'Dirty Dancing' Remake: Jennifer Grey Reveals the A-List Actors She Would Cast

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If it were up to Jennifer Grey, she would choose an Oscar winner to fill her leading lady role in Dirty Dancing.

Ahead of the remake of the beloved 1986 film, the 56-year-old actress revealed on Jennifer Hutt's podcast, Just Jenny, who she would like to cast in the iconic roles. "I think Natalie Portman and Ryan Gosling," Grey said. "Wouldn't you like to see them? Or Channing Tatum."

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In the original movie, Grey portrays Frances "Baby" Houseman, who falls in love with dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze) when her family spends the summer at a resort in New York's Catskills.

Portman is a little older than Baby, who is graduating from high school, but she did prove that she can dance in Black Swan, which earned her an Oscar. As for Gosling -- who did the Dirty Dancing lift in Crazy,Stupid, Love -- and Tatum, Grey has lots of reasons why they're perfect for the remake.


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"The Gos has just got something, know what I mean? He's just got something. He's very mysterious," she says, defending her casting choice. "He's just got that crazy thing. You look at him and you go, 'Oh God.'"

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Grey added, "And, you know, [Gosling], he's a great dancer."

The actress has clearly been a fan of Gosling since his Mickey Mouse Club days. "You have to go back and look at his video with Justin Timberlake, when they were kids. ...You have to see them together singing," she gushed.


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As for why Tatum would be a good fit, "He dances, honey."

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"[Channing]'s a smoke show. He's a goofball and he's a genius. He's so smart, and smart enough to not take himself so seriously," Grey explained. "Magic Mike XXL, I watched that movie [and] I was screaming and kicking. I couldn't believe the amount of sexual energy in his dancing."


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Tatum was pretty open to starring in Dirty Dancing when he spoke to ET in February. Though, he joked that he would be great "not as Johnny, but [in] the Jennifer Grey role."

Check out who he'd like to star alongside him in the remake: