Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey is one of the actresses to have had a relationship with Johnny Depp in the past, and having been briefly engaged to the Pirates of the Caribbean actor is as well placed as anyone to be able to discuss her direct memories of what it was like dating Depp. In her memoir, Out of the Corner, Grey includes some reminiscing about her 1989 engagement with Depp and how she remembers him being “funny, quirky and sweet” but also recalled him being “crazy jealous and paranoid.”
The Dirty Dancing actress was recently confirmed to be returning to the role that made her famous in 1987 in a new sequel to the movie, and her memoir is released today. In an extract from the book, as reported in The Independent, Grey talks about her relationship with Depp, which began as a blind date set up by her agent. About that first date, Grey writes, “We ate, talked, drank Jack Daniels, laughed our asses off, took cigarette breaks midcourse. He was so ridiculously beautiful. And surprisingly open, funny, quirky and sweet…”
Two weeks after that meeting, Depp proposed to the actress, and she said that they even bought a puppy together, which “was our practice baby and someone to keep me company when Johnny was out of town.” However, despite the relationship getting off to a good start, Grey says that things changed soon after, which seemed to stem from the stress of Depp’s workload. She writes:
"Johnny was commuting every week back and forth from Vancouver, but had begun more and more regularly to be getting into trouble: fights in bars, skirmishes with cops. He'd started missing his flights home to LA having overslept or when he did come home, he'd be crazy jealous and paranoid about what I'd been up to while he was gone. I attributed his ill temper and unhappiness to him feeling miserable and powerless to get off [the TV series] 21 Jump Street."
Grey finally ended their engagement when he “left for a meeting and didn’t come back or contact her for many hours.”
Jennifer Grey Returns to Dirty Dancing in a New Legacy Sequel
While Jennifer Grey has had a successful career on both the big and small screen, there is no denying that it is the Patrick Swayze-led romantic dance movie that she is best known for, with its iconic soundtrack and infinitely quotable lines, one of which is incorporated into the title of her memoir. It is, therefore, no surprise that Grey is heading back to the role in a time when legacy sequels and movie revivals are all the rage.
Having been trying to get the movie off the ground for a few years now, the Dirty Dancing sequel was officially announced last week during CinemaCon, but currently, there are no details of a release date or other stars available.
Johnny Depp is currently in the middle of a legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard as he attempts to win his $50 million defamation case against the Aquaman actress for tarnishing his reputation with an op-ed in 2018. The trial saw Johnny Depp taking the stand last week, and Heard is set to testify this week.