Jennifer Grey is opening up about the famous nose job that rendered her unrecognizable, saying that her mother encouraged her to undergo the procedure.
In an interview with People, the "Dirty Dancing" star recounted the moment when, at a film premier, Michael Douglas turned around and did not recognize her, saying that she felt invisible.
"That was the first time I had gone out in public," she said. "And it became the thing, the idea of being completely invisible, from one day to the next.
"In the world's eyes, I was no longer me."
Grey explained that she had spent her whole life resisting "the thing, I was so upset with my mother for always telling me I should do my nose."
"I really thought it was capitulating," she continued. "I really thought it meant surrendering to the enemy camp. I just thought, I'm good enough. I shouldn't have to do this. That's really what I felt. I'm beautiful enough."
Grey added that her mother thought it was in her best interests when she suggested the nose job because it would make it easier for the actress to land roles in films.
"She loves me, loved me, always has; and she was pragmatic because she was saying, 'Guess what? It's too hard to cast you. Make it easier for them,' " Grey said. "And then I did, and she was right. It wasn't like, 'You're not pretty.' It's like, 'Guess what? If you don't want to be an actor, OK. But if you wanna be an actor.' "
Grey noted that Hollywood's anti-Semitic beauty standards may have contributed to her parents undergoing plastic surgery and in turn resulted in them wanting the same for her so that she could fit in.
"I understand it was the ’50s. I understand they were assimilating. I understood that you had to change your name and you had to do certain things, and it was just normalized, right? You can't be gay. You can't be Jewish. You know, you can't look Jewish. You're just trying to fit into whatever is the group-think," she said.
In a 2012 interview with The Mirror, Grey also spoke about her rhinoplasty saying that it was the "nose job from hell."
"I went into the operating room a celebrity and came out anonymous," she said. "It was the nose job from hell. I’ll always be this once-famous actress nobody recognizes because of a nose job."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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