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For years, there have been rumors that Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze didn't get along while filming Dirty Dancing. Recently, the actress released her memoir Out of the Corner where she set the record straight on their relationship, as well as her experiences with the "crazy jealous" Johnny Depp and her ex-fiancé Matthew Broderick. Here's what Grey has said about Swayze.
Jennifer Grey Hated Patrick Swayze's Pranks
Before Dirty Dancing, Grey and Swayze starred in Red Dawn together. Back then, the actress hated the Point Break star's pranks. "Patrick was playing pranks on me and everybody," she told The View. "It was just macho and I just couldn't take it. It was like, 'Please, this guy, that's enough with him.'" So years later, when Grey found out that Swayze was starring opposite her in Dirty Dancing, she was really against it. But her feelings changed after their first screen together and "he pulled me down the hall and said to me, 'I love you, I love you and I'm so sorry. I know you don't want me to do the movie.'"
Grey added that the actor "got [...] tears in his eyes and I got 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 if we did this.'" She then agreed to do the film with him. "We go in there and he takes me in his arms and I was like, 'Oh, boy. I'm done," Grey recalled. "There was no competition. He was the easy chair I'd been dreaming of my whole life."
Jennifer Grey Regrets Her 'Tension' With Patrick Swayze
Grey revealed in her autobiography that she and Swayze were "forced" to get along for the 1987 film. "The same way Baby and Johnny were not supposed to be together … a natural match, right? And we weren't a natural match," wrote the actress. "And the fact that we needed to be a natural match created a tension. 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."
She added that if Swayze were still alive today, she'd apologize to him. "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,'" she wrote. The actress has previously credited the actor for assisting her through the film's dance scenes. "He was really strong and he was very protective and his heart was very much in it," she said. "He smelled really good, his skin was really nice." Grey also said some nice things about the Ghost actor before his death in 2009 following his pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
"One thing that worked beautifully was that it really was a teaching situation,"' she said of Swayze. He also raved about her talents, calling her "one of the most gifted actresses around in terms of her ability to be present in the moment right now." Despite their great onscreen chemistry, the actress said that Swayze wasn't really her type. "And the weird thing was, it's like, 'What's wrong with me?' I mean, I was not lacking," she explained. "And he was married and very in love with his wife. Whatever he was doing, I was not… I was very busy with Matthew [Broderick]. Like, what could be more different."
'Dirty Dancing' Is Getting A Sequel
In 2020, Lionsgate's CEO, Jon Feltheimer confirmed that Dirty Dancing is getting a sequel. But recently, more details have emerged about the film like Grey reprising her role as Frances "Baby" Houseman and Jonathan Levine directing the project. "While the original Dirty Dancing has always been one of my favorite films, I never imagined I would direct the sequel," said Levine. "Through co-writing it, I fell in love with the characters (new and old), the world of 1990s Catskills, New York, and the music, which will range from songs from the original movie to '90s hip-hop."
"I can't wait to collaborate with Jennifer to bring this beautiful story of summer and romance and dancing to a generation of new fans," he continued. "And to the longtime ones, I promise we will not ruin your childhood. We will tackle the assignment with sophistication, ambition, and, above all, love." Variety also reported that "filmmakers are in conversations with Swayze's estate to incorporate the actor's presence in some way." But for Grey, "All I can say is there is no replacing anyone who's passed—you never try to repeat anything that's magic like that. You just go for something different."
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