The Blockbuster Film That Almost Wasn’t Made

Excerpts from a article, titled Dirty Dancing Turns 25: The Blockbuster Film That Almost Wasn’t Made, written by Laura Rowley and published by Huffington Post in August 2012.

In the 1980s, Linda Gottlieb, an East Coast producer for MGM Studios, had lunch in New York City with writer Eleanor Bergstein, who had an idea for a movie about two sisters who are dancers, based in the Catskills.

“I said, ‘Well what’s the story?’ And she said, ‘I don’t really have a story, but it should involve Latin dancing…’” Gottlieb recalled. “So I switched the subject and said, ‘Tell me about yourself.’ She said, ‘I grew up in Brooklyn, my father was a doctor, I was one of those kids who used to go across the tracks to go dirty dancing.’

“I said, ‘That’s a million-dollar title! Now we’ll figure out the story.’ We invented Johnny Castle at lunch.” ....

I spoke with Gottlieb in the light-filled, two-story living room of her 10-room co-op on the Upper East Side of Manhattan –- the pad that Dirty Dancing bought. Petite and chic in cropped white denim jeans, white tee and a lace-collared, three-quarter-sleeve jacket, she bears a slight resemblance to actress Diane Lane, and appears more late 50s than early 70s. Warm and funny, Gottlieb is a natural storyteller.

MGM initially agreed to make the film, but the executive who signed the deal was fired two weeks later — and the rights reverted to Gottlieb for a year, Gottlieb said. She pitched everyone in Hollywood — and was rejected 43 times.

“What they all said was, ‘It’s small and it’s soft.’ These are all men — just think of sexual organs, they don’t want small and soft, they want big and hard,” said Gottlieb, cackling with laughter. “They said ‘it’s a girls’ film, it’s a historical film and it’s about Jews.’ They weren’t wrong logically, but I always saw it as a very sexy movie.” ....

The next challenge: Convincing the studio to go with a different kind of lead. “They wanted a terrible blond bimbo for the part,” Gottlieb recalled. “And I said, ‘It has to have a less than perfect girl in center. Basically if that woman gets the handsome guy, then you have created the archetypal fairy tale that gives us all hope.’”

The casting director looked at 127 people before choosing Grey, who was 27 years old at the time, and Swayze, who was 37. (Billy Zane and Kyra Sedgwick were the other finalists screen-tested for the roles.) But Grey and Swayze, who had worked together in Red Dawn, disliked each other.

“He felt like she was a wimp,” said Gottlieb. “She was genuine, naïve; you would do a take eight times and Jennifer would do it differently every time. Patrick was a pro; he would deliver the same thing again and again. She would cry easily, she was emotional and he sort of made fun of her. He was a macho guy.”