“I know you don’t want me to do the movie.” Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze cried during screen test for Dirty Dancing for different reasons
Although it's hard to imagine Dirty Dancing without Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey was initially opposed to starring in the film with him.
Before Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey starred in Dirty Dancing and charmed audiences with their chemistry, they previously starred together in the film Red Dawn. Unfortunately, their collaboration did not go well. Being a guest on The View program, Grey talked about her relationship with the actor on the set of Red Dawn. She confessed that because of the pranks and work ethic on Swayze's set, she was annoyed (via The Independent).
As a result, when she heard about the idea of just getting Patrick Swayze involved in Dirty Dancing, she was not thrilled and protested. She did not want to work with the actor once again.
Patrick was playing pranks on me and everybody. [He was] late and the boss of everybody and it was just, like, macho and I just couldn’t take it. I was just like, “Please, this guy, that’s enough with him.” They said, “Oh no, but he’s a dancer.” I know he’s a dancer, I’ve heard the whole story, I’ve heard all about the dancing.
Constant persuasion finally made the actress soften and agree to a screen test with Swayze. Before it happened, however, Swayze pulled Grey aside to apologize to her for what happened on the set of Red Dawn. The actor made one last personal attempt to convince her that together they could create something special in Dirty Dancing. Baby actress decided to give it a chance.
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.” 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” and I was like, “OK, honey.” We go in there and he takes me in his arms and I was like, “Oh, boy. I’m done.” There was no competition.
After taking a chemistry read, Jennifer Grey was already fully convinced that she had to make this film with Patrick Swayze. She saw for herself that he was second to none. And given the chance to perform with Swayze again, she made the right decision, looking back on how their performance made Dirty Dancing a cult production.