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Nobody Else Will Do

(the interview - part two)

“Terrific!”

Rober{>T<} Let’s talk about your movie career….

Kelly{>B<} Oh, my big movie career. (dryly)

Rober{>T<} I loved you as “Baby’s mother” in the film Dirty Dancing.

Kelly{>B<} Well...thank you. She wasn’t in the movie very much though, I’m afraid.

Rober{>T<} Are you kidding? You opened up the whole movie….In the car with your family…on your way to the lodge.

Kelly{>B<} Funny thing is…if you ever look at that scene…. Watch when the car pulls up to the lodge. The person sitting in the front seat (where I was supposed to be sitting) is a Blonde!

Rober{>T<} No way!

Kelly{>B<} Yep.

Rober{>T<} (laughing) I never caught that.

Now,

I have to ask …

Did you ever put Baby in a corner?

Kelly{>B<} (haha - you’re a clever one, aren’t you.) No, I never put Baby in a corner.

Rober{>T<} It amazes me that out of all the lines in the movie…that is the one people quote the most.

Kelly{>B<} Isn’t that odd?

Rober{>T<} Completely.

Now, The film was shot on location in North Carolina (my state o’ birth!).

Kelly{>B<} Oh really?

Rober{>T<} Yep.

Kelly{>B<} How ‘bout that.

Rober{>T<} And it had some incredible dance sequences (I’m a big fan of Cynthia Rhodes)

Kelly{>B<} Yes, she did do some incredible dancing in that film. I don’t think a career in film was the direction she wanted to go. Again, The cut-throat LA environment didn’t appeal to her very much. You have to be very tough to survive there. Very tough.

She has a husband now and some children…They live in Illinois, I believe.

Rober{>T<} Did your background as a dancer have anything to do with being cast as Marjorie Houseman?

Kelly{>B<} Well, I was supposed to play a different part. They originally cast me to be the woman who takes dance lessons from Patrick Swayze’s character and then later accuses him of stealing. But on the first day of rehearsals, they came and got me…took me down to the set and made me stand there - For-EVER! It seemed…. First next to Jennifer Grey…then the other members of the Houseman Household…they were sizing me up.

Little did I know, they had released the actress hired to play “Marjorie” earlier that day. So they were looking for someone who could play Jennifer Grey’s mom. Jerry (Orbach) was out front with the director…trying different combinations of people…. I kept wanting to say “Hey…pssst. Jerry …It’s me…Kelly…we did my second Broadway show together (Promises, Promises) remember?

It all happened so fast after that. If I had my wits about me, I might

have gotten more money.

Jerry asked me what part I was hired to play and I told him. Then he said to me “take this part instead…it’s a better part.” So I did.

Rober{>T<} Did Patrick Swayze ask you for any dancing tips during the filming?

Kelly{>B<} No, he didn’t. He was trained as a dancer…He did it all.

Plus, I wasn’t in most of his scenes.

Rober{>T<} I remember during my Sophomore year of High School… A guy in my drama class, Jeff Freeze, left school for a week to film the final scene in the big ballroom. I remember him saying he was going to do a new movie called (then) Dangerous Dancing…or Deliberate dancing… or something like that.

Anyway…

He later went on to be one of the Swan’s in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake on Broadway.

Kelly{>B<} Oh, he was one of the dancers in the final shot. No kiddin’.

We first started filming the movie in Virginia. That’s where you see the lodge on the side of the mountain. But they had to move us south because the leaves were starting to change. It was probably their plan from the start, but we didn’t know…. were in the middle of nowhere. There was a lot of drinking on that shoot. A LOT of drinking…

Rober{>T<} One of my favorite actors of all time played your husband in that movie, the late, great Jerry Orbach.

Kelly{>B<} Yes, he was wonderful man…and a great actor. We spent a lot of time on that set together. He was a word maven. We’d do crosswords together, play scrabble. Anything to do with words he was interested in. We also played golf together. Remember the scene on the golf course in the film?

Rober{>T<} Yes.

Kelly{>B<} That’s where we played.

Rober{>T<} Very cool! I see you were also on Broadway together in the original company of Promises, Promises.

Kelly{>B<} Yes, that’s right.

Rober{>T<} Was that where you first met and worked together?

Kelly{>B<} We’ll, I guess. We didn’t really hang out together back then. I was in the chorus and he was the leading man. I actually got to know Jerry later on through my ex-husband, Peter Miller. They would play cards together and Jerry would usually win. He cost me a lot of money, he did.

Rober{>T<} Mr. Orbach won the 1969 TONY Award for Best Actor in a musical for his performance of “Chuck Baxter.” Did you have any idea that you would be accepting your own TONY Award just seven years later?

Kelly{>B<} Wow, was it that quick? I didn’t realize how short the time was between the two.

No, I had no idea at the time. I knew there was more I wanted to do, but I didn’t foresee winning my own TONY.

Rober{>T<} Where do you keep your TONY? (If I may ask)

Kelly{>B<} It’s in an entry way, on a table. In-between two Foo Foo dogs.

Woody Shelp, who created the finale hats for A Chorus Line, gave us these wonderful miniature Finale hats on opening night. They are so detailed, with all the rhinestones in place. It’s really quite beautiful. The hat hangs off the top of the award, at a perfect angle.

Rober{>T<} You later appeared with Mr. Orbach on his hit television series Law and Order.

Kelly{>B<} Well, I was actually on it before Jerry got there. Paul Sorvino was on it during that time.

Click here to continue to part three