.”
He concluded, “I’m so proud to be your partner, but even more grateful to be your friend. I love you, Julia. ❤️ @missjuliastiles.”
In the end, the pair were safe from the double elimination, with Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess and Jackson Olson and Emma Slater being sent home before Disney Night.
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
