Cristián De La Fuente had no idea what he was getting into when he agreed to compete in the sixth season of Dancing With the Stars, which kicks off on ABC Mar. 17 at 8 PM. “It’s not only the five hours you rehearse every day, it’s the interviews, the photos, the things I never imagined. Everyone said you have to work crazy hours but I thought they were exaggerating. They’re not. And I thought I was a good dancer. But I’m not,” confides De La Fuente as we chat before a rehearsal with his partner, Cheryl Burke. He says the show was looking for another Latino to follow in the footsteps of 2007 winner Hélio Castroneves, “and everyone else was sick. They went down the list and said, ‘OK, let’s call Cristián!’” quips the Chilean actor, who thought about it “not twice, but 25 times” before saying yes. “I was scared, to be honest. Nobody wants to be on a show like this that everybody watches and be kicked out the first week, and be embarrassed in public. Nobody likes embarrassment.”

But in the end, De La Fuente couldn’t resist a challenge. Having learned to fly planes in the Chilean air force, where as a lieutenant in the reserves he still flies with the Halcones aerobatics team, and having moved to the U.S. to give acting a try ten years ago, he realized, “I’m not a professional dancer, so if I don’t perform great, it’s OK.”

Admittedly “a little tight” at first, De La Fuente says his partner “was very shocked that she had to teach a Latino to move their hips. But Cheryl is an expert at fixing hips. She’s a great partner. If I can dance 10% of what Cheryl does, I’ll be the next Fred Astaire.”

A lifelong athlete, he has the stamina for marathon rehearsals, where he’s so far learned the cha-cha and the quickstep, the latter more difficult to grasp until he began to approach it—and dances to come—in actor ‘s terms. “The quickstep is like a musical comedy. Tango is more dramatic. It’s life and death.”

While he hasn’t seen any of his competitors rehearse, De La Fuente thinks Mario will do well “because he’s a singer and a dancer” and believes deaf actress Marlee Matlin will excel “because somebody who has been able to achieve what she has achieved in her life is somebody that doesn’t take no for an answer.” He thinks her ability to feel, rather than hear music will be an advantage. “When you listen to the music and you’re dancing with your brain you make a mistake. Dancing is from the heart. You have to feel it,” he explains.

His winning strategy? “I just want to compete with me. I’m just gonna give my 120% and if I don’t win it’s because there’s somebody better and that you can’t control.” But he is planning to go after the Latino vote. “We have the power to decide who’s going to be the next president and the next winner of Dancing With the Stars,” he reminds.

The show is marketing him as a Latin heartthrob but he doesn’t mind the sex symbol label. “Dancing is about being sensual,” he points out. “It’s the vertical expression of a horizontal thought.” He admits to using dance “as a tool of seduction” in his single days. “I thought it worked, because I did well when I was dating, and with my wife. Now I realize that maybe she married me for other reasons, not because of the dancing!”

De La Fuente’s wife Angelica will be watching him dance, eager to learn what he’s picked up—after his Stars stint ends. “I cannot learn and teach at the same time,” he explains. “Learn now, teach later.”

As for his teacher, two-time winner Burke, she praises De La Fuente’s work ethic and natural ability. “He picks up choreography really fast. There’s so much technique behind ballroom dancing but as soon as he got it he was great. He’s so funny—he makes me laugh so much. He knows how to have fun and that’s the most important thing. He has such a great attitude and he tries new things. And he’s got a lot of charisma. Like Emmitt Smith, he’s like a big teddy bear. You just want to hug him.”

Burke thinks that her partner’s acting skills will translate well to the dance floor, bringing “a character to each dance,” and that he’ll be especially good at the Latin dances. She’s taking him to the opening of her San Francisco dance studio on Apr. 4, and hopes she’ll get to visit Chile with him later—and fly with him. “Absolutely! I’d love that,” she says.

Meanwhile, De La Fuente has another upcoming TV project: he’ll play Mary McCormack’s baseball player boyfriend in the USA series In Plain Sight, premiering in Apr. 24 at 10 PM. We’ll have more on that—and other De La Fuente details—in an upcoming issue of Estylo.