Perhaps one of the most iconic and timeless movies, Dirty Dancing is undoubtedly a major player in pop culture.
But as many times as you have watched the film, there is still so much about it that you may not know. But don’t worry, you’re about to become the leading expert on Dirty Dancing once and for all.
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*Dirty Dancing* is one of the most iconic movies of all time.
It is incredibly sensual, tells a beautiful story about love, and even deals with sensitive subject matter such as abortion (which, for the time, was super shocking for people).
However, just because people love the movie, that doesn’t mean that they know everything about it!
In fact, there are a ton of interesting facts people don’t know.
But we are here to help with that! Let’s get into all these interesting facts about the film!
1. Eleanor Bergstein, co-producer, revealed that *Dirty Dancing* actually sparked a political movement in other parts of the world.
“In Russia, it’s policy in the battered women’s shelters, when a woman comes in for help. First, they wash and dress her wounds, then they give her soup.”
“Then they sit her down and show her Dirty Dancing.”
“When the Berlin Wall came down, there were all these pictures of kids wearing Dirty Dancing t-shirts; they were saying, ‘We want to have what they have in the West! We want Dirty Dancing!'” she said in 2006.
2. Because Patrick Swayze insisted on performing his own stunts, he ended up injuring himself while filming.
During the famous log scene, he kept falling over and ultimately injured his knee to the point where he had to have fluid drained from it in order to continue filming.
That’s committment!
That little tidbit was reconfirmed by Jennifer Grey when he passed away.
“Patrick was a rare and beautiful combination of raw masculinity and amazing grace. … he was a real cowboy with a tender heart. He was fearless and insisted on always doing his own stunts, so it was not surprising to me that the war he waged on his cancer was so courageous and dignified,” she said.
3. While it appeared like the entire movie was filmed in one place, some scenes were actually filmed in entirely different states.
The cabin exteriors were filmed at Mountain Lake in Virginia, and the lake scene was filmed at Lake Lure in North Carolina in October.
4. At the time she auditioned for the role of Baby, Jennifer Grey was 26 years old.
During her audition, she had to prove that she was capable of pulling off a younger character with conviction!
Thankfully, she was able to win over the hearts of the casting directors.
5. Patrick had a theory as to why *Dirty Dancing* became such a classic.
And if you ask me, it makes a ton of sense.
“It’s got so much heart, to me,” he said. “It’s not about the sensuality; it’s really about people trying to find themselves .”
“This young dance instructor feeling like he’s nothing but a product,” he went on to say.
“And this young girl trying to find out who she is in a society of restrictions when she has such an amazing take on things .”
6. You may have noticed that throughout the film, Baby and Johnny are always wearing very contrasting colors. This was done on purpose!
While Baby often wears light, pale colors throughout the film, Johnny is often wearing darker ones.
This was done intentionally as a form of symbolism — portraying Baby’s innocence and Johnny’s dark, brooding persona coming together.
7. The “Cry To Me” love scene was voted the sexiest movie moment in cinematic history.
Sorry, Edward and Bella. These two know how to turn up the heat!
While I’m sure there are countless other love scenes that could have and can still easily contend with this one, “Cry To Me” still takes the cake!
8. Rehearsals only began two weeks before they started filming.
The cast only had two weeks of dance rehearsals before they began filming for 44 days because summer was coming to an end.
They wanted to make sure that the leaves didn’t start changing colors halfway through filming.
9. Billy Zane revealed that Sarah Jessica Parker had also auditioned for the role of Baby, but didn’t get the part.
Long after the film’s massive success, Billy revealed to TMZ that Sarah had nearly gotten the part.
The deciding factor was determined by who had better chemistry with Patrick, and Jennifer ended up being chosen.
10. Patrick was strongly against there being a *Dirty Dancing* sequel, and refused to be a part of it if there ever was.
Believe it or not, he actually turned down $6 million to reprise the role of Johnny because he was so against sequels .
11. There was originally supposed to be a few nude scenes.
In the director’s cut of the film, Jennifer Grey had a couple of nude scenes — in fact, the “Cry For Me” scene included nudity.
But during their screen testing, viewers voted against it, finding it distasteful, and the scenes were ultimately cut from the final version of the movie .
12. Patrick Swayze was the only actor who was ever considered to play the role of Johnny.
“No other actors were ever considered for Johnny except Patrick. It was always him and only him. We looked through pictures and I said, ‘Oh, there’s the eyes we want,’ and we turned them over, and Emile [Ardolino], our director, said, ‘As a matter of fact he’s a Joffrey dancer,'” screenwriter, Eleanor Bergstein revealed .
“We went after him, and when I met him, I said, ‘Now that I know you, if you decide not to do this, it’s hard for me to think that I’ll make the film.’ I really felt that way and I still do,” she added.
“So it was always Patrick, only Patrick, the only one we offered it to, and a wonderful, brilliant, good man. ”
13. Jennifer Grey admitted that Swayze was a lot more fearless than her.
But that actually ended up serving as chemistry between the two of them.
“His fearlessness with my fearfulness…together was like a marriage where you have two opposites” she said . “He’d do anything and I’d be scared to do anything.”
14. Even though they did fight a lot on set, Grey and Swayze ended up getting along eventually.
“There was a feeling like an easy chair, a hot easy chair,” Grey said . She also mentioned the encouraging words he said to her:
“I’ll never drop you, I’ll never let you get hurt. I might throw myself around. I might be careless with my own body, but I will stand in front of a train for you.”
“I was doing things that I had never been capable of doing before, because of my ability to allow him to take care of me,” she continued.
“That (was) life imitating art imitating life.”
Excuse me, I have tears in my eyes.
15. Screenplay writer Eleanor Bergstein never imagined how famous the movie would become.
“We had no hope of any impact of anything at all. We were told repeatedly, even by our studio producers that it was a movie that would go straight to video bins after a few days in the theater. It was our wonderful audiences who kept it in the theater and still keep it alive after all these years.”
Do you know of any more interesting *Dirty Dancing* behind the scenes secrets?
Or were you pleasantly surprised by all of these facts?
Either way, let us know down below in the comment section! We would love to hear from you!
