Flashdance at 40: Director Adrian Lyne on that wet dance scene, and what wouldn’t work about the film today
Lyne also talks about battling studio execs, the line he regrets cutting, and Kevin Costner's audition
Film Features Flashdance
When Flashdance hit theaters 40 years ago, on April 15, 1983, it seemed destined to fail. Young director Adrian Lyne had passed on the script twice because he felt it lacked depth, but he ultimately took on the project because needed a second movie under his belt. Jennifer Beals was preparing to start her first year at Yale, figuring she’d missed out on the lead role. On a lark, jazz-influenced musician Michael Sembello co-wrote and performed a pop track with lyrics about a serial killer, partially inspired by the movie Maniac, and when music supervisor Phil Ramone heard the cut he asked Sembello and collaborator Dennis Matkosky to tweak the words for Flashdance. The movie studio and record label releasing the soundtrack had little confidence in the movie; Paramount reportedly sold off 25% of their stake in the film, and Casablanca Records only pressed a modest amount of vinyl, which would lead to an immediate shortage.
When the $7 million movie opened, it grossed $4 million during the first weekend. Then Lyne’s film consistently made bank over six months (it was No. 1 for three weekends straight and bounced around the Top 10 thereafter), eventually grossing $90 million domestically and $201 million globally. The first collaboration between producers Jerry Bruckheimer and the late Don Simpson, Flashdance was the sleeper hit that broke their careers. The film was nominated for four Oscars and won one for Best Music, Original Song for Irene Cara’s title track. The soundtrack, propelled by the hits “Maniac” and “Flashdance … What A Feeling,” eventually went No. 1, won three Grammy Awards, and sold over 6 million copies domestically (and at least as many more globally).
In the movie, 18-year-old welder Alex Owens (Beals) dances at an arty strip club at night and aspires to be a professional ballet dancer, but she fears failing an arts school audition so keeps pushing it off. Meanwhile, her older boss Nick Hurley (Michael Nouri) is trying to romance her but also wants to support her dreams. The film focuses on Alex and her artistic friends as they seek greater things for themselves and to escape the doldrums of their blue-collar life in Pittsburgh. The story was basic, the visuals dazzling, the music infectious, and the message simple: Don’t be afraid to chase your dreams, no matter how daunting they may seem. Flashdance may not be deep, but it hit a nerve; some fans found it life-changing. Its two hit songs remain popular today, and film and TV creators still pay homage to the movie. A Paramount+ series is reportedly in the works. And the film’s new 4K restoration, captured beautifully in a new Ultra-HD Blu-ray release, looks and sounds great. Lyne sat down for a video chat with The A.V. Club to look back on the music-driven film, its tumultuous production, and how it became the little hit that could.
The A.V. Club: Are you surprised by how people pay homage to and parody the water dance scene to this day?
Adrian Lyne: I remember when I had to present it to the studio, I had executives sitting on bleachers in a studio. And I was at the bottom, winding a hose pipe around this poor girl and trying to explain to them what I meant by a wet dance. I knew I wanted to do a wet dance, I just didn’t know how to do it really. The skepticism [from] these people was just hilarious to see. I felt about three inches tall, it was just awful. And at that stage, I didn’t hadn’t got a clue how to do it. I just knew it would look good if the water flew everywhere and drenched the audience and made them pissed off because they were getting wet.
AVC: You directed your first feature film, Foxes, in 1980, and before that, you directed TV commercials. Even then, you had a very atmospheric, fast-paced style. Some of that shows up in the visual style of Foxes, particularly the concert sequence with the band Angel. Were you keeping pace with what MTV was doing at the time, or did it just happen that your style meshed with the zeitgeist?
AL: Well, to be honest, the movies sort of happened before MTV. MTV was opening at that time. A lot of people say, “Oh, it’s like MTV videos and stuff.” But at that stage, MTV was barely in evidence. So my movie had bits of it all over MTV, but at that stage, it wasn’t too visible.
AVC: Were there any lessons that you learned from the commercials and Foxes that you applied to Flashdance?
AL: I suppose so. When I did commercials I always used to operate [the camera] myself. When I started out making movies, I would operate quite a lot myself, although it was difficult because when you do a commercial the shot only has to last five or six or seven seconds or whatever. All of a sudden, your style has to change a bit because obviously the [movie] shots last longer, so that was a little bit tough to learn. Although I had a good relationship with [cinematographer] Don Peterman on this. I remember him saying, “I want to shoot this all at F2.” So [the lens] was wide open and there was very small depth of field which gave it its look really.
AVC: Flashdance was ahead of the curve on a few things—the MTV-style sensibility, integrating pop music, and the breakdancing sequence on the street.
AL: It was the first time you really saw breakdancing in a commercial movie, and I remember going to the head of the studio and showing him the sequence. I remember him saying, “What’s that in for? It’s not pushing the plot forward, take it out!” And I begged him to let me keep it, like a minute of it. I’m glad I did because people in this theater were just blown away with it—seeing that for the first time was terrific.
AVC: Three people doubled for Jennifer Beals in the climactic audition. French actress Marine Jahan was the movie’s main dancer, award-winning American gymnast Sharon Shapiro did the big leap, and since neither of them could master the breakdancing, a young B-boy named Crazy Legs [Richard Colón] spun on the floor in one shot. What was the process like getting him ready for that shot? And how much flack do you think he probably got from his macho friends?
AL: A lot. Because he was one of a group of gangs, I think, from the Bronx. I first found out about them at a club called The Roxy where they’d be doing their breakdancing and competitions. He had to put the tights on and the stockings over his hairy legs, and he had to put a wig on. He wasn’t too keen on any of it, but he did it in the end. It’s quick, it works.
AVC: A lot of people love the movie, but some still poke fun at certain things, like the fact that she’s an 18-year-old welder in an older, all-male environment.
AL: It was a flight of fancy. Quite often, I think that people take movies too desperately seriously, you know? Of course it’s ridiculous, but it doesn’t matter. I mean, that’s what you go to the movies for, isn’t it?
AVC: Are you surprised at how many people have told you and others how much that film meant to them in terms of pursuing their dreams?
AL: A lot, yes, a lot. People would ring me up. At that stage, there wasn’t any email, obviously, but they’d send me letters and stuff. It was very gratifying, really. Even though it’s a kind of naive thought, it’s nice [to think] that if you want something enough, maybe you’ll get it.
AVC: The ending is rather ambiguous. Yes, Alex comes out of the audition happy. Nick’s got flowers for her. But we don’t really know if she made the cut. We don’t get the final reaction from the judges. And we don’t actually know for sure if that relationship is going to last. Did you purposely want to have it be positive, but not completely?
AL: I guess I’m a romantic. I felt they were going to stay together, and I felt she’d get the job. But I’m easy. [laughs] It’s funny, I had to shoot the ending on the first day. It was ridiculous. We shot it in Pittsburgh. I think just for the schedule, that’s the way it worked. Now I wouldn’t do it. I would bitch and moan about it, but I had to do it then. And it worked out. It’s funny seeing that I used a pit bull because at that stage nobody was frightened of pit bulls. They didn’t know what a pit bull was, really.
AVC: Even though this is an R-rated movie, do you think a lot of younger teens saw this back in the day?
AL: I think so. Lots of people would ring me up and say, “You know they’re dancing in the theater in Times Square.” And I didn’t know that. I think that’s fabulous. That’s gratifying. People would ring me up and say that the girls in the street, on Fifth Avenue or wherever in New York, were wearing those T-shirts hanging off the shoulder. I went out there and looked and there were.
AVC: Jennifer Beals and Michael Nouri had good chemistry on screen. What were they like off-camera?
AL: They were very close. I’m not sure whether they went out together or anything. I remember when I first saw Jennifer Beals, I remember the impression it made on me. She had come in and she was rather depressed because she’d lost all of her luggage apparently on the plane, and apparently she’d slept out in a park before doing the interview. But I remember just how smitten I was with her. And I went rushing through to Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson to say, “You’ve got to see this girl. She’s tremendous.” I saw the movie a couple of days ago, and I hadn’t seen it for 15 years. I think she’s the reason it works. She had a vulnerability that was very refreshing. She was only 17 or something. So it forgave a lot, you know?
AVC: Michael Nouri was twice her age, and I don’t know if people would play it the same way today. Did anybody think about that back then?
AL: I don’t think people thought about it. I remember that Kevin Costner tested with three girls. At that stage, I think he was a carpenter. I’d done a commercial with him, funnily enough. And I remember he sat in bed with three of them for 200 bucks.
AVC: What was his audition for Nick Hurley like?
AL: He wasn’t auditioning. It had already been cast.
AVC: He was the audition stand-in?
AL: Yes, and I remember thinking he was good.
AVC: Lee Ving is the frontman for the hardcore punk band Fear, and he really seemed to enjoy his role as Johnny C. Did you ever go see him perform live?
AL: I think I did before the movie. But he was fun to work with, man. And when he said, “You’re a couple of cunts,” that’d be a little more difficult to do now.
AVC: Jennifer Beals doesn’t seem to age, does she?
AL: You’re right. There’s a scene where she’s smoking. Everybody’s smoking in the movie. She’s just leaning against a wall in the loft, and she’s got jeans without the knees. She just looked breathtaking. I remember while I was shooting, I was just in awe really. She looked marvelous.
AVC: She was very racy during the lobster scene.
AL: It’s funny, there was only one great line in the script, and I was talked out of leaving it in the movie. I’m still enraged about it now. There was a line where she’s in the posh restaurant. They’re having a meal together before his wife comes in, and she’s looking down at the plate. She’s got lobster with broccoli, and she looks at the broccoli and says, “What are these little trees?” I thought it was just very endearing and a sweet line. Somebody talked me out of leaving it in. I’m still annoyed about it because it made her childlike, not so knowing, and the scene would have been better if I left it in.
AVC: The screenplay was reportedly based on those two dancers up in Toronto. One of them, Maureen Marder, was reportedly a construction worker and welder who danced at night. Did anybody beyond co-screenwriter Tom Hedley get any insight about their experiences?
AL: We went to see them, and it was true. It was quite moving, really. They had real pretensions of being legitimate dancers, and they had their sets that they would bring with them. I tried to do the same thing, for example, with that TV that had a fan in it. There was a light in it as well, so there’s a big shadow on the wall. It’s the sort of thing they could have done. It was sort of low-tech. I remember being impressed with what they were doing.
AVC: How closely did you work with composer Giorgio Moroder on integrating all of his music into the film?
AL: I did work with him. I also worked very closely with [music supervisor] Phil Ramone, who I was very fond of. I thought he was terrific. I remember going in one day and saying to him that I’d heard a track from a German group called Kraftwerk that was quite popular at that time. I said they’ve got a really nice sort of motif in the rhythm section—bing bong, bing bong, bing bong, like a kind of bell. I said, “I think that might be good for ‘Maniac’.” So he put it in. To be honest, we stole the idea from Kraftwerk.
AVC: Every movie has some sort of struggle to overcome. What was the biggest one for Flashdance?
AL: A big one was that [wet] dancing. Oh, there was all sorts of things—“You must stop using the smoke!” Because they [executives] would watch the rushes and they’d see three takes where you couldn’t see anybody because of the smoke. They would think maybe you were gonna use that one. [chuckles] So I continued using the smoke, but I had somebody on the door who would watch for any executives coming. And we used another way of getting the smoke which was like a sort of biscuit thing, which I think was sulfur. It was absolutely lethal, but it was easy to put out.
AVC: Anything else you can think of to tell us?
AL: Two weeks before the movie came out, not being able to get anybody on the phone [at the studio]. Literally, nobody would return my calls. It was almost funny it was so ridiculous. I remember having a showing at a place called The Village, this massive theater in Westwood in L.A. I had a friend, this old lady who was a producer, and she said, “You got a bona fide-y hit, kiddo.” Then I remember hearing Giorgio Moroder speaking to somebody, and he didn’t know I was listening. He said, “Yes, but is it any good?” [laughs] After seeing it with that rapturous applause. He was full of misgivings about the whole thing.
59 Comments
I’d really like to hear the original serial killer lyrics of Maniac.
“He’s a maniac / He just moved in next door / He’ll kill your cat and nail it to the floor” is pretty catchy; they were on to something
Maybe the original version sounded completely different, but I’m delighted by the idea that a musician would see the movie “Maniac” and translate their feelings into an uptempo dance number. It’s like writing a flamenco song about bukakke.
😀
Yes, just like that.
In the movie, 18-year-old welder Alex Owens She’s supposed to be 18‽ Jennifer Beals would’ve been 19 at the time of filming, and absolutely looks young during the movie, but I guess I just assumed the character was older.It felt like Flashdance was just always airing on TV when I was a kid, so I have a bunch fond childhood memories of this deeply weird movie that I’m not even sure I’ve seen all the way through. The soundtrack is full of bangers, with my favourite being Laura Branigan’s cover of Umberto Tozzi’s Gloria; it completely warped my idea of what strip clubs were like; it taught me about the existence of anti-Polish sentiment (also that episode of Law & Order where McCoy says his dad beat him for going out with a Polish girl). Michael Nouri’s great in it and I always enjoy seeing him pop up in something unexpected, like his role on the very cheesy and fun show Legend of the Seeker (RIP).
For 40 years I had no idea that Laura Branigan’s wasn’t the original. It’s funny this article comes up now, because just two months ago I was at a karaoke club in Bucharest, and the kids were mostly doing American hip hop. Then Gloria came on and absolutely the whole bar joined in. I assumed it was a Romanian cover because it wasn’t English, but as I watched the lyrics scroll I’m like no way that’s Romanian (not nearly enough diacritics), it has to be Italian or something (I don’t speak either language, so couldn’t really tell).When I got home I looked it up, and was flabbergasted to find Branigan’s was a cover of an Italian song from the 70s. Her version (along with the rest of the Flashdance soundtrack) absolutely defines the sound of the early 80s to me. Apparently the original is still widely popular in Europe (if a random Romanian karaoke bar is any measure).
one of my favourite movie scenes (from an awesome movie too)
Branigans arrangement is very close to the original, but her vocals have no comparison
The synths in Gloria are so OTT, they blast the song right through being awful schlock into being insanely awesome.
CORRECT.
I can’t remember if the movie ever references the character’s exact age. I would have thought she was meant to be in her early 20’s.The scene where Gloria plays over her friend ice skating and falling always gave me goosebumps for some reason.
The scene where Gloria plays over her friend ice skating and falling always gave me goosebumps for some reason.I feel seen.
I saw this when it came out. I would have bet a lot of money that Michael Nouri would have been more of a thing.
And then when I finally started being able to move out of my parents’ house after making that bet, I would have bet even more on Cary Elwes.
I always thought it was so weird that some neighborhood bar had essentially a cabaret show. This may have been true of Pittsburgh or somewhere else in the late 70s or early 80s, but I kind of doubt it.
They had to have something to distract them from the frequent zombie outbreaks in Pittsburgh (according to the documentaries by George Romero).
lol
How Did This Get Made talked about this in a few episodes featuring 80s movies. Their theory is that these weird dance/cabaret joints are stand-ins for strip clubs. In the 80s, studios and the American media at large started to create a strong divide between movies that got R-ratings for violence and/or the F-word vs movies that featured nudity or sexual situations. The former was good old-fashioned entertainment, and the latter was disgusting filth.
So in a movie like Flashdance or Tango & Cash, those weird interpretive dance clubs let the filmmakers show female protagonists in sexually suggestive situations without them being dirty strippers.
I always though they were meant to be strip clubs, just with an arty bent.
Exactly, they’re strip clubs with a wink at the camera. “The patrons of this establishment aren’t here for nudity, look at the artistic performances on display. Why, any nudity is purely incidental.”
But the movie did have an “actual” strip club in it as well. I remember the main girl gets mad at her friend for getting a job dancing at one of these non-artsy strip clubs, which she felt was demeaning.
Just like Playboy, they were there for the articles.
Yeah, it was the 80’s, but the dancing stunt doubles were cringe. It was what you expected from the stunt work from TV shows of the time. It was an enjoyable movie, but our imaginations were working overtime. It didn’t help that the dancing double was making such a stink about wanting the credit for the movie’s success.
I was a little kid at the time and I remember the controversy when it came out that there were dance doubles.
It was a flight of fancy. Quite often, I think that people take movies
too desperately seriously, you know? Of course it’s ridiculous, but it
doesn’t matter. I mean, that’s what you go to the movies for, isn’t it?
Not just that she was an 18-year-old welder, but she worked at a blue collar bar that showcased very artsy dance numbers. Not that blue collar men in the 80s out drinking after work can’t appreciate the art of dance.
I think that was inspired by 1977’s Saturday Night Fever in which Travolta’s character (who works as a paint mixer in a hardware store) is also obsessed with dancing. I don’t know how common this sort of working class artsy thing this actually was, but the trope was there at least.
Maybe all the customers have their own Billy Elliots at home and have learned to appreciate the art.
A paint mixer. I’m not sure if I even noticed that. I wonder what was behind that choice.
Good God, in Joliet IL where I grew up in the 80s you’d get your ass kicked for dancing if you were a guy.
And, of course, it led to this priceless oddity:
You can watch the entire special on AppleTV+. There were quite a few weird Peanuts specials back in the day.
What on earth?? Lol
Then there’s this.Shit beer. Great ads.
I”m so sorry I remember this now. Thanks?
You know the rules. Shittier the beer, the better the ad. For example, Tooheys rereleased their Country Special a few years, and it is the worst beer I’ve ever tasted that had more than two letters on the label. The post child of bad Aussie lager. Think of the sourest, most piss-tastingest brew that could only be improved by drinking it from the bottom of a used Dubbo RSL ashtray. But great ads:
Lol. I grew up on a farm and this ad makes sheep sheering look like a baby shower:D
It’s hot and sweaty (the guys, maybe the sheep), the animal’s wool is pretty gnarly and their asses are covered with dingleberries. They squirm and cry (which is awful) and there is far too much blood. But then sheep have very think skin, so it’s not life threatening. These sheep are adorable, the guys look like the nicest people in the world; I’ve never had Tooheys, but I’ll take your word for it. I think I had Fosters once and it was pretty good.
Don’t ever, EVER have anything to fucken do with sheep.- My old man.Thing is with sheep is you could be lookin’ out over a perfectly healthy mob of ‘em, and a couple’ll just drop dead for no reason. That’s just sheep. That’s just what they do.- My Angus-farming butcher (buys his lamb from an idio- er, Dorper farmer up the road).Sheep are lucky they’re so stupid because if they had any brains they’d decide to die twice before they got to the abattoir.- Anon.We had cattle.
I did help my uncle out with his shearing a couple of years back. Whole operation is a pain in the arse. Cattle? You nut ‘em, brand ‘em, drench ‘em, maybe dehorn ‘em, then send them out for a few months before you round them up and put them on a truck. Sheep? Shear ‘em, dag ‘em. untangle them from fences, find out half of them died because they fell over and couldn’t get up, watch the wedgies take your lambs, find out they’ve got footrot, find out they’re flyblown, mules ‘em, dock ‘em, jet ‘em, untangle ‘em from the boxthorn…We rode on the sheep’s back for a century. If we hadn’t wasted time with that we’d have had an Aussie colony on the fucking moon by now.
Do you do any creative writing (and make it public) because this is terrific.And 100% correct. My dad only kept them a few years because of their stupidity. They’d see a dog, run and then end up, …. you know. Whole flocks would get wiped out by a couple of wild dogs.
I do occasionally write for a national news site – not Murdoch (get fucked – also, suck a fat Crikey dick, Lachie. Have a sook.), not NineFax, and not ABC. And not ACM, though it’s debatable if they’re “national”.Anything more than that and I’ll dox myself. :)Nothing creative, though I’m working back on that. Mostly just straight news. And don’t get me wrong, I love lamb. But jeez, farming’s hard enough. I couldn’t stand just having a mob of 500 sheep and going “Yay! Maybe 300’ll make to market this year! Yay! Also, the six weeks of poor feed we had over winter means that the fibre’s gonna be pissweak and snapped in the middle so bye-bye Zegna, hello Chinese army blankets…”
Had that album!
I watched this as a kid because I was obsessed with Peanuts/Snoopy, but I didn’t see Flashdance so I didn’t get all the deep cut references Schultz put in there!
Still to this day, I’ve never had a stronger “seeing-for-the-first-time-ever” reaction to any woman in Movies, TV or Music as I did to Jennifer Beals. She was in that movie, the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen in a movie (to this day).Teen me even bought the album, yea for the songs, but moreso cuz she was on the cover. And she’s still stunning today.
Lyne also talks about battling studio execs, the line he regrets cutting, and Kevin Costner’s auditionAL: He wasn’t auditioning. It had already been cast.Come on guys, get it together.
It has some of the best photography that I’ve ever seen.Ah well, at least it makes more sense than Showgirls. Eszterhas was going through a phase I guess.
“Somebody talked me out of leaving it in. I’m still annoyed about it because it made her childlike.”-Nah, man. I’m glad it was cut. a) I’d like to think somebody college-aged knows what broccoli is by now, and 2) The cradle-robbing energy in this film is high enough as it is. Don’t need to over emphasize her youth.
Yeah, man.Sorry, but I can guarantee that in 1983, an urban working class kid could have gone their whole life without ever seeing broccoli.
With I’m sure exceptions, blue collar city kids in the early 80s (especially those with central/Eastern European origins as in the demographic of the story) would very easily have been confined in their vegetablational experience to peas, corn, carrots, and green beans (canned, as like as not) and iceberg lettuce/tomatoes in salad.
As Mr Lynne says, it had nothing to do with her relative youth.
“it had nothing to do with her relative youth.”But then he chose the word “childlike.”
Yeah that was a weird complaint. She’s already 18 years old with a 40 year old man. Why would you want her to seem “childlike”? That’s a specific and disturbed choice of words.
Speaking of the welding…
wow having never watched this completely i hadn’t realized Lee Ving was in it. i may have to finally sit thru the whole thing just for that
Oh, the Pit Bull thing. I was 7 when this came out and had Pitties (still have Pitties). No one knew what they were. They were just a dog. All of the neighborhood kids came over and played with them. Then one day, no one was allowed over my house to play with the dogs. Pit Bulls hit the news. Then, eventually, the neighbors realized that my dogs were good dogs. We’d put pulling harnasses on them and hook them up to sleds. Rocky would pull six of us (as many that could fit on the sled) up and down the block all day long in the snow. My friends still talk about it to this day.
His movies always seemed so condescending to me that I just bounced off of them.
Random neural firings:
* Jennifer Beals was gorgeous in this and looks 20 times better NOW. What a goddess.
* That stand-up routine… Ugh. Look, you recently birthed ones that get upset. Just fast-forward. Unless you want to know what a lesbian with a hard-on joke looks like
* The random “I Love Rock and Roll” music video of them working out. God, I miss the 80s so much.
* What moron actually thought the ending was ambiguous? She nails her audition and they get back together. Don’t overthink. It only hurts the game.
All I remember about the movie was it seemed to make women all over L.A. wear torn sweatshirts and legwarmers. Whether or not they were welders or dancers.
I like this movie, with exceptions. The strip bar scenes were illuminating and incredibly tragic. That restaurant scene is ghastly, and I know a lot of young women who felt they had to mimic that kind of staged boldness. It’s gross but it does have a funny line/word – “obviously.”I had less trouble believing that the lead was a welder than a potential ballerina and, although the dance audition scene was cool, it was thoroughly unbelieveable that such an untrained person could get into the conservatory. Her double’s work was outstanding, though, and I would have loved to have seen her audition for the lead. I just wasn’t a fan of Beals. She seemed like a Sean Young (who had starred in Blade Runner the year prior) knock-off.
I just remember my mom had a big crush on Michael Nouri, so that was gross for me.
I feel like so much would have been solved about the movie if they had made her character like 2-3 years older. It would be less gross that her 40-year old boss was pursuing her, and it would be more plausible that she had completed an apprenticeship or otherwise trained in a skilled trade.
I have a relative who is a welder. His high school had welding classes, so I think he did get a job in the field shortly after graduation.
I was 10 when this movie came out and just discovering girls and starting puberty. This was my favorite scene in the movie 😊
In a weird coincidence, I just listened to Karina Longworth’s episode about Flashdance (and Risky Business) last night. And I’ve still never seen the mov,e but now I really, really want to.