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The success of the film launched Patrick Swayze to stardom, but the same did not happen with Jennifer Grey,
More than three decades following its release, “Dirty Danicing” is considered a classic of the ’80s and one of the most successful movies of all time.
Set in 1963, it tells the story of teenage Frances “Baby” Houseman (played by Jennifer Grey), who has a hot summer affair with dance instructor Johnny Castle, played by Patrick Swayze.
“Dirty Dancing” grossed more than $214 million worldwide and won an Oscar for the song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.”
Audiences fell in love with the characters, the music, and the iconic dance routines, including the famous “lift up.”
The success of the film launched Patrick Swayze to stardom, who died of cancer in 2009 at the age of 57. But the same did not happen with Jennifer Grey, who in a few years disappeared from the public scene, as if the earth had swallowed her.
This 2022 Gray has published his memoirs, in which he tells the reason why his film career did not prosper: a nose operation that left her unrecognizable to the general public and that made the big movie studios stop offering him roles.
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One of the scenes from “Dirty dancing”.
The dilemma of the operation
In “Out Of The Corner” Gray – who is now 62 years old – recounts how early in his career, while he was struggling to get roles, his mother, fellow actress Jo Wilder, suggested to him that the lack of work might have something to do with his “Jewish” nose.
The actress also thought that this might be true, but she had always refused to undergo rhinoplasty.
“I was almost thirty years old and had spent much of my adult life trying to love me and accept me as I was”says the actress. “So going under the knife felt dangerously close to admitting defeat.”
After the huge success of “Dirty Dancing” she decided to take the plunge and told the renowned plastic surgeon who was going to operate on her to “fine tune” her nose but leave the characteristic “bulge” on her septum.
The procedure was a success and Gray started getting more papers and making money for the first time in his life.
In 1992, while filming “Wind,” the film’s cinematographer noticed a piece of cartilage protruding from the tip of his nose.
The actress spoke with her surgeon and agreed to fix it. The idea was simply not to see that piece of cartilage, but the result of that second operation it would change his life forever.
Once he was able to remove the bandages, Gray was shocked by what he saw in the mirror. “I mightn’t understand what I was seeing. I knew something bad had happened.”
The second operation changed her appearance so much that the general public no longer recognized her.
“It seemed like I had committed an unforgivable crime: deliberately stripping away the one thing that made me special,” says Grey, who was aware that his original nose was also a physical connection to his Jewish identity.
image source, Getty Images
Jennifer Gray with her parents following the premiere of “Dirty dancing”.
“Bottoms out”
In an interview with journalist Katie Couric last May, Gray reflected on what had happened.
As he said, his parents’ families were Jews originally from Eastern Europe and when they arrived in the US they changed their last name. And for Jews working in show business (his father is “Cabaret” Oscar-winning actor Joel Grey), changing one’s nose “was normal and considered smart.”
“My mother knew how show business worked and she thought it would be easier for me to get parts, because there weren’t many roles for girls who looked like me and were Jewish. There weren’t many opportunities and she wanted me to have more opportunities. She wanted me to have the career that she didn’t have.”
According to the actress, following the first operation “she did not stop working and it turned out that her mother” was right.
When he had to undergo the second operation, he explicitly told the surgeon that he liked his nose and that “I wanted a strong nose.”
“After the second operation (the surgeon) took my bandages off and something was wrong. He looked at me and said, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a dramatic change.'”
“I don’t know what he did but he changed the proportion of my face (…) he looked different in a way that didn’t make sense,” the actress said in the interview with Katie Couric.
“It was the hardest, lonely and confusing moment of my life. It was very devastating. And being so misunderstood around the world for decades… The lack of generosity and humanity hurt me so much.”
According to Grey, following the operation “he might not find a job” or survive.
“I decided to throw in the towel. I never once more asked anyone to give me their approval or like me.”
image source, Getty Images
The actress in an image of 2019.
From then on, he had to figure out who he was “without that character, without ‘Dirty Dancing'”.
“And in that loneliness I hit rock bottom. And I understood who I was and how much I was worth in a way that no one might ever take it from me once more.”
According to Grey, her loved ones saw her go through it all “and it had to be very difficult for them.”
The actress – who is now working on the production of a sequel to “Dirty dancing” – spent years trying to understand why the public turned their backs on her following her change in appearance.
“At some point I thought that perhaps they felt that (the character) Baby was them and they felt very identified with her, because there are very few films in which the protagonist looks like them, or is not perfect or is more human… Y it hurt them that (with the operation) I was saying something regarding themwhich were not enough”.
“I spent too many years thinking regarding this and not finding an answer. I just realized that no one was going to rescue me (…) It was a drama and I realized that he was a very strong person,” Gray recounted.
“All the hard things that have happened to me, have happened to me and have changed me and I would not want to be another person (…) Now I am happier than ever and I feel very grateful to have survived. And I do not think regarding myself or regarding my nose. I think regarding what I have contributed in this life, as a mother, as a friend,…”.
