‘Flashdance’ cast look back on 40 years of the ’80s classic

Just like 18-year-old Alex Owens — who worked both a steel mill and a stripper pole in Pittsburgh, Penn. before finally getting the chance to live out all her ballerina dreams — “Flashdance” was the underdog that had the whole world believing in 1983.

Starring newcomer Jennifer Beals and directed by Adrian Lyne (“Fatal Attraction,” “Indecent Proposal”) in only his second film, it went on to gross over $200 million worldwide.

Not bad — especially considering it was blasted by critics and the budget was just $7 million.

And the movie — which twirled into theaters 40 years ago on April 15, 1983 — introduced most of the planet to breakdancing, leg warmers and a smash soundtrack, including the Oscar-winning title tune “Flashdance … What a Feeling” performed by the late Irene Cara.

“People would come out of that movie and be leaping and dancing and laughing and, you know, their cares would have been taken away for a couple of hours,” said Durga McBroom, who played Heels, one of Alex’s stripper besties at the fictional Mawby’s Bar.

“It’s just a real feel-good movie [that] makes no sense,” she continued. “Let’s face it — the story is stupid. A welder by day and a stripper at night?? Come on now!”

Although “Flashdance” (which will return to theaters for 40th anniversary screenings on April 26 and 30) may have been far-fetched — and dating your much older boss as an 18-year-old certainly wouldn’t fly in today’s post-MeToo era — it was the perfect ’80s film fantasy.

Here, cast and crew remember some behind-the-scenes moments.

There were some fateful casting calls

Leading man Michael Nouri beat out the likes of Kevin Costner and Mickey Rourke for the part of Nick Hurley, Alex’s boss. He was cast without even doing a chemistry test with Beals.

“Adrian really fought for us,” he said.

And McBroom originally auditioned for the starring role of Alex that turned Beals into an overnight sensation. 

“I saw an ad for an open casting call for a dance audition for the lead part of Alex, and I knew I wasn’t gonna get it, but I was really studying dance at the time, so I went,” said McBroom, who ended up getting the supporting role of Heels.

For Kyle T. Heffner, getting cast as aspiring stand-up comedian Richie Blazek was a case of art imitating life.

“I had done stand-up in Chicago, started when I was 18, so it was a good fit,” said Heffner, who is now on HBO’s “Perry Mason.”

“Jennifer and I had that bond of both being from the South Side of Chicago, so I think we felt a kinship automatically.”

Nouri bet on ‘Flashdance’ over Peckinpah

Nouri had been offered a major role in director Sam Peckinpah’s thriller “The Osterman Weekend” right before he got the “Flashdance” script. 

“And I liked [the Flashdance screenplay] much better than I liked the Peckinpah script,” he said. “I went in to meet with Adrian Lyne the next day, and we had a wonderful meeting. And he said, ‘We start shooting next week.’ So I had to choose between two major productions … But I just had this feeling about ‘Flashdance.’ ”

The iconic bra moment was all Beals

During her audition, Beals inspired one of the most memorable moments from “Flashdance,” when Alex, seemingly innocently, takes off her bra under her sweatshirt in front of Nick.

“When Jennifer came in to meet Adrian to audition, she was coming from the gym,” said Nouri, who is currently on Netflix’s “The Watcher.”

“And she did that as she was talking to Adrian during the interview. And he said, ‘That has got to go in the movie!’ ”

There was more laughter than lust in that lobster scene

While “Flashdance” had plenty of fancy footwork scorching up the big screen, there were an entirely different kind of sexy moves happening when Beals played footsie with Nouri’s nether regions under that restaurant table.

It was a moment of lobster-eating lasciviousness that went down in crustacean cinema history.

“When I saw it on paper [in the script], I was laughing. I thought that, ‘This is gonna be fun,’ ” said Nouri about the steamy scene. “There was a lot of laughter leading up to it, with her toe going between my legs. And, uhhh … yeah, there was a lot of laughter.”

Cecil was silenced

The silent-film throwback of “Flashdance” is Malcolm Danare, who played Cecil, the hapless henchman of Johnny C. (Lee Ving), owner of Mawby’s Bar’s topless rival club. All of his dialogue was cut from the script.

“There were lines for Cecil in the movie, but I have such a high voice, so if you were to hear Cecil … it would have ruined everything,” said Danare, who is also celebrating the 40th anniversary of his role in “The Lords of Discipline” this year.

“Here’s this big guy beating up people, and then all of a sudden you have a voice like mine … it would have sounded stupid.”

Even then, the stars thought the fashions were ‘insane’

“Flashdance” was ultimately more about the empowering female bonding between Alex and her tribe of dancers than the dudes who came across their spike-heeled path.

And the actresses commiserated in sartorial sisterhood over the ’80s looks they became famous for.

“We used to laugh about the fashions,” said McBroom. “We thought they were insane, you know, with the cutting off of the T-shirts and the loose shoulders. We thought it was ridiculous … Next thing you know, everybody’s wearing leg warmers and cutting off their T-shirts, and it defined a good portion of the look of the ’80s.”

The wig was the big tell

In the end, the secret weapon of “Flashdance” was Marine Jahan, Beals’ French stunt dancer who kept Alex in “Maniac”-trained motion.

But although moviegoers were fooled at first, thinking it was Beals busting all those moves, McBroom and crew were not.

“A woman can tell when a woman is wearing a wig and when she’s not,” said McBroom, who went on to be featured in music videos for superstars such as Janet Jackson and became a background singer for Pink Floyd. “I can tell the difference between Jennifer’s hair and Marine’s wig.”

Legs had to spin crazy fast — and do double duty

Filling in on those backspins during Alex’s audition for the Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance and Repertory was then-16-year-old Bronx b-boy Crazy Legs, part of the revolutionary Rock Steady Crew, who the producers hired on the spot after seeing them perform at the Roxy club in Manhattan. “They would try to get me to do the backspin fast enough so that it wasn’t so obvious that it was a dude,” said Legs, whose real name is Richard Colón.

“Legs got more royalties because he also doubled for Jennifer Beals — he was in the leotard and the wig,” noted another Rock Steady Crew member, Mr. Freeze (real name: Marc Lemberger), who turned an umbrella into the ultimate prop during the breakdancing sequence that was shot on the streets of Pittsburgh.

“They wanted her to have all these experiences throughout the film where it culminated in her audition, where she uses different things from her life, and breaking was one of those things she saw in the street,” said Legs.