Why Dirty Star Almost Quit

Mexican actor Diego Luna — who gained indie film fame in Y Tu Mama Tambien — was all set to be this generation's Patrick Swayze. The 24-year-old hottie was sure he could play a mysterious Cuban who woos a young American girl and teaches her Latin rhythm in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. Just one small problem: He had two left feet!

"I didn't know how to dance at all," Luna admits to TV Guide Online. "I was really bad at dancing." Jokingly, he adds: "We Mexicans, we know how to drink. We know how to sing. But you try on a mariachi outfit and try to move, and you'll see how stiff the mariachi outfit is!

"And Cubans, they all dance beautifully," he continues. "It is amazing how good they are, because when they are, like, 4 years old, they are dancing."

Thankfully, after mucho rehearsal time, Luna and his equally uncoordinated costar, Romola Garai, where whipped into shape. Which was a good thing, since Havana's plot follows the duo into a dance competition. That meant strutting their stuff alongside real professional dancers. "After the third week [of rehearsals], I started to think that I could to do it," he says. "Before that, I was just really close to quitting, because it was really tough. We were thinking about [stunt] doubles, but then, at the end, we did everything [ourselves]."