Movies don’t get much bigger than Dirty Dancing was in 1987. The romantic dance film solidified both Patrick Swayze’s and Jennifer Grey’s places in the public consciousness.
However, despite making such a big splash in the late ’80s, Grey struggled to stand out in Hollywood after undergoing two nose jobs. Although, few seem to remember how Grey leaned into the turmoil in her oft-forgotten ’90s sitcom.
Jennifer Grey Only Wanted The First Nose Job
While plastic surgery is the elephant in the room of Hollywood, rarely does it actually change the course of a promising movie star’s career. Unfortunately for Jennifer Grey, that’s exactly what happened.
After the success of Dirty Dancing, she decided to mildly alter the tip of her nose. Per an archived article from New York Daily News, Grey wasn’t looking for a new nose.
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“I wanted to make myself easier to photograph, easier to cast,” Grey explained. “I really wanted to maintain my look and the integrity of my face.”
Apparently, the first operation gave her exactly what she wanted. However, just like with so many cosmetic surgeries, a complication arose.
A piece of cartilage broke loose in her nose, meaning Grey needed to go back under the knife. Unbeknownst to her, a doctor turned a subtle lift into a complete remodel.
According to Grey, people no longer recognized her after the second operation. “To go to complete obscurity from [being known], it’s been an interesting life,” she admitted, per New York Daily News.
‘It’s Like, You Know…’
It’s not that Grey stopped working. In fact, while fans may not immediately recognize her as the same Jennifer Grey that stole Patrick Swayze’s heart in Dirty Dancing, she didn’t disappear from Hollywood.
She was still a talented actress with the means to pursue her career. However, due to her new appearance, she lost a lot of the notoriety she had earned for her early roles.
So, in the late ’90s, Seinfeld writer and producer Peter Mehlman offered Grey a role in an ABC sitcom, It’s Like, You Know… that would take her experience in Hollywood and turn it on its head. Except, that isn’t exactly what happened.
While Mehlman had the bold goal of commenting on the superficiality of life in Los Angeles, Grey’s past nose jobs were fibers in the bone he was picking with Hollywood. The show took every chance it got to land a blow against Grey’s rhinoplasties.
While the sitcom didn’t receive terrible reviews, it was canceled midway through its second season. Today, this ill-fated ’90s sitcom has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
