It was April 1983 when the unlikely flick Flashdance became a hit. Young director Adrian Lyne struggled with the script for the film Flashdance. Previous to finally directing it, he passed on the script twice. However, he eventually took it because he had only directed one feature-length film. He needed another. It was good for him that this ended up being his choice!
The film was a hit in theaters! It was even nominated for four Oscars and won Best Music for original song. We all remember that song and the accompanying music video and scene. Remember Jennifer Beals dancing in a wet T-shirt to "Maniac"? More on that in just a minute!
The film followed young actress Jennifer Beals as Alex Owens. Alex is a welder who dances at a high-class Pittsburgh strip club at night. She wants to be a professional ballet dancer, but she is afraid to fail. Her boss winds up supporting her to follow her dreams, so she practices all day and night and eventually pursues her artistic dreams. It's a simple, straightforward plot with a gorgeous woman at the helm!
Jennifer became a massive star, too, and even that seemed unlikely. The biracial babe is drop-dead gorgeous, but it was practically unheard of for a Black woman to be the lead in a movie like this in the 1980s - and for that film to become such a mainstream hit. Well, it seems obvious as to why now! Jennifer is HOT and she is a firecracker in this film.
Now what about that iconic wet T-shirt scene that has been parodied and recreated for four decades now? According to a recent interview with director Adrian Lyne in The AV Club, Lyne had no idea it would be so iconic.
He describes the scene in the interview like this: "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."
Well, that skepticism sure is hilarious now because of how famous that scene became. Even if you've never seen Flashdance, you know this scene! That is true movie magic. That makes it one of the most famous scenes in cinema history. Seriously! I would rank it in the top 100 for sure (perhaps even top 50). Plus it's sexy as sin!
There were hot scenes in Flashdance that had nothing to do with Beals! The babes were taking it all off in the strip club and hotties Sunny Johnson and Monique Gabrielle took off their clothes for tips - and had all of us wanting to give them just the tip. You can watch one of those hot scenes here:
Jennifer did use a body double for some scenes. That body double was Marine Jahan who had a bangin' body just like Jen. Of course, Jennifer did go on to go nude in movies - many movies. Beals continued to be a sex symbol in skinema for a while and she has Flashdance to thank for that.
Flashdance ages well - which is amazing considering how Lyne originally saw the script for this flick. It's still enjoyable and it's still sexy. 40 looks good on Flashdance!
