Dirty Dancing True Story: How Jennifer Grey Was Cast As Baby
Jennifer Grey was an unlikely cast for the role of Dirty Dancing’s Baby until one key moment set her apart from the pack. The film, which was released in 1987, became one of the most iconic films of all time with Baby’s naiveté and youthful determination winning the hearts of audiences the world over. And it was exactly those qualities that got Grey the role in the first place.
Fresh from her role in 1986’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Grey had just starred as Ferris Bueller’s disparaging and villainous teenage sister, Jeanie Bueller, when she auditioned for Dirty Dancing. The role of Frances “Baby” Houseman could not have been more different, with Baby entranced by the handsome Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze) and the forbidden world she found in the staff quarters of her family’s Catskills resort. Approaching the world with a child-like vulnerability, Baby breaks away from the manicured life she knows as the doted-upon daughter of the esteemed Dr. Houseman (Jerry Orbach), falls in love, and ends the summer no longer a baby, but a woman.
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The film hinges upon Dirty Dancing’s Baby, torn between her role as a daughter, desperately seeking her father’s approval and love, and her desire to be her own woman—a struggle Grey encapsulated in the first minute of her audition. According to the film's producer, Linda Gottlieb (via People), "Jennifer Grey was pushed into the audition room by her father and we were in love." Dirty Dancing writer Eleanor Bergstein concurs, saying, "As [Grey]walked in, she said, 'Wish me lucky, daddy,' and she just closed the Baby's face in my mind… and from that moment on she was the only person I wanted."
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