30 YEARS ON...DIRTY We had time of our lives but thought the movie would flop
ances to her name. She reveals the film’s budget was so low she had to write a song herself to sing in the talent show scene, rather than pay for one from South Pacific.
Wisely she held on to the copyright for The Hula Song, and reveals: “It’s made me more money than I got paid to do the movie.”
Set in 1963, Dirty Dancing tells the tale of daddy’s girl Baby, dragged by her strait-laced parents to a holiday camp in the US Deep South.
There she develops a crush on Swayze’s dance instructor character, Johnny Castle. The bad boy hunk enlists her as his dance partner for the summer’s final show – to the horror of her father (Jerry Orbach)
– and the pair fall in love as they secretly practise their raunchy moves.
But rather than the glamour of the Hollywood studio Jane, 59, recalls how they shot the movie in rain-soaked cabins in Virginia and a boys’ camp in North Carolina.
LIMOS
She says: “I knew it wasn’t going to be a big blockbuster. There was no big sponsorship – and it was about dancing.
“We weren’t getting limos to the airport or catalogues of sneakers to choose from. We weren’t lavishly catered for and all stayed on site.
“Even though it was fun I felt it wasn’t going to be a big mainstream movie. Who would care about