BBC News Brazil
More than three decades after its release, “Dirty Dancing” is considered a classic of the 1980s and one of the most successful films of all time. Set in 1963, it tells the story of Frances “Baby” Houseman (played by Jennifer Grey), who has an affair with dance instructor Johnny Castle, played by Patrick Swayze.
“Dirty Dancing” grossed over $214 million worldwide and won an Oscar for the song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.” Audiences fell in love with the characters, music and iconic dance routines, including the famous “lifting”.
The film’s success propelled Swayze to stardom – the actor died of cancer in 2009, aged 57. Jennifer Grey, however, in a few years disappeared from the spotlight.
In 2022, Gray published her memoir, in which she presents one reason her film career did not take off: a nose operation left her unrecognizable to viewers and caused major movie studios to stop offering roles.
THE OPERATION DILEMMA
In “Out of the Corner”, Gray – who is now 62 years old – tells how at the beginning of his career, as he struggled to get roles, his mother, also actress Jo Wilder, suggested to her that the lack of work might have something to do with her “Jewish” nose.
The actress also thought this might be true, but she always refused to have a rhinoplasty. “I was almost 30 years old and spent much of my adult life trying to love myself and accept myself for who I was,” says the actress. “So going through the hands of a surgeon felt dangerously close to admitting defeat.”
After the huge success of “Dirty Dancing”, she decided to take a chance and told the renowned plastic surgeon that she would operate on her to “thin” her nose, but leave the characteristic “bulge” in the septum. The procedure was a success, and Gray began to get more roles and money for the first time in his life.
In 1992, while filming “Wind,” the film’s cinematographer noticed a piece of cartilage sticking out of the tip of his nose. The actress spoke with her surgeon and a repair operation was scheduled. But the result of this second surgery would change her life forever.
As soon as she managed to remove the bandages, Gray was shocked by what she saw in the mirror. “I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. I knew something bad had happened.”
The procedure changed her appearance so much that the general public no longer recognized her. “It felt like I had committed an unforgivable crime: deliberately taking away the one thing that made me special,” says Grey. She knew that her nose was originally a physical connection to her Jewish identity.
‘ROCK BOTTOM’
In an interview with journalist Katie Couric last May, Gray reflected on what had happened.
She said that her parents’ families were made up of Jews from Eastern Europe, and when they arrived in the US, they changed their surnames. And for Jews who worked in show business (her father is actor Joel Grey, Oscar winner for “Cabaret”), changing one’s nose “was normal and considered smart.”
“My mom knew how the entertainment industry worked and thought it would be easier to get roles because there weren’t many roles for girls who looked like me and were Jewish. There weren’t many opportunities and she wanted me to have more opportunities, she wanted me to I had the career she didn’t have.”
According to the actress, after the first operation “she did not stop working” and realized that her mother “was right”. When she had to undergo the second operation, she explicitly told the surgeon that she liked her nose and “wanted a strong nose”.
“After the second operation [o cirurgião] took off my bandages and something was wrong. He looked at me and said, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a drastic change’.”
“I don’t know what he did, but he changed the proportion of my face … he looked different in a way that didn’t make sense,” the actress said in the interview with Katie Couric. “It was the most difficult, lonely and confusing time of my life. It was very devastating. And being so misunderstood around the world for decades… The lack of generosity and humanity hurt me so much.”
According to Grey, after the operation “she couldn’t find a job” or survive. “I decided to throw in the towel. I never asked anyone to give me their approval or like me again.”
From then on, she had to figure out who she was “without that character, without ‘Dirty Dancing'”. “And in that loneliness I hit rock bottom. And I understood who I was and how much I was worth in a way that no one could ever take that away from me again.”
According to Grey, it was “very difficult” for those close to him who witnessed this difficult time. The actress – who is now working on a sequel to “Dirty Dancing” – has spent years trying to understand why audiences turned their backs on her after her change in appearance.
“At some point I thought that maybe they identified a lot with [a personagem] Baby, they saw themselves in her, because there are few movies in which the protagonist looks like them, isn’t perfect or is more human. And it hurt them that [com a operação] I was saying something, that they weren’t enough.”
“I spent many years thinking about it and I didn’t find an answer. I just realized that no one was going to rescue me (…) It was a drama and I realized that I was a very strong person”, said Grey.
“All the hard things that happened to me changed me and I wouldn’t want to be someone else (…) Now I’m happier than ever and I feel so grateful that I survived. And I don’t think about myself or my nose. in what I contributed in this life, as a mother, as a friend…”
This text was published here.
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
