BANG Showbiz English
‘Express Yourself’ was inspired by Jennifer Grey.
The 62-year-old actress – who is best known for playing the role of Baby opposite Patrick Swayze in 1987 musical movie ‘Dirty Dancing’ – alleged that pop superstar Madonna was inspired to write her 1989 hit ‘Express Yourself’ about her breakup with Matthew Broderick.
Jennifer said: “Madonna and I did [1989 film] ‘Bloodhounds of Broadway’ together. She told me she wrote ‘Express Yourself’ about me breaking up with Matthew.”
The ‘Red Dawn’ star – who by then was dating Johnny Depp – went on to claim that Madonna asked her to get into her Mercedes car where she played her the record.
She told PEOPLE: “She played it for me in her car. I was in my log cabin with Johnny and she said, ‘Come into my car.’ And I got in her Mercedes where she had a really good sound system and she was like, ‘Listen to this song I just did. It’s about you!”
However, Jennifer went on to reveal that – without confirming whether she had received a reply – she has recently written Madonna an email as to whether she really meant it.
She said: “I wrote her an email where I asked, ‘Did you just tell that to everyone?!”
The star – who has 20-year-old daughter Stella with ex-husband Clark Gregg – “learned so many things” about life during her relationship with Matthew, who is now married to ‘Sex and the City’ star Sarah Jessica Parker.
Jennifer said: “I learned so many things about myself from my relationship with Matthew. First of all, we were really young. We were in our mid-twenties when we got together. And from where I sit now, that’s pretty young. And we were, I don’t know, I can only speak for myself. I was really in love with him.”
