Jennifer Grey, reluctant to star alongside Patrick Swayze in "Dirty Dancing," said she was taken aback when Swayze pulled her aside and tearfully apologized for straining their professional relationship in their previous film together.
Grey and Swayze appeared together in the classic cult film as love interests Frances “Baby” Houseman and Johnny Castle. Since then, Grey has been open about the fact that they did not have chemistry and were "forced to be together." During an appearance on "The View" on Wednesday, Grey explained why while also recalling a heartfelt moment she shared with Swayze, who died in 2009.
Grey's lack of enthusiasm to work with Swayze arose from her experience with him in 1984's "Red Dawn," released three years before "Dirty Dancing."
"Patrick was playing pranks on me and everybody," Grey said, according to the Independent. "[He was] late and the boss of everybody and it was just, like, macho and I just couldn’t take it. I was just like, ‘Please, this guy, that’s enough with him.'"
When Swayze was suggested for the lead in "Dirty Dancing," Grey objected.
"They said, 'Oh no, but he’s a dancer.' I know he’s a dancer, I’ve heard the whole story. I’ve heard all about the dancing," she said.
Grey did, however, do a screen test with Swayze, who apologized.
"He pulled me down the hall and said to me, 'I love you; I love you and I’m so sorry. And I know you don’t want me to do the movie,'" she said.
"He got the tears in his eyes. And I got the tears in my eyes, not for the same reason. I was like, Oh, this guy’s working me. And he goes, 'We could kill it. We could kill it if we did this' and I was like, 'OK, honey.' We go in there and he takes me in his arms and I was like, Oh, boy. I’m done. There was no competition."
Earlier this year Grey talked about about why she and Swayze were not compatible in acting together, saying that they were not a "natural match" — just like their characters in "Dirty Dancing."
"And the fact that we needed to be a natural match created a tension," she told People. "Because normally when someone's not a natural, you … both people move on, but we were forced to be together. And our being forced to be together created a kind of a synergy, or like a friction.
"I actually just had a thought about Patrick. I feel like if I could say anything to him now I would say, I'm so sorry that I couldn't just appreciate and luxuriate in who you were, instead of me wishing you were more like what I wanted you to be.'"
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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