I saw this movie with a friend of mine recently and told her that Jennifer Beals did none of the dancing. However, when seeing the movie with her, she insisted that it was Jennifer and in the close ups when she's dancing it looks like it's really Jennifer. In the trivia section, it only talks about the audition dance being done by doubles, but I always thought all of Jennifer's dancing in this film was done by a double. What's the real story here?
No, she didn't. All dancing was done by a double, French dancer Marine Jahan. This was commented on a lot back in the 1980s.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0415657/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Jahan
Because she really couldn't do the moves, so they hired a double for her. However, the double couldn't do the headspin either, so they hired a man who refused to shave the beard but shaved the legs, revealed by the scriptwriter Joe Esterhaz(spellcheck).
I don't intend to be offensive, but I have to defend my opinions.
Ok i have an idea let say that she dance alright?!
We are like the people that think that the holocaust didnt exist except we say that she dance
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Have you Checked the children
In that scene, there were four different people involved. The close-ups were of Jennifer, the dancing sequences had Marine, the swan dive was performed by a gymnast, and the floor spin was performed by a male dancer named "Crazy Legs".
sharehaha i slow-motioned the floor spin part and laughed my ass off! it was clearly a dude with a bad wig.
shareThanks for the info! I had to go back and watch to see. Interesting!
Maggie
dancing ? she even didn't do any of the cycling.................
share...and depending on your viewpoint, very little acting. Actually, someone should remake this movie, using Beals in the lead role, perhaps calling it, "Flashact". She could walk into the audition and attempt to do something Shakespearean. Ha! Okay, bit of a stretch but, come on, who decided she was the right woman for the job? Melanie Griffiths/Demi Moore - I'm no great fan of either of you but at least you can be vaguely convincing in your various roles.
share The entire success of the movie can be attributed to the two hit songs and the changing the top scene (which was the clip everyone showed).
Whether Beals was dancing or not was irrelevant. I really can't decide which film (Flashdance or Dirty DAncing) did more ($$$) with less (script).
Isn't this the movie which elicited the comment from Ginger Rogers, 'in my day, we danced with our feet, not with our faces.'?
-30-
From what I've read, Jennifer Beals didn't do any of the actual dancing. She did a few close-ups here and there, but that was about it. For instance, in the "He's a Dream" sequence, the few times you clearly see her face are when she's not really doing any complicated steps or moves (she's basically shaking her head and body around, and mouthing to the song).
"I wanted to look my best, so I put on my tiger briefs and did a sit-up." The Critic
One thing that I will never undserstand is that if they wanted an unknown to play the part why didn't they just cast Marine Jahan (the actual dancer), an actress (that could act or dance pretty good) or maybe even The Dancing Hobo (who wouldn't shave). I understand if they wanted an unknown actress to make the story believable or to get good acting performance but Beals couldn't just dance but act too. Not that pretty and damn annoying in this movie.
She didn't even do the cycling for god's sake!
I agreed with vexsmith too, this movie only became a suprise sleeper hit because of the popularity of the 2 catchy songs!
JeSkuNk
My feelings exactly. I think she's gotten to be a very good actor by now, really and truly, but back in 1983 I guess she just didn't have the experience. Having seen her later stuff first—'The L Word,' or even 'Four Rooms,' where she certainly did better than a lot of the more well-established actors—it was kind of a shock to see how bad some of her acting was here. And since she was obviously no dancer either, she (a) had a dance double and (b) wore all of those baggy, form-hiding outfits during the entire movie, so it wouldn't be so obvious the role was being played by two different people. So that eliminates acting chops, dancing talent and even plain old lowest-common-denominator ogling...I do kind of wonder why they hired her.
Still glad they did, though; she's more than made up for it in the years since, and probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to act elsewhere if this hadn't been so insanely popular. And let's face it, with that script and that brutal editing down to 90-something minutes, 'Flashdance' was always going to be a dog anyway.
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yes, however for most of the more complex dance moves, you are in fact watching a rather lithe homosexual dancer instead of her.
shareThe person who was the break dancing double for Beals is "Frosty Freeze" one of the Rock Steady Crew who is also in the scene were Beals is watching a break dancing crew perform in an alley .He is the guy who jumps up in the air and falls flat on his back . He recently passed away
shareHe is the guy who
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I don't think that would have been helpful information back in '83. Couldn't they find someone else?
Really amazes me that they had a guy do the back spin. Right in the same group, the Rock Steady Crew was Baby Love who had a passable look and could have easily doubled for Beals. Why they didn't use her is beyond me.
shareEven though I love Jennifer Beals, it is surprising this movie was so popular. It is a huge guilty pleasure. Although I love the ending dance routine, it is SO obvious that other people are dancing. I also found the character of Alex badly written. Beals gave her decent charisma, but she seemed so extreme towards Nick. I would have been mad if I thought he was double playing me, but throwing a rock through his window?! Starting a fight in a car and then getting out in the middle of traffic!? Did no one else find these scenes a bit ridiculous?! Anyway, I think the music made this movie. But the dancing is also contagious. I wanted to go dance after this. I guess it's the feel-good, fun factor that makes this movie so enjoyable.
shareIn some scenes she acted like a spoiled brat, and in other scenes, like a naive little girl. Definitely a weird character. Did they ever mention her age and anything about her family? She was 18 in the movie??? Her only adult friend was the old lady who was not a relative?
shareYou have to remember, this was the early 80's. Jerry Springer hadn't made outrageous behavior something that people wanted to overindulge in for their 15 minutes of fame and it was still a few years before Fatal Attraction. Through 21st century eyes, the fact that she hit him, destroyed his window, got out of the car, etc. leads to a boiling bunny someday. In the 80's, it meant she was a broken orphan-type who needed to learn how to have a real relationship, and it created drama. We're all jaded now and have no time for antics like that.🎻
shareJennifer didn't have to dance to heat up the audience. Good movie making will create an illusion Jennifer is dancing.
Too bad Joe couldn't get his Showgirls to perform. Good dancing movie that made good use of Laura Branigan's hit song.
BestSongsOfThe80s.com/