Jennifer Grey says she wasn’t a “natural match” with Patrick Swayze when they filmed ‘Dirty Dancing’.
Jennifer Grey with Patrick Swayze at the premiere of Dirty Dancing in 1987
The 62-year-old actress shot to fame starring as Frances 'Baby' Houseman opposite the late actor - who died aged 57 in 2009 from pancreatic cancer - as Johnny Castle in the 1987 movie.
Although the pair didn't click at first, she says being made to work together “created a kind of synergy” to get the on-screen magic to flow.
Jennifer told PEOPLE magazine: "The same way Baby and Johnny were not supposed to be together … a natural match, right? And we weren't a natural match. 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.”
The ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ star - who is the daughter of the ‘Cabaret’ actor Joel Grey - also admitted that she regretted not being able to “appreciate" 'Point Break' star Swayze for who he was during shooting.
Jennifer said: "I actually just had a thought about Patrick. I feel like if I could say anything to him now 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.'"
Jennifer - who in 2020 split from her husband Clark Gregg, the father of her 20-year-old daughter Stella - denied having a crush on Patrick as she was “very busy with” her then-boyfriend Matthew Broderick - who is now married with children to Sarah Jessica Parker.
Jennifer - who met Matthew on the set of 1986 comedy 'Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ - said: "The weird thing was, it's like, 'What's wrong with me?" I mean, I was not lacking. And he was married and very in love with his wife. Whatever he was doing, I was not ... I was very busy with Matthew."
The ‘Red Dawn’ “learned so many things” about life while going out with Matthew.
Jennifer said: "I learned so many things about myself from my relationship with Matthew. First of all, we were really young. We were in our mid-twenties when we got together. And from where I sit now, that's pretty young. And we were, I don't know, I can only speak for myself. I was really in love with him."
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