Jennifer Grey, best known for her role as “Baby” in the classic film “Dirty Dancing”, was set to experience a meteoric rise in her career after the film’s release. Instead, a tragic event changed everything and led to her retiring from the film industry for years.
Grey, now 64, recently spoke about the incident that changed her life and affected her deeply. Although Dirty Dancing was a low-budget film with no major stars or directors, its premiere in August 1987 marked a turning point.
The cast and crew sensed they had created something special, and Patrick Swayze quickly rose to fame, becoming a teen idol and starring in hits such as “Ghost” and “Donnie Darko”.
Jennifer Grey, on the other hand, was struggling with personal problems. Shortly before the film’s release, she and her then-boyfriend Matthew Broderick were involved in a devastating car accident in Ireland that killed a mother and her daughter. Grey escaped with minor injuries, but suffered from a guilty conscience about having survived.
Although Dirty Dancing became a huge success, Grey found it difficult to celebrate her newfound fame amidst her grief. She expressed that it felt wrong to be celebrated at such a painful time, explaining: “It didn’t feel good to be the star of the town”. The trauma of the accident lingered, affecting her ambitions and mental wellbeing.
After years away from the spotlight, Grey made a brief return in a 1995 episode of Friends , but she had also undergone plastic surgery that drastically changed her appearance. She later described the experience as if she had entered the operating room as a celebrity and left with a sense of anonymity. She referred to it as “the worst nose job ever”.
By 2010, Grey began to reclaim her place in Hollywood, winning Dancing with the Stars and enjoying newfound recognition from her fans. She looked back on her journey and said: “This is like eating a delicious steak after 23 years of dieting”.
In 2018, she continued working on new projects, including the comedy “ Red Oaks” and the film “Untogether”. It is encouraging to see Jennifer Grey rediscovering her joy and passion for acting.
Who still longs for the magic of Dirty Dancing?