Dirty Dancing's Jennifer Grey Regrets Nose Job That Derailed Her Hollywood Career

Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey has opened up about her regrets over getting nose surgery, describing how she lost her identity and career ‘overnight’. 

The 62-year-old actor rose to fame when she starred alongside Patrick Swayze as Baby Houseman in the 1987 blockbuster hit. 

After the film gained popularity worldwide, Grey underwent two rhinoplasties after her mum – former singing star Jo Wilder – suggested it would make her easier to cast in major roles. 

Lionsgate

However, this was something she’d live to regret, as revealed in a new interview with People and her upcoming memoir Out of the Corner.

Writer Jason Sheeler asked about the time Michael Douglas didn’t recognise Grey at a premiere after her second surgery, to which she replied: "That was the first time I had gone out in public. And it became the thing, the idea of being completely invisible, from one day to the next. 

“In the world's eyes, I was no longer me and the weird thing was that thing that I resisted my whole life, and the thing I was so upset with my mother for always telling me I should do my nose.”

Grey went on to say she was ‘completely anti-rhinoplasty’ when she was a kid, but that her mum urged her to get the procedure not because she ‘wasn’t pretty’, but because it would ‘make it easier’ for her to be chosen for movies. 

Alamy

She continued: “I loved that my parents did it [underwent rhinoplasty]. I understand it was the 50s. I understand they were assimilating. I understood that you had to change your name and you had to do certain things, and it was just normalized, right? 

“You can't be gay. You can't be Jewish. You know, you can't look Jewish. You're just trying to fit into whatever is the group think."

The star went on to discuss the impact the surgeries had on her career in her upcoming memoir, writing: “I spent so much energy trying to figure out what I did wrong, why I was banished from the kingdom. That’s a lie. I banished myself.”

Speaking about the consequences her rhinoplasties had on her turn in Hollywood, she said: “Overnight I lose my identity and my career.”

Thankfully, Grey is in a far better place in her life and career now, telling People: "I believe in my heart that the second half of a woman's life is the best half. I can't speak to a man as I've never been one, but I will tell you that my experience is the second half is the best half. I'm sure of it. 

“I've never felt what I'm feeling these days… It just feels peaceful. It's not doing the press of the '80s."

Lionsgate

Grey is now set to reprise her role as Baby in the Dirty Dancing sequel, as well as serving as executive producer. 

While she couldn’t give too much away about the film, she did say it’s ‘lightning in a bottle’, adding: “We're working on this sequel, I'm working on it with Lionsgate and working on the script. 

“We've been working on it for a couple of years. And I know in my heart, I would love to give fans or a young, new audience an experience that would never replicate that, but has the same kind of underpinnings.”

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