Trivia / Dirty Dancing

• Actor-Shared Background: Jennifer Grey, like Baby, is also Jewish.
• California Doubling: The first movie and the remake was shot in Virginia and North Carolina.
  • Havana Nights was set in Cuba, but filmed in Puerto Rico.
• The Cast Showoff: One of the songs on the soundtrack ("She's Like the Wind") was written and performed by Swayze. Subverted with the song Lisa sings in the talent show: Jane Brucker wrote and performed it, and it's a glorious example of Stylistic Suck.
• Channel Hop: Originally, Ms. Bergstein pitched the film to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and MGM executive Eileen Miselle actually approved it. Unfortunately, however, management changes at MGM placed the film into turnaround, until Vestron Pictures stepped in. Today its now owned by Vestron's successor Lionsgate.
• Creator Backlash:
  • "Nobody puts Baby in a corner". Swayze hated the line and claimed he did everything in his power to get it cut.
  • The prequel was actress Romola Garai's first Hollywood film (she's English) and she repeatedly has cited the filming of the movie as being an extremely negative experience which caused her to re-evaluate working in Hollywood. In a 2004 interview with The Telegraph, she explained that the filmmakers "were obsessed with having someone skinny. I just thought, why didn't they get someone like Kate Bosworth, if that's what they wanted?" Garai also later revealed that producer Harvey Weinstein, whose company, Miramax, was co-producing the film and held international distribution rights, had required her to meet him alone in a hotel room while he was wearing only a bathrobe in order to obtain the part: "I had to go to his hotel room in the Savoy, and he answered the door in his bathrobe. I was only 18. I felt violated by it, it has stayed very clearly in my memory."
• Dawson Casting:
  • At 27, Jennifer Grey was 10 years older than her character.
  • Patrick Swayze was 35, but Johnny is probably supposed to be in his mid-twenties.
• Deleted Scene: Some minor clips that pad out certain scenes—Baby and Lisa talking, Jake visiting Penny, etc, and an explicit Baby and Johnny love scene.
• Descended Creator: As mentioned below in The Other Marty, Miranda Garrison was already working behind the scenes as assistant choreographer when she was cast as Vivian Pressman.
• Dolled-Up Installment: Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights started life as a stirring and gritty war drama about the Cuban Revolution, focusing on a 15-year-old American girl in Cuba at the time, and the difficulties of the revolution being led by the youth, as virtually all of the revolutionaries were under 30.
• Fake American: British Romola Garai as American Katey Miller
• Fake Nationality: Mexican Diego Luna as Cuban Javier Suarez in the second film.
  • African-American singer Mýa cameos as Cuban Latina Lola Martinez.
• He Also Did
  • Penny was Tina Tech.
  • Choreographer Kenny Ortega previously choreographed St. Elmo's Fire and later went on to direct and choreograph Newsies and High School Musical, while his assistant choreographer, Miranda Garrison^note whom also acted in the film as Vivian Pressman, Johnny's former dance student, later went on to choreograph Selena, Baseketball, and Caroline in the City.
  • Director Emile Ardolino later went on to direct Sister Act.
  • Music supervisor Michael Lloyd simultaneously worked as music producer for Kidsongs ^note (and, less meritoriously, provided the music score for the same year's The Garbage Pail Kids Movie).
  • As far as Havana Nights is concerned, the main character's father and older sister are Roger Sterling and Betty Draper respectively.
  • The original script of the sequel, Havana Nights, was written by none other than Peter Sagal of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.^note The final product, by Sagal's own admission, bears almost no resemblance to his script, as it was heavily rewritten to become more like Dirty Dancing to be the sequel.
  • Paul Feig as Norman in the TV adaptation.
  • Producer Linda Gottlieb later became the executive producer on One Life to Live from 1991 until 1994.
• Hostility on the Set: Grey and Swayze's discomfort during the training montage was real. They didn't get along back when they appeared together in Red Dawn (1984). Swayze was an avid dancer who did his own stunts, whereas Grey was a lot more timid and inexperienced. This was used to the director's advantage: he encouraged the stars to ad-lib when possible, hence Johnny's frustration at teaching Baby. According to Swayze, one of the moments that broke the ice was his learning that Jennifer — daughter of famous Broadway dancer Joel Grey — had never learned how to dance; he apparently couldn't stop laughing for several minutes when she told him.
• I Am Not Spock:
  • For years Grey refused to dance in public, even with her husband, because she was still insecure about her dancing and didn't want to disappoint onlookers. She would later compete on Dancing With the Stars at her friends' urging.
  • Averted with Miranda Garrison. In addition to appearing on the DVD's, Garrison was a judge on Dirty Dancing: The Time of Your Life, a dance competition TV show which aired on British channel Sky Living and was presented by model Kelly Brook and featured top choreographer Sean Cheesman and Royal Ballet dancer and actress Jennifer Ellison as fellow judges. The show was taped at the Mountain Lake resort in Giles County, Virginia, where, coincidentally, the original movie was filmed.
• Life Imitates Art: Near the end of the film, while some of the staffers are singing the resort's anthem, Max laments to Tito that he's having a hard time keeping customers at the resort, saying "Trips to Europe. That's what these kids want." Fast forward to 1990, when Vestron Pictures is having a hard time retaining former clients they had back when they were solely in the video distribution business.
  • Also fast forward to the 1990s/2000s, when many resorts in the "Borscht Belt" in the Catskills are sitting abandoned.
• Missing Episode: In the original cut of the film, Jennifer Grey was naked in the movie. But, test audiences disliked the nude scenes and the scenes were removed and the footage was destroyed.
• Money, Dear Boy:
  • Patrick Swayze once confessed that the film was a paycheck job for nearly everyone and that no one was really enthusiastic about the movie and just wanted to get it over with. It wasn't until they finally heard the demo for "(I've Had) the Time of My Life" that things started to click and they became excited for what it could become.
  • The team behind "(I've Had) the Time of My Life" are all frank about how they were involved simply for the money. The acclaim that came afterwards was a surprise bonus.
• No Stunt Double: Patrick Swayze insisted on doing his own stunts. During the log scene he kept on falling off of the log and injured his knee so badly he had to have fluid drained from the swelling, becoming one of two cast members to require a hospital visit.^note The other one, Paula Trueman, who played elderly resort guest Mrs. Schumacher, also required a hospital stay for dehydration.
• Permanent Placeholder: The dancing that Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey do during the love scene was actually the same dance that they did for the screen tests. It was not originally supposed to be in the film.
• The Other Marty: Originally, Marge was played by Lynne Lipton, who is briefly seen in the beginning when the Houseman family first pulls into Kellerman's (she is in the front seat for a few seconds; her blonde hair is the only indication). Unfortunately, however, she became ill during the first week of shooting and was replaced by Kelly Bishop, who had already been cast to play Vivian. Ms. Bishop initially expressed reservations about the role of Marge, but Jerry Orbach convinced her to accept the role, telling her "Take it. It's much nicer." To play the role of Vivian, Miranda Garrison, who was already working behind the scenes as assistant choreographer, stepped in.
• Referenced by...: Young Sheldon: In "A Rival Prodigy and Sir Isaac Newton", Sheldon asks Connie to stay for Prof. Sturgis's lecture, but she doesn't really understand any of the science. Sheldon says he felt that way when he watched that movie with Connie, who responds: "When Patrick Swayze takes his shirt off in here, I'll be back."
• Sleeper Hit: No one expected much from the movie. Vestron Pictures was more of a home video distribution company beforehand, the budget was slim and the content of the story (especially the abortion arc) made advertisers nervous. The executives at Vestron were convinced they had a bomb on their hands. After watching the film’s original cut, producer Aaron Russo advised them to “Burn the negative and collect the insurance.” Dirty Dancing opened in fourth place, climbed to second place, and stayed there for almost two months. Dirty Dancing grossed over $50 million dollars on a $6 million budget, and "(I've had) the Time of My Life." won an Oscar for best original song.
• Throw It In!: During the "Hungry Eyes" montage, when Baby and Johnny are practicing Baby turning and looking in Johnny's eyes and they bump foreheads, that was real. They kept it. Jennifer Grey was also ticklish and couldn't stop giggling when Patrick Swayze ran his hand down her side, much to everyone's annoyance (that's Swayze's real-life frustration that you see - he thought most of these were blown takes; which, at the time, they were). And the three-way dance scene came from rehearsals with Kenny Ortega.
• Troubled Production: From LeBeau's WordPress blog post on Jennifer Grey:
  "The fighting grew so intense that there was concern that it would ruin the movie’s love scenes....If the actors weren’t in the best mood, that might have had something to do with the weather. When filming started in September, the weather alternated between sweltering heat and pouring rain. It was so hot that dancers were passing out and elderly actress Paula Trueman had to be taken to the hospital to be treated for dehydration.
  There were delays which pushed shooting into autumn. In order to maintain the illusion of summer, the production crew had to spray paint the changing leaves green. The temperature which had previously been over 100 degrees for much of the time, came plummeting down to near 40 degrees as Grey and Swayze filmed the famous scene in the lake. While the crew was bundled up in coats and gloves, the actors stripped down to their summer clothes and waded out into the frigid water for take after take."
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sarah Jessica Parker and Billy Zane originally auditioned for the roles of Baby and Johnny, but they couldn't dance very well, and director Emile Ardolino only wanted experienced dancers in the film, to avoid the problems of using dance doubles, which occurred in Flashdance.
  • Val Kilmer also turned down the role of Johnny.
  • Winona Ryder, Sharon Stone and Pia Zadora were considered for Baby.
  • Johnny Castle was originally Italian. This was changed when Patrick Swayze was cast.
  • Writer and co-producer Eleanor Bergstein originally wanted her close friend, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and Grey's father, Joel Grey, to play elderly resort guests and kleptomaniacs Mr. and Mrs. Schumacher, the actual culprits who stole Moe Pressman's wallet, but Westheimer dropped out when she discovered that the character was a thief and Joel Grey did not appear. Instead, the roles were played by Paula Trueman and Alvin Myerovitch.
  • When Vestron Pictures was looking for a corporate sponsor to help promote the film, Procter & Gamble, then the owners of Clearsil skin care and acne ointment, almost signed on, feeling that it could be a vehicle to reach a teen target audience. The company backed out, however, due to their dislike of the Penny abortion subplot.
  • The finale song was initially planned to be a Lionel Richie song; Kenny Ortega and Miranda Garrison (who played Vivian) selected "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" instead.
  • When Havana Nights entered production, Natalie Portman was the first choice for the role of Katey and Ricky Martin was going to be cast as Javier.
• Write What You Know: Eleanor Bergstein based much of the character of Baby on her own life. Like the Housemans, Bergstein and her family actually spent summers in the luxury resorts of the Catskill Mountains. In addition, during her college years, Bergstein was also a dance instructor working under legendary ballroom dancer and dance studio proprietor Arthur Murray, and in fact, actually based Johnny and Penny on fellow instructors.

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