Everyone remembers the classic 1980s movie Dirty Dancing, and part of what made that
flick so special was the onscreen chemistry between stars Patrick Swayze and Jennifer
Grey.
Patrick played the character of Johnny while Jennifer played the character of Baby, with
Johnny being a dancing instructor and Baby being his younger pupil.
Johnny memorably uttered the line "nobody puts Baby in the corner", though Patrick claimed
before his death that he had been hesitant to do so, believing the line was corny.
Despite the immense chemistry displayed between stars Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey onscreen,
it appears that the two didn't always get along very well on the set of their iconic
film together.
Join Facts Verse as we explore how Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey reportedly couldn't
stand each other.
When Dirty Dancing began filming, Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey had already performed
together in a film.
The classic teenage war movie Red Dawn had been released several years prior and had
featured both of the stars amongst its ensemble cast.
Patrick had been tasked with playing a leader in Red Dawn, and he took the role incredibly
seriously.
He and Jennifer had to train for the film together, and Patrick proved incredibly bossy
as he began stepping into the role of his character.
Because of this, Jennifer’s initial experiences with Patrick weren’t entirely pleasant.
Years later, Jennifer found herself cast in Dirty Dancing.
Jennifer was cast before Patrick, and she was subsequently tasked with screen testing
alongside numerous male actors looking to play the role of Johnny.
When Patrick Swayze showed up to give it a go, Jennifer had negative memories of their
time together filming Red Dawn.
Because of this, she was not at all excited at the prospect of performing alongside Patrick
for even the amount of the time of the screen test, not to mention the production time of
a whole movie.
However, the chemistry between the two stars proved undeniable.
Apparently, Patrick lifted Jennifer up over his head spontaneously during the audition,
just like he would famously do in the completed movie, and Jennifer knew just how to strike
her iconic pose!
Going into Dirty Dancing, Patrick Swayze was a much older and more experienced actor than
Jennifer Grey, and unlike her, he was also a trained dancer.
Jennifer was at all familiar with the art of dance, despite the natural talent that
she exuded during the audition process.
Jennifer would go on to be plagued by people considering her an excellent dancer due to
her role in the film, though she has since become proficient enough in the art to win
first place on Dancing with the Stars.
Given the immense chemistry that Patrick and Jennifer displayed during the audition process
and in the finished product of the film, one might imagine that the two maintained an amicable
relationship during the filming of Dirty Dancing.
However, this couldn’t be further from the truth!
As the more professional and experienced of the two, Patrick often found himself nearly
at wit’s end dealing with his female costar.
According to the late Patrick Swayze, Jennifer could hardly maintain her composure on the
set to the point where takes had to be kept in the finished film wherein the actress was
laughing for no reason.
While Patrick Swayze may have easily been able to get a scene done in one take, he claimed
that the childish attitude of his onscreen love interest made some scenes require far
more takes than would otherwise have been necessary.
Patrick did his best to show patience to Jennifer but oftentimes lost his temper.
By the end of Dirty Dancing’s production, the two were said to have been bickering before
the start of nearly every scene they had to film together!
At one point, the director of Dirty Dancing was said to have tried to reignite the camaraderie
between Patrick and Jennifer by making them watch footage of their initial screen test
together.
However, this proved not to work.
Despite the difficulty that arose between the two during the filming of the movie, the
film managed to be completed!
According to Jennifer, she had wondered at the time if the film that she was working
on was ever going to see the light of day.
The film had apparently been a passion project from its creative team, and Jennifer had agreed
to work on the picture as she shared a passion for the film's vision.
Jennifer's passion for the project is perhaps why she decided not to hold a grudge against
Patrick Swayze for being so serious during the filming of the movie.
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In recent years, Jennifer Grey has spoken more about the tension that arose between
her and Patrick Swayze during the filming of Dirty Dancing.
While many other stars would talk ill of the other person in such a situation, Jennifer
has always spoken positively about her male costar.
Jennifer never even badmouthed Patrick in the years before his death.
In fact, Jennifer credits the tension between her and Patrick with making Dirty Dancing
as good of a film as it was!
According to Jennifer Grey, the tension between her and Patrick can be attributed to the immense
chemistry exuded between the two on the screen in Dirty Dancing.
Jennifer thinks that tension can be more attractive on the screen than simple attraction and also
believes that Patrick's drive to perform as efficiently as possible on the set of the
film led her to turn in a better performance than she would've otherwise.
As a trained dancer and consummate professional, Patrick requested to do his own stunts on
the film.
Although Jennifer Grey wasn't the trained dancer that he was, he still inspired her
to push herself further than she ever had before, leading to her performance in the
film.
Jennifer Grey admired Patrick’s professionalism on the set of Dirty Dancing, and perhaps her
admiration for the man is what made her have a hard time keeping her composure when it
came time for them to perform romantic scenes together!
Jennifer claims that she even began to appreciate the way that Patrick smelled during their
scenes together, so maybe her infatuation just made her a bit too bubbly.
While Jennifer Grey is still around today, Patrick Swayze sadly passed away in 2009 from
pancreatic cancer.
Jennifer still loves reminiscing about both Dirty Dancing and her late onscreen love interest
in the film, regardless of the fact that the two could barely stand to be around each other
by the time that it was done filming.
Dirty Dancing remains to this day nearly as popular as ever, and Jennifer has revisited
the film multiple times over the years.
Whenever she watches the scene in which her late costar utters the classic line "nobody
puts baby in the corner", she reminisces on how Patrick nearly refused to say it.
Patrick shared in his autobiography that he believed the line “nobody puts baby in a
corner” was too corny and did his best to try and get it taken out of the script before
it came time for him to say it.
However, the film’s screenwriter insisted that the line stay in.
While Patrick may not have wanted to utter the line, he still gave the delivery his best
shot.
The line has gone on to become one of the most fondly remembered parts of the movie
and is easily one of the most classic lines from any movie of the 1980s.
After the film Dirty Dancing was released and became a massive phenomenon, Jennifer
Grey claims that she refused to dance in public for many years out of fear that her actual
dancing skills would compare unfavorably to the way that she appeared on screen in the
movie.
Despite this initial hesitance to jump back into the saddle and give real-life dancing
a serious go, Jennifer was eventually talked into participating in the ABC reality series
Dancing with the Stars.
By the time that Jennifer Grey appeared on Dancing with the Stars, she had undergone
many health struggles in her life and had lived through the death of her Dirty Dancing
costar.
At the time, she was ready to let go of her inhibitions and finally give legitimate dancing
a go!
Jennifer's bid to become a real dancer proved successful, as she ended up winning first
place in the show's competition.
Alongside her partner, professional dancer Derek Hough, Jennifer ended up taking winning
the competition during the 2010 season of the show!
At the time that Dirty Dancing was filmed, Patrick Swayze was 34 years old, while Jennifer
Grey was 26.
Though their characters were meant to be eight years younger than their respective ages,
they maintained the same age gap.
Jennifer has continued acting in the days since filming Dirty Dancing, in addition to
her aforementioned appearance on Dancing with the Stars.
Jennifer has turned in notable guest-starring performances in the series The Connors and
Grey’s Anatomy.
She also has continued acting in movies sporadically, with one of the more recent films that she’s
been featured in being named Bittersweet Symphony.
Despite the on-screen romance that Jennifer Grey shared with Patrick Swayze, the biggest
romance in her real-life has been the one that she shared with ex-husband, Clark Gregg.
Known for his appearances in such works as 2012’s The Avengers and its spin-off series,
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Clark was Jennifer’s husband for nearly two decades before the
two decided to split in July of 2020.
Although Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey could barely stand the sight of each other
by the time that they were done filming the classic 1980s movie Dirty Dancing together,
Jennifer has maintained a professional admiration for her late costar that has lasted past his
death in 2009.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey
could barely stand each other on the set of Dirty Dancing, or did you think that they
had gotten along as well behind the scenes as they did on the screen?
Let us know in the comments.