16 LittleKnown Facts About "Dirty Dancing" (Like Why Patrick Swayze 'Hated' His Iconic Baby Line!) Andrea Wurzburger, Emily KrauserAugust 21, 2025 at 9:44 PM Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Jennifer Grey as Frances 'Baby' Houseman and Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle in 1987's 'Dirty Dancing' Dirty Danci...
- - 16 Little-Known Facts About "Dirty Dancing" (Like Why Patrick Swayze 'Hated' His Iconic Baby Line!)
Andrea Wurzburger, Emily KrauserAugust 21, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Jennifer Grey as Frances 'Baby' Houseman and Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle in 1987's 'Dirty Dancing'
Dirty Dancing shimmied onto the silver screen on Aug. 21, 1987, and summers haven't been the same since.
Starring Jennifer Grey as teenage resort guest Frances "Baby" Houseman and the late Patrick Swayze as enigmatic dance instructor Johnny Castle, Dirty Dancing has become a pop culture mainstay — referenced on sitcoms such as Modern Family, scenes reenacted in movies like 2011's Crazy, Stupid, Love and signature choreography recreated at couples' weddings. Songs like the Academy Award-winning "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" are not only synonymous with the 1987 classic but have become music staples in their own right.
Not every iconic moment from the romance drama is loved by all, however. The one line nearly everyone knows, even if they haven't seen the film — "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!" — was the least favorite for one of the lead actors.
Despite varying opinions on that now-famous line, it's impossible to ignore the enduring popularity of Dirty Dancing, which Grey has attributed to the movie being "very genuine and simple."
"It was about innocence and the way that innocence is lost and how people explode into a different iteration of themselves," the Ferris Bueller's Day Off star told PEOPLE in 2020.
Keep reading to find out which cast member despised that renowned catchphrase and even more fun facts about Dirty Dancing.
Dirty Dancing is loosely based on screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein's life
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'Dirty Dancing' creator Eleanor Bergstein is photographed next to the film's sign in Toronto in 2007.
While Dirty Dancing is not autobiographical, the film was inspired by many elements from screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein's real life. Bergstein spent summers in the Catskills with her parents (though she wasn't there in 1963, the year the film was set). Not only was her father a doctor, but she also went by the nickname "Baby" until she was in her early 20s.
Of course, she loved to dirty dance.
"There are many, many, many things about my life that are in it — my family, my sense of this resort that I saw as a 12-year-old with my nose pressed to the dance studio, and I imagined the rest — but this is not the story of my 17th summer," Bergstein told Woman's World in 2024. "It's not an accurate story of my life, it just uses lots of elements of my life."
Patrick Swayze originally wrote "She's Like the Wind" for a different movie
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Patrick Swayze appears at a Los Angeles-based record shop to sign copies of the 'Dirty Dancing' soundtrack in 1988.
Among the film's original songs, three became pop classics.
Swayze co-wrote and performed "She's Like the Wind," which he originally intended for his 1984 film, Grandview, U.S.A. He later brought it to the film's producer, Linda Gottlieb, who loved it.
"Hungry Eyes" by Eric Carmen and "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes were also huge hits. The latter won multiple awards, including an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Grammy.
As for the rest of the mega soundtrack, the crew had to scramble to afford the music that Bergstein insisted on including. Eventually, all the songs she requested made it into the movie, thanks in large part to music producer Jimmy Ienner.
Since its release, the Dirty Dancing soundtrack has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and has become one of the best-selling albums of all time, per Legacy Recordings.
"(I've Had) The Time of My Life" was chosen just before the last scene was filmed
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Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle and Jennifer Grey as Frances 'Baby' Houseman in 1987's 'Dirty Dancing'
It was down to the wire when the filmmakers picked "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" for the final scene.
The night before shooting the finale, they went through a bag of cassette tapes that had been sent over to them, all of which contained original songs submitted for the movie.
"The last cassette ... Well, that was it," choreographer Kenny Ortega said in 2019 on season 1 of the Netflix docuseries The Movies That Made Us.
Singer-songwriter Frank Previte, who also wrote "Hungry Eyes," served as co-writer of the legendary track.
Patrick Swayze's eyes were a big reason he was chosen as Johnny Castle
Vestron/Kobal/Shutterstock Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle in 1987's 'Dirty Dancing'
The filmmakers went through many photos of actors' eyes to find their perfect Johnny.
"I wanted hooded eyes," Bergstein said on the "Dirty Dancing" episode of The Movies That Made Us. "So, we went through picture after picture, and I said, 'Ah! Those are the eyes I want.' "
However, they auditioned other actors because Swayze's resume stated "no dancing" — even though his mom was a well-known Texas dance teacher, and he was a professionally trained ballet dancer. The note was there because Swayze had suffered a knee injury playing high school football and didn't want to audition for projects as a dancer.
Jennifer Grey was 26 when she portrayed 17-year-old Baby
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Jennifer Grey attends the premiere of 'Dirty Dancing' at the Gemini Theater in New York City on Aug. 17, 1987.
Dirty Dancing is a coming-of-age story about 17-year-old Baby, but Grey was 26 when she nabbed the leading role, while her co-star Swayze was 34.
"Jennifer Grey was pushed into the audition room by her father, and we were in love," Gottlieb said on The Movies That Made Us.
Bergstein added, "As she [Grey] walked in, she said, 'Wish me luck, Daddy,' and she just closed the Baby's face in my mind, and from that moment on, she was the only person I wanted."
Sarah Jessica Parker was up for the role of Baby
Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage Sarah Jessica Parker attends the 'Slam Dance' premiere at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., on Sept. 28, 1987.
Before Grey became Baby, casting director Bonnie Timmermann looked at 127 other stars for the role. Timmermann considered Winona Ryder and Sharon Stone for the part, and Kyra Sedgwick was among the screen-testers.
However, it came down to two final actresses: Sarah Jessica Parker and Grey.
Ultimately, Grey and Swayze's chemistry during their screen test sealed the deal.
"Our being forced to be together created a kind of a synergy or like a friction," Grey later told PEOPLE in 2022 ahead of the release of her memoir, Out of the Corner.
Billy Zane auditioned for Johnny Castle — but the screenwriter always wanted Patrick Swayze
Everett Billy Zane as Cal Hockley in 1997's 'Titanic'
Actors Benicio Del Toro, the late Val Kilmer, Adrian Zmed and Billy Zane each auditioned for the role of Johnny. Titanic star Zane got to the final screen-test stages, but Bergstein said on The Movies That Made Us that he "danced like someone who looked like he had learned to dance wonderfully for his bar mitzvah."
Plus, Bergstein always wanted Swayze for the role, telling Cosmopolitan in 2017 that "it was always him and only him."
"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," Bergstein said. "So it was always Patrick, only Patrick, the only one we offered it to, and a wonderful, brilliant, good man."
Patrick Swayze had to convince Jennifer Grey to act opposite him in Dirty Dancing
Vestron Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
Jennifer Grey as Frances 'Baby' Houseman and Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle in 1987's 'Dirty Dancing'
Grey and Swayze had previously worked together on the 1984 film Red Dawn and did not get along.
"She begged us to have anyone but Patrick," Bergstein said on The Movies That Made Us.
During an appearance on The View in 2022, Grey revealed Swayze had played pranks on her and others on set.
"It was just, like, macho, and I just couldn't take it. I was just like, 'Please, this guy, that's enough with him,' " she said.
Grey was opposed to having Swayze sign on opposite her in Dirty Dancing until he took her aside for a heart-to-heart during their screen test.
"He pulled me down the hall and said to me, 'I love you, I love you, and I'm so sorry. And I know you don't want me to do the movie,' " Grey added. "And he got the tears in his eyes. And I got the tears in my eyes — not for the same reason. I was like, 'Oh, this guy's working me.' And he goes, 'We could kill it — we could kill it if we did this.' "
With that, Grey as Baby and Swayze as Johnny were cemented in cinema history.
Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey's clashes helped fuel their characters' on-screen chemistry
Courtesy Everett Collection Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle and Jennifer Grey as Frances 'Baby' Houseman in 1987's 'Dirty Dancing'
Although they managed to work things out enough to film, the pair still clashed on set. Swayze had been a dancer for his entire life, much like his on-screen character, while Grey didn't have much experience.
The pair channeled their pent-up frustrations into their performance.
"The same way Baby and Johnny were not supposed to be together, we weren't a natural match," Grey told PEOPLE in 2022. "And that created a tension which made the movie work."
Some of their more lighthearted moments were caught on film, such as the famous "Love Is Strange" scene. After seeing the pair fool around on the floor during a warm-up, director Emile Ardolino instructed them to improvise.
When it comes to the scene where Baby laughs as Johnny glides his fingers down her arm, Grey was ticklish, and those giggles were real — and so was Swayze's frustration.
"Both of them brought so much every day," Ortega told PEOPLE in 2017. "Sometimes, it was conflict; sometimes it was love. There was something there between the two of them that was unexplainable. They were human fireworks."
Dirty Dancing was set in Upstate New York but filmed in the South
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Jennifer Grey as Frances 'Baby' Houseman and Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle in 1987's 'Dirty Dancing'
The film was set at Kellerman's Resort, based on the real-life popular vacation spot Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel in Liberty, N.Y., that closed in 1986. However, Dirty Dancing was produced on a tight budget of $4.5 million and couldn't afford to work in the Catskills, so they filmed in Virginia and North Carolina instead.
Fans can still visit Mountain Lake Lodge in Pembroke, Va., where much of the filming took place. The lodge hosts self-guided Dirty Dancing tours and an annual Dirty Dancing Days summer festival. Visit North Carolina also provides information on how to visit filming locations around Lake Lure.
Kelly Bishop was not originally cast as Baby's mother
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Kelly Bishop attends the Gotham Television Awards at Cipriani Wall Street in N.Y.C. on June 2, 2025.
Actress Lynne Lipton was originally cast as Baby and Lisa Houseman's (Jane Brucker) mother, Marjorie Houseman, and Kelly Bishop was set to portray Vivian Pressman, an older, married resort guest with a crush on Johnny. Lipton got sick right before filming, so the Gilmore Girls star took on the role of Mrs. Houseman — opposite Jerry Orbach as Baby and Lisa's father, Jake Houseman — at the last minute. Assistant choreographer Miranda Garrison would later pull double duty as Vivian.
"That switcheroo was so bizarre that I thought I really must do this," Bishop told The Guardian in 2024.
The lake they filmed in was dangerously cold
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Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle and Jennifer Grey as Frances 'Baby' Houseman in 1987's 'Dirty Dancing'
Though Dirty Dancing took place in the summer, the movie was filmed in autumn. Leaves were changing colors and had to be spray-painted green, and the lake water was so frigid that the actors' mouths turned blue. Between takes, they tried to keep warm by staying wrapped in blankets.
"It was fall in North Carolina, and that water was really cold," Ortega told PEOPLE. "Jennifer actually got hypothermia."
Patrick Swayze hated the film's most iconic line
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Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle in 1987's 'Dirty Dancing'
"Nobody puts Baby in a corner" has become such a classic line that it's nearly as famous as the film itself.
However, not everyone is attached to those six words — including the screenwriter.
"I think it's really something that I was not deeply committed to. I don't think it's a great phrase," Bergstein said on The Movies That Made Us, adding that Swayze "thought it was the stupidest line in the world, and I think he was right."
Bergstein's fellow crew weren't sold on the one-liner either, citing everything from it being "ridiculous" to the fact that there wasn't a corner but a pillar behind Baby.
As for Swayze, he told the American Film Institute that he "hated that line," revealing that he "didn't understand what was behind it."
"When I went up and said that to her, I truly believed it," he said. "But up until that point, and up until I found that background and that passion as an actor, I hated that line and I was going to do anything in my power to get it cut."
Eleanor Bergstein was asked to cut the abortion subplot
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Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle and Cynthia Rhodes as Penny Johnson in 1987's 'Dirty Dancing'
When a national sponsor was set to come on board, Bergstein was asked to cut the subplot of Johnny's first dance partner, Penny Johnson (Cynthia Rhodes), getting an illegal abortion. The screenwriter refused, telling the producers that "everything will fall apart" if she did so, as the storyline was integral to Baby meeting Johnny and all the dominoes that fell from there.
The sponsorship fell through, and Bergstein didn't compromise on getting political and social issues embedded into her film.
"My sense is if you're going to put something like this in, you better rhythm it so precisely into the plot that when the day comes — I sound like The Godfather, the day will come — when they ask you to take it out, you can't without the movie falling apart. Because if it can be taken out, it will be," Bergstein told Cosmopolitan.
Patrick Swayze injured himself during filming
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Jennifer Grey as Frances 'Baby' Houseman and Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle in 1987's 'Dirty Dancing'
Swayze refused to use a body double while filming, including during the scene when Johnny and Baby dance on a log.
Filmmakers acknowledged that it was dangerous, as a ravine was underneath it.
"He fell, he hurt himself, we lost time on production, and everybody suffered in the end," Gottlieb said on The Movies That Made Us.
According to TIME, Swayze had to have fluid drained from his knee. The fall ended up not only aggravating Swayze's chronic knee pain and delaying filming, but it also made the final dance all the more difficult for him, as he had to jump off a stage multiple times to get the final take.
The big lift at the end of Dirty Dancing was never rehearsed
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Jennifer Grey as Frances 'Baby' Houseman and Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle in 1987's 'Dirty Dancing'
Grey was "too scared" of the finale's big lift and opted out of practicing it.
"I only did it on the day I shot it," Grey told The Guardian in 2015. "Never rehearsed it, never done it since."
She told E! News in 2024 that she gave a "hard no" to running through the move because back then, she was "really scared and protective" of her body.
Yet when it came down to it, Grey had no choice but to, well, film.
"If you've ever tried it, you'd understand what it means to do it," she told the outlet. "It was one of those game-day things."
In 2017, Ortega told PEOPLE, "Because she was an untrained dancer, the lifts were actually big moments for her personally. She was aspiring to do them as an individual, not just as a character. She brought that to the role, and her reactions were so genuine and honest."
Grey later incorporated elements of the climactic end lift and other choreography while competing alongside dance pro partner Derek Hough during a freestyle number on season 11 of Dancing with the Stars in 2010.
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