Why Patrick Swayze “hated” his iconic ‘Dirty Dancing’ line
Anyone walking through a particular stretch of the West End of London on any given night of the week will come across a familiar scene: large groups of women dressed in 1980s dance hall get-ups celebrating a hen-do, and begrudging partners being taken by the arm, led by their giddy other halves—all heading in one direction, to see the Dirty Dancing Musical. If this tells us one thing, apart from the fact that large swathes of the UK public have questionable theatre tastes, it’s that the original film Dirty Dancing, released in 1987, really did take the world by storm.
Directed by Emile Ardolino, Dirty Dancing is set on a holiday resort and follows Baby, a young woman on vacation with her family. Bored of the other people at the resort, Baby seeks out a rock ‘n’ roll bar and meets local dancer Johnny Castle, played by Patrick Swayze. What follows is the classic romance romp, filled with fights, heartbreak, and big dance numbers.
The film was a huge success at the box office, raking in a massive $214million and was adored by audiences across the globe. The film also featured the famously quoted line “nobody puts Baby in a corner,” said by Patrick Swayze in the film’s seminal boy-saves-girl moment. However, it turns out Swayze despised the line and, for a time, tried to get the dialogue cut from the movie entirely.
Speaking to AFI, the star discussed the famous line from the film and said he couldn’t understand the meaning behind it. “I hated that line, ‘nobody puts Baby in a corner,’ and it was only because I couldn’t understand the meaning behind it,” the star added. “I thought, ‘this is the time for Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle to come back in this room and do his big dance number.’”
Swayze continued to say it was only once he could unpick the meaning behind it that the scene and the dialogue finally fell into place, and an ancient proverb helped him find the meaning of the line. “It was about coming back to serve. There is an Eastern adage that says, ‘only when one learns to serve can one be truly mastered,’” said the star.
The Hollywood star elaborated by adding: “It was only when I started this kind of thought and looking beneath the surface was when that line worked for me. When I went to her (Baby) and said that I truly believed it, but up until that point and not until I found that background and the passion as an actor, I hated that line, and I was going to do anything in my power to get it cut.”
It’s a good job that the star discovered a way to deliver it, as it ultimately became one of the most famous and frequently quoted lines in film history. This also underscores the notion that actors frequently need to discover their own approach and personal interpretation of dialogue to embody their character convincingly. However, whether one can pick up on Swayze’s deeper meaning and the connection to the line, rooted in Easter proverbs, is another question.
