“But when I was a kid, I was totally against rhinoplasty. I mean, it was like my religion,” she told People magazine. “I loved that my parents were doing it [underwent rhinoplasty]. I understand it was the 50’s. I understand that they assimilated.”
It was her mother, Gray said, who first suggested getting her nose done. When she finally did, years later, she looked nothing like the woman of 1987’s hit film Dirty Dancing.
Gray said she and co-star Patrick Swayze weren’t a “natural match” in real life, and that caused some of the tension their characters fueled in the film.
“All I really had on my mind was Patrick,” she said of Swayze, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2009 at the age of 57. “I feel like if I could say something to him right now, I’d say, ‘I’m so sorry I couldn’t just appreciate and enjoy you, instead of wishing you were more like that, how I wanted you.’”
She said she has been writing a Dirty Dancing sequel for years, which she would like to have captured some of the magic of the original and translated for a newer audience.
“Today people think their identity is limited, the world has told them what it is,” Gray said. “But there are certain people who can see other parts of you. ‘Dirty Dancing’ was a fairy tale, a hit film and a formula that uses dance as a metaphor to embody your energy and get out of your head and your limiting belief systems.”
Grey’s memoirs are out May 3rd.