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‘We were forced to be together’: Jennifer Grey opens up about having zero chemistry with Patrick Swayze

Grey was dating Matthew Broderick at the time of ‘Dirty Dancing’

Annabel Nugent
Tuesday 19 April 2022 04:01 EDT
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Strictly: Jennifer Grey joins

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Jennifer Grey has opened up about feeling pressured to have chemistry with Patrick Swayze.

The pair starred together as love interests Frances “Baby” Houseman and Johnny Castle in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing.

In a new interview, Grey spoke about the difficulties of not having any romantic tension with her late co-star. Swayze died aged 57 in 2009.

“The same way Baby and Johnny were not supposed to be together, they weren’t natural… a natural match, right? And we weren’t a natural match,” she told People.

“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.”

The 62-year-old continued: “And our being forced to be together created a kind of a synergy, or like a friction.”

Grey said that if she could say anything to Swayze now, she would say: “I’m so sorry that I couldn’t just appreciate and luxuriate in who you are, instead of me wishing you were more like what I wanted you to be.”

The actor went on to explain how Swayze was not her type.

“And the weird thing was, it’s like, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ I mean, I was not lacking,” she said.

“And he was married and very in love with his wife. Whatever he was doing, I was not… I was very busy with Matthew [Broderick]. Like, what could be more different.”

Grey dated the Ferris Bueller star in the Eighties, after which she dated Johnny Depp.

Speaking of her past relationship with the Pirates of the Caribbean star, she said: “There was some heat. It was a f***ing bonfire. It was literally like, ‘Are you f***ing kidding me? Are you f***ing kidding me? I’ve never seen a guy like this.’

“And energetically, what it was like being with him, it was like, ‘Oh, I’m being totally, totally compensated for the s*** I just went through.’”

Elsewhere during the interview, Grey spoke about how a nose job almost derailed her career.

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