Jennifer Grey starred in a range of iconic films during her career, including cult classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and the smash hit Dirty Dancing, and still knows how to work a red carpet four decades after her debut
On Wednesday it will be 37 years since the smash hit 80s film ‘Dirty Dancing’ landed in UK cinemas, but at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday, one of its iconic stars shocked crowds with her youthful exuberance. This has led many to call Jennifer Grey, 64, an “ageless” beauty, after tearing up the red carpet at the premiere of her new film, ‘A Real Pain’.
Grey became one of the major Hollywood stars of the 1980s with her distinctive curly-haired look and scene performance in cult classics like ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’, but would earn her star on the Walk of Fame in 1987’s ‘Dirty Dancing’. Almost four decades after starring alongside heartthrob Patrick Swayze, the glowing actress showed that some people are lucky enough to age like a fine wine.
Wearing a plunging burgundy top, paired with a straight glittery midi-skirt, the stunning 64-year-old star posed for the waiting packs of paparazzi outside the Royal Festival Hall. She was in London to promote her new film, ‘A Real Pain’, which also features Jesse Eisenberg, 40, and Kieran Culkin, 41.
Released in January next year, ‘A Real Pain’ is set to explore intergenerational family trauma by following the three as they journey to witness a concentration camp in Poland and honour their grandmother’s memory. Eisenberg and Culkin play the roles of two cousins, while Jennifer Grey takes on Marcia, a visitor to the camp.
Actor and director Jesse Eisenberg said: “There’s a certain idea of a Holocaust movie [where there’s] this reverence for the trauma and the horrors. And of course!
“The thing that reaches me the most is when someone can humanise that experience in fiction that doesn’t feel sanctimonious or false, and that’s what I was going for.”
With the ongoing occupation of Gaza and parts of Lebanon by Israeli forces, Eisenberg has faced questions about the politics of the film.
He has insisted: “The movie is not political. It could take place any time over the last 30 years…and the last 30 years have been froth with ups and downs. It makes sense now as any time.”
But if there were any fears of controversy, the 40-year-old actor likely lost them after his film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. After the viewing, ‘A Real Pain’ began a bidding war where it was picked up for $10 million by Searchlight Pictures.
And “ageless” Jennifer Grey might not have to wait long for another box office smash hit, with widespread reports of ongoing work on a sequel to ‘Dirty Dancing’, where the Hollywood actress would return on screen and as an executive producer.
Speaking to Good Morning America last year, she said: “Right now, we’re getting as close as we’ve ever been to – I think it is happening this year, the sequel for Dirty Dancing.”
