Flashdance is a quintessential 80s movie. The film, directed by Adrian Lyne and starring an 18 year old Jennifer Beals, has gone on to become a cult classsic and thanks in part to its soundtrack, has become a film that has stood the test of time. We spoke to Lyne for the 40th anniversary of Flashdance and we asked him

OTN: Flashdance is looked back upon as a quintessential 80s film. 40 years later? what do you think has stood the test of time the best?

A.L: I think the casting of [Jennifer Beals]- I saw it yesterday, funnily enough, and I hadn’t seen it in 15 years. I thought what did stand out was her performance. I thought she was vulnerable and sweet. You just liked her. I was pleased with that casting of her, and she couldn’t dance. Well, I mean not much, because she could dance a little but barely. So, that was kind of a dangerous thing to do, letting the body double do all of the dancing but it worked out. I think people didn’t notice because there was an amalgam of the two faces. People sorta believed it.

OTN: Until just now, I didn’t even know that it was a body double. You used the camera and lighting really effectively to hide it so take it from me, you did a great job.

A.L: *laughs* She had a wig that fell off a lot.

OTN: No way, that’s hilarious! So you just mentioned you watched the film for the first time in 15 years yesterday. When you were watching it, did memories unlock for you where you remembered what it was like shooting that sequence?

A.L:

OTN: What was the most important lesson you learned on Flashdance that you applied to your future films such as Fatal Attraction and Jacob’s Ladder?

A.L: Well Fatal Attraction was obviously very different. Flashdance was more of a musical really so when I was asked to do a chorus line, I don’t know if you were aware of that, but I didn’t do it because I thought that I would be pinned down to musicals and I didn’t wanna do that. Jacob’s Ladder was such a different story but I guess there was a similarity in that I wanted the dances to be sort of low tech. For example, to put a fan in an old CRT TV and use a light to create a huge shadow on the wall. I wanted it to be something that you would believe a girl or kid could’ve contrived.

OTN: Your answer about music actually ties into my next question. Flashdance is known for its fantastic soundtrack. Out of all the songs on there, which one is your favourite and why?

A.L: Well, I kind of like ‘Maniac’ (EDITOR’S NOTE: That’s my favourite song too!) because I was working with the film’s music producer Phil Ramone and he was great to work with because he didn’t have an ego at all. I remember speaking to him and saying that I had heard a track from a group called Kraftwerk and they had this chime in one of their songs that went “bing bong bing bong” and I wanted to use that on ‘Maniac’. So, in short, we kinda stole it off that German group’s track, which ended up working out quite well *laughs*.

OTN: Last question, In this day and age a sequel or reboot seems inevitable for everything. There’s been talk of a Flashdance reboot/remake for years now. Would you like to see it and why or why not?

A.L: Well why not? They could do a better job for all I know. Normally I don’t like sequels too much, except for The Godfather Part II, because they never seem to be better. Same thing goes for directors cuts. Funnily enough, there’s a version of Flashdance that’s 20 minutes longer and was a disaster. Me and my editor watched it and wanted to kill ourselves after. We went and got drunk at a bar outside of Paramount after watching it.

OTN: With that, I’m all out of time. Thank you so much for speaking with me, and I wish you nothing but the best with the rest of your interviews today.

A.L: Thanks for the kind words. Have a good one!

Flashdance is out on 4K UHD and streaming everywhere.