In 1987, the life of Jennifer Gray took a new turn thanks to the film dirty dancing. If the surgery has, according to her, prevented her from going further in her adventure on the big screen, the actress, now 62 years old, could simply never have known such notoriety. The reason ? His refusal at the start to give the reply to Patrick Swayze, alias Johnny Castle, his dance teacher and lover in the scenario. Thirty-five years after the release of dirty dancing, a sequel is not only planned but Jennifer Gray also publishes her memoirs. An event she came to talk about on the set of the show The View.
Necessarily interviewed on the madness around Dirty Dancing, Jennifer Gray dropped a bombshell claiming she almost refused to play with Patrick Swayze. For her, it was out of the question that they would be partners again after her first bad experience with him for the film Red Dawn in 1984, shooting on which the actor was apparently execrable: “He was very macho, he made bad jokes to everyone. I just couldn’t take it.”
“He had tears in his eyes”
When Patrick Swayze therefore knew that this episode could cost him his role, he presented his most sincere apologies to Jennifer Grey: “He took me aside and told me ‘I adore you, I adore you and I’m so sorry. I know you don’t want me with you on this movie.’ He had tears in his eyes“ she affirmed, always in the emission The View. This step towards her had the desired effect since Jennifer Gray also found herself on the verge of tears. It is by noting that the chemistry worked between them that they embarked on the adventure.
From hate to love, there is only one step. Unfortunately, this good agreement ended in 2009, with the announcement of the death of Patrick Swayze, swept away by pancreatic cancer at the age of 57 years. Jennifer Gray had at the time split a moving message: “When I think of him, I see myself in his arms when we were kids, dancing, practicing high lift in a freezing lake and then having a blast with that tiny little movie we thought no one would ever see. . (…) Patrick was a rare and beautiful combination of raw masculinity and stunning grace..” The actress would probably not have said no for a last dance with him…