Kenny Ortega, choreographer of Dirty Dancing, revealed that Patrick Swayze got very annoyed by Jennifer Grey’s “giggles” during the film’s shooting.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Ortega recalled the filming of the scene where the character Johnny (Swayze) teaches Baby (Grey) to dance.
In the movie, Baby’s family is on vacation at a resort in Catskills, where Johnny is a professional dancer, and she ends up replacing his usual partner in one of his must-see activities.
Johnny is already not very happy with the arrangement, but Baby annoys him quite a bit during rehearsals when she can’t complete the part of the choreography where his hand brushes her armpit.
And apparently, Swayze didn’t even have to try much for the “annoyed” part. “At the moment he’s tickling her, she’s literally losing [it],” said Ortega.
“We’re in a tin building. It’s freezing cold. It’s 4 a.m. Patrick is so tired and wants to go home. And every time he does it, she laughs, and his face… Nobody directed that.”
Fortunately for everyone involved, Dirty Dancing was a success, bringing Swayze and Grey to new heights of stardom and preparing Ortega for a long career as a choreographer, director, and producer.
Now, nearly 40 years later, Grey is cast in a yet untitled sequel to the Dirty Dancing legacy. In the film, Grey said she wants to “honor” Swayze, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2009.
Photo and video: Divulgação/Vestron Pictures. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
