Jennifer Grey on making Dirty Dancing 2 without Patrick Swayze: There will be no replacement

Jennifer Grey said the sequel’s producers will not be trying to replace Patrick Swayze, who passed away in 2009 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. (Photo: Jennifer Grey/Instagram)

Actor Jennifer Grey has said that the sequel to her cult classic movie Dirty Dancing will not recast Patrick Swayze’s character.

Grey had featured as Frances Baby Houseman opposite Swayze’s Johnny Castle in the 1987 movie, directed by Emile Ardolino.

The movie turned out to be a cultural phenomenon in the US as it grossed USD 218 million at the global box office and won an Oscar for best original song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” sung by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes.

Talking to People magazine, Grey said the sequel’s producers will not be trying to replace Swayze, who passed away in 2009 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

“All I can say is there is no replacing anyone who’s passed you never try to repeat anything that’s magic like that. You just go for something different,” the 60-year-old actor said.

Grey believes it was the “very genuine and simple” appeal of Dirty Dancing that has ensured its popularity even after so many year.

“It was about innocence and the way that innocence is lost and how people explode into a different iteration of themselves,” she added.

Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer confirmed the sequel during the company’s conference call with Wall Street analysts and said that it will be directed by filmmaker Jonathan Levine.

“It will be exactly the kind of romantic, nostalgic movie that the franchise’s fans have been waiting for and that have made it the biggest-selling library title in the Company’s history,” he had said.

In addition to starring in the new movie, Grey will also serve as an executive producer.