Grey initially nixed her former costar Patrick Swayze for the role of Johnny.
But she admits that its success has surprised her.
“And it was a low-budget movie, and that was before low-budget movies were happening.
‘Dirty Dancing’ starred Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey.Credit:Vestron Pictures /Courtesy Everett
It was not heard of.
There weren’t low-budget movies.
It had no cache.”
Jennifer Grey attends the premiere of ‘A Real Pain’ in October.Manny Carabel/WireImage
“And it kind of was a little risky,” Grey said.
“It kind of felt like, it’s calledDirty Dancing.
The sex scenes are described quite explicitly, and there’s no money for me or the movie.
Maybe it’s just a glorified porno.”
She was familiar with his work they were costars inRed Dawn so Grey was against it.
Previously, Grey has said that Swayze dished out pranks and machismo there.
So she attempted to shut down the idea immediately, despite him having been classically trained.
“I know everything about the guy,” she told the higher-ups.
“Trust me, he never stopped telling me about all of this.
I don’t care.
But they convinced her to dance with him.
Manny Carabel/WireImage
“Just dance with him,” they told her.
As she’s talked about before, Swayze apologized to her and asked her forgiveness for his past behavior.
He really wanted to play Johnny.
Swayze went on to star in films such asGhostandPoint Break, butDirty Dancingremained one of his best-known roles.
The actordied of pancreatic cancerin 2009.
The movie is still pretty perfect, largely because of the chemistry between its two stars.
“And part of the energy that looks like love is energy.
And energy is all you really want.
It doesn’t have to be perfect.”
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