Cynthia Rhodes was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She had started to her career with 1980 Xanadu. Later, she appeared in 1983 Flashdance, and then she starred in Staying Alive.
She then had her the most memorable role, Penny Johnson in 1987’s Dirty Dancing, along with Patrick Swayze.
She described her character as a person on the “edge,” which shocked the audience with an illegal abortion. “She’s from South Philly and she’s had a rough life… She’s got a sweetness about her but it’s put back because she’s had a hard time, and she has sort of put up a wall.”
“And, in the end, I think she finally realizes that life does go on.”
As she trained a lot for her role, which was 10 hours a day, she explained that dancing became “really hard.”
“That’s why I keep saying I’m never going to dance again. I’m tired of dancing…My bones are hurting, my back hurts all the time,” Rhodes shared.
“It seems like every time I say, ‘That’s it, I don’t want to dance anymore,’ I get another film. I’m not going to turn down work! I feel very fortunate to be in films that are dancing. But it’s like, give me a chance to do some dramatic work without dancing…Just give me a straight acting part.”
She also appeared in the music video, “Don’t Mean Nothing” by Richard Marx. The song was written for Rhodes, which she got married with Marx in 1989, and welcomed her children Brandon, Lucas and Jesse.
“I thought, ‘This won’t last, she’s definitely going to want to come back to work and do films. But she found a fulfillment in being a mom that completely dominated any feelings she ever had making a movie.” Marx said about his wife.
“Even if you’re her biggest fan, as good as you think she was as a dancer or singer or actress, man, you should see her as a mom.”
“The thing was, I used to never be sore. In fact, I was a gymnast. And now it’s sort of frustrating…I never used to stretch. Now I have to stretch before I dance. I love to dance, but if I never did it again, I wouldn’t be sorry,” Rhodes revealed.
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