Hok Konishi and Lacey Schwimmer were the resident couple of So You Think You Can Dance and since they only made their relationship public recently, I felt that it was my duty to find out the real story about when they got together. This is also the first interview they have ever done where they exclusively talked about dating. Hok tried out for the show before and it was when Lacey’s brother (Benji Schwimmer) also auditioned and ended up winning. This interview is definitely worth a look.
(Lacey sees her photo in the press kit I prepared for the interview).
Lacey Schwimmer: I look like Lisa-Marie Presley right there!
Murtz Jaffer: You do a little bit! Until you said that I didn’t really see it.
LS: (Turns to Hok). I don’t really look like that at all do I? Not saying that she isn’t an attractive person, she’s gorgeous but I don’t usually look like that.
Hok Konishi: Baby, you look a lot better than that!
LS: Well, that’s a compliment, but yeah. Okay.
MJ: Well I think you guys both obviously know what my first question is going to be which I am sure you get all the time. When did the romance start?
(Lacey & Hok both laugh).
MJ: It’s pretty cool, because I am happy that it is like public.
LS: Yeah.
MJ: Because there was a guy from American Idol who was rumored to be dating a girl from The Hills and it wasn’t public, so he sat down and I am like, so you and this girl from The Hills.
LS: And he just went ghost-faced!
MJ: Yeah. And then I had my friend who was a blonde girl that looked like her walk in and I am like ‘hey look, it’s…’ because I wanted to test if he would get up.
HK: Uh huh.
LS: Oooooh. You’re sneaky!
HK: That’s clever!
MJ: (Laughs).
LS: Okay, when did the relationship start for me or for him? Because they’re completely different!
HK: (Laughs).
MJ: Well I have heard that Benji (Schwimmer) introduced you when you auditioned with him.
LS: Right, and I totally had a crush on that. From that moment, I had a crush on him but he rrrrrrreally didn’t like me so much, so his friend asked me out and I decided to go out with his friend (laughs).
HK: (Laughs).
LS: And that didn’t work out so well, and then…
HK: See and I backed away because I heard that she was kind of seeing my friend. When you know that….
MJ: You’re not going to…
HK: Yeah, I know when to step back.
LS: Well, yeah. So his friend and I just didn’t work out and then during Vegas week, we hung out a lot…
HK: And we saw each other again after in the LA auditions. It was a little awkward to be honest (from my side).
MJ: But a little part of you had to have known that you might see him again.
LS: Oh yeah. I mean I knew that he was going to make the show and so I was kind of like ‘oh, I’ll go and support him every week if I am not on it.’ It was that kind of a thing and then both made and it was just kind of like we kept getting closer and closer, even if we really didn’t want to (ahem).
HK: (Laughs).
MJ: During the show, whenever you were like pulling names to pick partners, was it ever like ‘oh, I really want to dance with Hok.’
LS: I was actually really nervous to do that because I didn’t know if it would affect anything…
HK: In a good way or a bad way. I don’t know. I didn’t think that I would get you as a partner for some reason.
LS: I didn’t either.
MJ: You know what was interesting was the fact that it never leaked during the show. I never heard anything about it until after when you did the In Touch interview.
LS: Yeah, we weren’t really too public about it.
HK: At first, we were covering it a little bit…
LS: We thought we’d get in trouble!
HK: There’s a contract!
MJ: But they can’t prevent that.
LS: Yeah, I know.
MJ: On Survivor, they encourage it.
HK: Exactly.
MJ: So why did you decide to go public? Just to stop people from saying you’re with Kameron and you’re with Jaimie?
LS: I mean it got kind of annoying after awhile. Them saying that he was with Jaimie and I was with Kameron.
HK: The show was kind of making it like that.
LS: But I think both of us just got sick of hiding it because it was just not natural to do that.
HK: But I think as it got toward the end of the show… even though people kind of found out, it wasn’t really going to affect anything toward the show anymore so it was just like people could know I guess.
LS: Yeah, we didn’t care anymore.
MJ: Well now it is like the dream situation because you are on tour together. And I always ask people from Survivor this as well. You lived on this island with this girl that you really liked. They kind of condense a year into 39 days because you are with them 24/7, so is it like that for you on the tour because you have been dancing together, you’re in completely different cities together.
HK: We talk about that…
LS & HK: A lot actually.
LS: It’s like we’re living together. I think after tour, we’re going to be very upset.
HK: It’s going to be really hard because the thing we’re in right now is probably the peak because we’re doing the same job. We’re with each other. We don’t have to worry about living situations or food or nothing. We just wake up and dance.
MJ: And do you guys live in the same state?
LS: Yeah, we actually live in the same city but it’s a little far away from each other.
MJ: Right, right, right.
HK: I am sure it will work out, right?
(Lacey & Hok giggle).
MJ: Very cool, because I am getting the signal for the switch.
HK: Thank you.
LS: Thank you.
MJ: Thanks to you both.
Here are the remaining dates for the So You Think You Can Dance tour:
Nov 15 Houston, TX – Reliant Arena
Nov 18 Glendale, AZ – Jobing.com Arena
Nov 19 San Diego, CA – San Diego Sports Arena
Nov 21 Los Angeles, CA – Nokia Theatre
Nov 23 Oakland, CA – Oracle Arena
Nov 24 Sacramento, CA – Arco Arena
Nov 25 San Jose, CA – HP Pavilion at San Jose
Nov 27 Portland, OR – Rose Garden
Nov 28 Everett, WA – Everett Events Center
Nov 30 Reno, NV – Reno Events Center
– The third season of So You Think You Can Dance aired on CTV this past summer.
– The third season of So You Think You Can Dance aired on FOX this past summer.
Sir Linksalot: So You Think You Can Dance
Please credit Murtz Jaffer & RealityDish.com when using this interview. If reposting, please post just an excerpt and link back to the rest of the piece.
