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Jennifer Grey Recalls Swayze Apology as New ‘Dirty Dancing’ Retrospectives Surface

Fresh coverage spotlights on‑set tensions alongside the film's unlikely rise from a small budget to a global hit.

Overview

  • A newly highlighted account from The View has Grey saying Patrick Swayze pulled her aside during a screen test to apologize, with both moved to tears and their working dynamic shifting afterward.
  • Grey has said she and Swayze did not harmonize off camera and later voiced regret for not appreciating him more, according to reporting that cites her memoir and People Magazine.
  • Screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein has recounted that the script was rejected 43 times before a small producer backed it, a claim reiterated in this latest wave of features.
  • The 1987 film was produced for about $5–6 million, earned more than $200 million worldwide, and its signature song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
  • Recent write‑ups also revisit lore that the final lift was not rehearsed and that Swayze disliked the line “Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” as noted in past remarks to the American Film Institute.