Thompson Bonded With Swayze Over Ballet Past

Actress LEA THOMPSON bonded with heartthrob PATRICK SWAYZE on the set of RED DAWN after they discovered their shared love of ballet.

The pair starred in the 1984 classic alongside Charlie Sheen and Swayze’s future Dirty Dancing co-star Jennifer Grey, and quickly became pals.

And while paying tribute to “ringleader” Swayze following his death on Monday (14Sep09), Thompson cringes at how the duo desperately tried to hide their classical dance training from their fellow actors.

She recalls, “We had this strange bond of me knowing him as a ballet dancer, but him also having to be this macho leader of a gang of guerrilla soldiers.

“It was a funny juxtaposition, because I think we were both maybe trying to hide the fact that we were ballet dancers a little bit.”

But Thompson admits she soon wished she’d put her ballet skills to good use - after becoming “extremely jealous” of Grey’s famed routines with the hunky actor in their 1991 dancing hit.

She adds, “I always felt badly that I never got to dance with him. And I was extremely jealous that Jennifer Grey, who was in Red Dawn with us, got to be a dancer with him (in Dirty Dancing). Sometimes we would dance a little bit together, and I always thought it would be so much fun to do a movie where I could dance with Patrick Swayze.

“He had an amazing zest for life. He really did. He’s one of those people that just really knows how to wring the most out of every day. I found that inspirational then and I’ve held that inspiration for all these years.”