Eric Roberts told it Newsweek supporting him in the crowd as he continues to compete Dancing with the stars after a family feud saw his relationship with sister Julia Roberts fall apart.

Eric, known from films like Star 80 And Runaway train– has finally made its long-awaited Dancing with the stars debut after first being asked to join the show 19 years ago. Unfortunately, a scheduling conflict arose at the time and he had to decline.

This year, celebrities will compete for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy, alongside Eric Family matters actor Reginald VelJohnson competes with pro Emma Slater; Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks collaborated with Val Chmerkovskiy; Olympic rugby star Ilona Maher competes with Alan Bersten; and much more.

Eric shared that his wife, casting director and actress Eliza Roberts, will support him every night, but he didn’t mention his famous sister and actor daughter Emma Roberts.

Newsweek emailed spokespeople for Julia and Emma Roberts for comment Tuesday.

“My wife is here every day, but I found out last night that my lawyer is in love with his show. He was there in the house, ‘Oh, I was on the show, I can’t wait to come,’ and then I come to find out he has a lot of customers on the show so he is a regular in the audience Dancing with the stars,” said the Hollywood actor.

“So my lawyer, his girlfriend, my wife, my stepdaughter, my grandchildren; yes, they’re all there,” Roberts added.

“They all love the show, but they’re all very quiet about it because they don’t know how to really approach me about it. They haven’t asked me if I’m happy. They… ‘So how are you doing? ‘ go? Oh yes, hmm-mm.’ But they didn’t ask if I’m happy. But I’m happy.’

The tension in the relationship between Eric Roberts and sister Julia began in the 1990s, which Eric believes was largely due to his addiction and other family problems. The feud intensified when Julia supported Emma’s mother, Kelly Cunningham, in a bitter custody battle.

In recent years, Eric has tried to repair his relationship with Julia. In his 2024 memoir, Runaway Train: or the story of my life so farhe expressed his guilt for the damage his addiction had caused and apologized to Julia.

Whether Julia or Emma will show their support for Eric Dancing with the stars remains to be seen. When Eric was asked how he thought he would do in the dance competition, he said he didn’t think he would do that well.

“I don’t want to jinx it, but I don’t expect to do well. I expect to have fun. And if doing well, you know, comes from having fun, then I’m going to do great,” he added. .

The actor dances alongside Britt Stewart, who first joined the show as a company member in season 23 and continued in that role until season 27. In season 29, she made history as the show’s first black female professional dancer. She told me Newsweek that she likes Roberts’ mentality when it comes to the competition.

‘Sometimes with Dancing with the starsyou never really know (how well you’ll do),” Stewart said.

“Sometimes you can have someone like Eric with no dance experience, but people fall in love with who he is, with the way he approaches this experience, and we could go much further than we could ever (have) expected… I believe really that he grows and progresses, and that is also very important in this process.

“So I like the mentality that we’re going into this season: we’re just week in, week out, day in, day out, and if we go further than we expected, that’s how it will be.” a nice surprise,” Stewart added.

Eric added: “I’m definitely the underdog.”

Stewart said that as the first Black female professional on the show, she always feels the pressure, but in a positive way.

“In my first season as a pro, I put a lot of pressure on myself, a lot of pressure to feel like I’m the only one, I’m the first, I’m this representative, and now I’ve turned that into fuel in my career.” Every season I just want to continue to be that representation, but I also want my breaking barriers to continue to open doors,” said Stewart.

Stewart is also president of the nonprofit Share the Movement. It aims to increase diversity in the professional dance community by providing financial, educational, and inspirational support to promising young BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, (and) People of Color) dancers.

In the first episode of Dancing with the Stars season At the age of 33, one of the movement’s scholarship recipients sat in the audience with their mother.

“I actually met them, and her dream was to become the first black female pro Dancing with the stars and then her mother said, ‘Honey, I think maybe you should be the second one because there’s already one,'” Stewart continued.

“And you know, to see her in the audience and for me to be that reflection of how she sees herself one day is something that’s hard for me to put into words.”

Eric added, “You’re going to make me cry because it’s so cool.”