Abby Lee Miller Promises Cancer Hasn't Mellowed Her Out on 'Dance Moms' (Exclusive)

'Dance Moms' fans will still get the outspoken Abby Lee Miller they know and love on her new Lifetime show, 'Dance Moms: Resurrection.'

Dance Moms viewers will still get the outspoken Abby Lee Miller they know and love on her Lifetime show.

ET's Keltie Knight recently sat down with the 52-year-old reality star to talk about Dance Moms, which follows the famous dance teacher as she rebuilds her dance company while battling the after-effects of her serious health issues. Miller says that despite undergoing multiple life-changing experiences last year -- serving time in prison as well as undergoing emergency surgery on her spine last April after she was preliminarily diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, a form of cancer that affects the lymphatic system -- she's still the same person she's always been.

"Well, I think the audience is going to think I've mellowed [but] maybe I just don't care enough," she says. "It might not be mellow, it might just be 'Eh. You're not that talented, kiddo, move over.'"

Indeed, Miller continued to be characteristically blunt during ET's interview, wheeling herself in the room and immediately pointing to a Dance Moms: Resurrection poster to call out that a girl's arm was wrong and that she wasn't present during the error.

"Well, I'm very detail-oriented," Miller explains. "I'm the same. I have always said that people don't change. Circumstances, situations change but people are what they are. Your genetic makeup is what it is. So, I'm thankful, I'm blessed, I'm appreciative, I'm grateful for the opportunities I've had. I didn't maybe think so before, but now, after coming close to death's door, you know, I appreciate Lifetime a little bit more."

Miller also gave ET a health update and says she's absolutely cancer-free. She's currently going to physical therapy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and shares that she also needs a knee replacement on her right knee, which she's been putting off for years. However, she's definitely optimistic about the future.

"Yes, absolutely. Are you kidding?" she says when asked if she's hopeful to be back up and chasing her young students again. "You know, what's weird is when I was away for an extended vacation in Victorville, California [where she served prison time] I was dancing all the time. My friends would say, or people that live near me would say, 'Oh my god, you're always dancing, stop it.' I didn't realize I was doing it because I kinda lost the joy of dance and I had lost a lot of weight, you know, that's all I did in Pittsburgh is gain it back, but I lost a lot of weight and I was dancing."

"I used to do a ballet barre at my locker," she continues. "I used to stand at my locker and do, like, a whole barre and I'd like to get back to that. I was excited to get out of prison and, like, set the world on fire and be up dancing and moving and, you know, and I felt so much better and healthier and then [my cancer diagnosis] happened."

Dance Moms debuts on June 4 on Lifetime.

For more of ET's candid chat with Miller, including her advice to Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman about prison life as the two actresses face legal troubles for their alleged involvement in a massive college admissions cheating scandal, watch the video below:

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