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The secret behind Tom Cruise’s iconic Risky Business dance scene

IT’S one of Hollywood’s most iconic movie scenes. And Tom Cruise has revealed the secret behind that classic dance in Risky Business.

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TOM Cruise has revealed the secret behind his iconic dance scene in Risky Business.

Appearing on The Project to promote his latest flick The Mummy , Cruise was asked about the classic scene from the 1983 movie where he had to strip down to his jocks and dance to Old Time Rock and Roll .

While it’s become an infamous movie moment, the actor said he didn’t realise at the time that it would be so memorable.

“I just adlibbed that,” he admitted.

“I tried to go across (the floor) at one point and it was too sticky. What I did was I dusted the floor and then put stick (tape) on the other side so I would get centre frame on that and wore the socks. And that’s how I finally did it — to figure out how to get that smooth, right on the beat kind of flow that got me there.”

After that, he made the rest of the routine up.

“And then I went around the room and was dancing,” he added. “That’s something that I did as a kid at home.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Cruise was asked about another one of his classic films, Jerry Maguire . The movie is responsible for some of pop culture’s most quotable lines, with catchphrases “Show me the money!” and “You had me at hello” all coming from the 1996 release.

“When you’re finding those moments, it is so much fun doing that scene,” he said about the lines.

He added: “I’ve been lucky. I had a few films and some great, great writing.”

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Tom Cruise Says He Still Dances in His Underwear 40 Years After Risky Business

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Some things never change. Four decades ago, Tom Cruise starred in Risky Business , a film that still stands as one of the veteran actor's most popular movies. The film follows Cruise as a high school senior looking to have some fun while his wealthy parents are away on vacation. One particularly memorable scene features Cruise sliding across the floor and dancing in his underpants to the tune of Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll."

Ahead of the 40th anniversary of Risky Business this August, Cruise reflected on the film in a new interview with Access Hollywood . He recalled how he was just 19 years old when shooting the movie in 1982, though it would be released in theaters the following year. Given how iconic the dance scene from the film still is with fans, Cruise also spoke about his memories of when he was shooting it on the set four decades ago.

"I'll never forget that night, that day that I shot that scene," Cruise said. "Just, you know, he gave me the opening frame of that shot... [director] Paul Brickman, great filmmaker. He and I talked about it, [and] he said, 'Here's the choreography.' Look, I grew up dancing in my underwear in my house, who didn't?"

When directly asked if he still dances around in his underwear these days, Cruise replied with a smile, "Yeah, I still!"

Related: Why Tom Cruise is the World’s Most Enduring Film Star

The Dance Scene Taught Tom Cruise About Filmmaking

Cruise went on to explain how he had to figure out pulling off the famous slide that he does on the hardwood floor in his socks. The actor knew where he wanted to end up, and from there, he worked backwards to figure out just the right way to make it work. Getting there was just a bit of a challenge according to the actor.

"I saw the opening frame [and] I want to hit center frame," Cruise explained. "So, I tried to slide in my socks, it didn't work. So, I said, 'Well, let's just put [slippery] stuff down on the floor,' and I slid all the way across. I was like, 'That didn't work.'"

Cruise says that the solution was to put sticky spray on the spot where he needed to stop, and that's when the scene clicked into place, which taught Cruise a lesson about filmmaking that he still remembers so many years later.

"It was a learning experience for me, not just as an actor going through it, but then I spent a lot of time in the editing room... and I saw the shots, and looked at how, editorially, they're putting it together," Cruise remembered. "That was a formative experience. I feel very lucky to have had that opportunity to be able to have that kind of script, and that kind of material, at that age."

Risky Business was written and directed by Paul Brickman. Along with Cruise, the film starred Rebecca De Mornay, Joe Pantoliano, Nicholas Pryor, Janet Carroll, and Richard Masur.

• risky business (1983)

Tom Cruise Reveals Big Secret Behind Famous ‘Risky Business’ Dance

During a press interview for The Mummy, Tom Cruise revealed how he perfected his famous dance in [...]

By John Connor Coulston - May 23, 2017 05:07 pm EDT

During a press interview for The Mummy , Tom Cruise revealed how he perfected his famous dance in Risky Business . The 54-year-old-actor dished on filming the 1983 scene with Australian talk show The Project .

"I just ad-libbed that," he said. "I tried to go across [the floor] at one point and it was too sticky. What I did was I dusted the floor and then put sticky [tape] on the other side so I would get center frame on that and wore the socks.

In the beloved scene, Cruise is seen sliding across his living room floor dressed in only socks, a button-up shirt and his underwear. As he dances, he lip-syncs to Bob Segar's "Old Time Rock and Roll."

"And that's how I finally did it — to figure out how to get that smooth, right on the beat kind of flow that got me there."

When it comes to the rest of bit past the slide, Cruise says the ad-libbing continued.

"And then I went around the room and was dancing," he said. "That's something that I did as a kid at home."

Up Next: 17 Mummies Discovered In Egypt, Tom Cruise Hilariously Weighs In With One Tweet

When asked if he knew how memorable that scene and other like that in his career would end up being, Cruise answered humbly.

"No, I'm not thinking about that," Tom said. "When you're finding those moments, it is so much fun doing that scene."

Watch the full interview below.

More: Tom Cruise Spotted Mid Make Out While Filming Mission Impossible 6

Cruise will star as protagonist Nick Morton in The Mummy , which comes to theaters on June 9. That film will also launch Universal's "Dark Universe" series of films.

He's also attached to another Mission Impossible film , reprising his role as Ethan Hunt.

[h/t Daily Mail]

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Movie Review

Risky business.

US Release Date: 08-05-1983

Directed by: Paul Brickman

Starring ▸ ▾

• Tom Cruise ,  as
• Joel Goodsen
• Rebecca De Mornay ,  as
• Joe Pantoliano ,  as
• Richard Masur ,  as
• Bronson Pinchot ,  as
• Curtis Armstrong ,  as
• Nicholas Pryor ,  as
• Joel's Father
• Janet Carroll ,  as
• Joel's Mother
• Shera Danese ,  as
• Raphael Sbarge ,  as
• Bruce A. Young ,  as
• Megan Mullally ,  as
• Sean Penn as

Rebecca De Mornay before she became a nanny and Tom Cruise before he jumped the couch, in Risky Business

Risky Business is remembered today mostly for the scene of Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear to "Old Time Rock and Roll". When it first came out in theaters I recall the line, "What the Fuck." making quite an impression as well. In the long run, this will be remembered most as the film that made Tom Cruise a star.

Joel is an average upper middle class high school senior with two things weighing heavy on his mind, grades and sex. His parents expect him to make it into an Ivy League school, yet during one scene we discover that he is perhaps above average in his grades but he is hardly the valedictorian. Of his four close friends, at least one is sexually active, while the other two are vague on their sexual knowledge.

This first part of the film is a realistic portrayal of teenage boys. School is an important part of their life and some have sexual experiences, while others do not. This all changes when Lana, in the form of Rebecca De Mornay doing an obligatory 1980s nude scene, enters the picture. Her character is the most important for the story but she also takes the plot in a direction that no longer resembles anything real.

After an awkward encounter with a black drag queen, he gives Joel, Lana's phone number. "It's what you want. It's what every white boy off the lake wants." she assures him. Lana shows up at Joel's house in a scene that seems right out of a teen boy's fantasy. She walks right into his house, he lifts her dress and the wind blows the patio doors open. The scene is symbolic perhaps, but also a bit porno cheesy.

The next morning she robs Joel and runs off. After getting into trouble with her pimp, she ends up back at Joel's house where they eventually come up with a plan. She invites some of her whore friends over while he invites his rich, horny class mates to use their services.

At this point all sense of reality has left the building. Lana and all of her prostitute friends are clean, upscale looking women for hire. None of Joel's friends leak his whore house business to anyone who would call the police. The neighbors are never shown objecting to the dozens of cars parked along the street and all the comings and goings from Joel's house.

As is a common sequence in many teen films, Joel must clean up before his parents get home. This means getting his father's Porsche fished out of Lake Michigan and detailed like new. He has to buy back his parents' furniture from the pimp as well as put everything back in place. Again, he never seems concerned that his neighbors might mention to his parents that something happened while they were gone.

Joel celebrating his moment of freedom by dancing around his house is one that any young person can relate to, as is him feeling that he has to lose his virginity to keep up with his friends. Risky Business connects with the audience the first third of the movie, then becomes a teenage boy's sexual fantasy. As a teenager I liked the last two thirds better, but now I enjoy the beginning much more.

Tom Cruise in Risky Business .

As Eric said, Risky Business is pure (heterosexual) teen fantasy. Only in the movies could such outlandish events play out without any negative repercussions. Although to be fair, writer/director Paul Brickman originally envisioned a slightly darker ending but was overruled by the studio. If you can get past the unrealistic aspects of the story, however, Risky Business has a lot to offer in the way of entertainment.

Very few movies have launched the career of a major movie star the way this role shot Tom Cruise into the stratosphere. The instantly iconic dance in white socks, pink dress shirt, tighty-whiteys, and Ray-Ban sunglasses was improvised by Cruise. The script simply stated that Joel, “dance to rock music”. Not since Clark Gable undressed in It Happened One Night and wasn't wearing an undershirt had a movie star so effected sales of a product. Whereas Gable caused the popularity of T-Shirts to plummet, Cruise had the opposite effect. The sales of Ray-Ban wayfarer model sunglasses exploded 2,000% after the release of Risky Business.

Teen boys are all pretty much obsessed with sex and that is the true secret of this movie's success. Joel gets to have plenty of no-strings-attached sex without any negative consequences whatsoever. The scene where he and Lana make love on the Chicago 'L' is one great example. The train stops at a station and conveniently waits while Joel helps the homeless man -that had been staring at them while he sipped from a bottle- off. They then proceed to do the wild thing in full view of the world without any bothersome interruptions. It's about as realistic as the opening dream sequence.

Actually the entire movie takes place in a sort of vacuum. The outside world doesn't seem to exist at all, except for Joel's school and friends. The story keeps a very narrow focus on Joel's life at all times. As Eric wrote, none of his neighbors, other than a few kids on bikes, are ever even shown. And these prostitutes all look like lingerie models. So the question becomes, does Joel lead a charmed life because he's Tom Cruise, or is he Tom Cruise because he leads a charmed life?

Another memorable aspect to Risky Business is the soundtrack. Anyone who went to high school in the 1980s will be taken back to those more innocent times. In addition to Bob Seger's “Old Time Rock and Roll” snippets of “Every Breath You Take” by The Police, “Hungry Heart” by Bruce Springsteen, “After the Fall” by Journey, “D.M.S.R.” by Prince, and of course "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins, can all be heard. Ah, to be seventeen again.

Risky Business may always be remembered for that one classic scene and for being the movie that made Tom Cruise a star, but it is also a nice little satire of 1980's suburban teen life.

Tom cruise in Risky Business .

Somehow I managed to never see this movie until now. The only things I knew about it were the two things Eric mentioned; The "Old Time Rock 'n Roll" moment and the "What the Fuck." line. I'd always assumed it was just another 1980s' teen sex-comedy, but it's less zany and a little darker than other coming of age by losing your virginity comedies of the era.

As Eric wrote, the film opens fairly realistically. Then, about 30 minutes in, it takes a sharp turn into fantasy territory. Here's a theory for you. Everything after Joel falls asleep while waiting for Lana to show up for the first time is a dream. He's asleep on the couch, when Lana lets herself in and Joel, the sexually insecure virgin, suddenly has the confidence to walk up to her and begin to make love to her. The doors being blown open during that scene only adds to the dreamlike feel of the moment. Also of note is that the very first line of the movie is Joel saying, "The dream is always the same." Making the final two-thirds of the movie a dream is the only way it makes logical sense to me.

Unlike other teen comedies of the era, this one also has something to say. It's a satire of consumerism and capitalism of the big business 1980s. Producer Jon Avnet has said,"It's not about prostitution. It's about capitalism." Director Paul Brickman said, "This was the Reagan years, it was all about money." and that they aimed to give the film a certain tone and an underlying theme of anti-capitalism. Joel's journey is from an innocent minded teen to smooth talking salesmen and pimp with guaranteed entry to Princeton. By the time he graduates he'll be ready to get a job with Gordon Gecko.

There's also a dark look to the film that goes against the typical brightly lit film of the era. Most of the movie takes place at night and the cinematography is often quite striking. Director Nicolas Refn has said that he was inspired by the look of this film when he shot Drive .

Like Patrick, I was struck by the soundtrack. Anyone who was a teen in the 1980s, like we three were, will have to fight off the nostalgia upon hearing the many songs Patrick listed. They are the most dated aspects of the film, except maybe for Cruise's cut-off jean shorts.

Seeing Cruise in this movie for the first time today is different than seeing him in it when it was released. To audiences of the day he was a fresh faced kid who had only appeared in couple of minor roles. He definitely made an impression. He received almost universal praise from critics and audiences and even scored a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy/Musical. While no one could have predicted just how big he would become, it was definitely a case of a star being born. Watching it today, it's hard to see just Cruise, without all of the Scientology and other baggage that he's built up over the years. Seeing him so baby faced is the biggest surprise, but his talent was definitely visible. De Mornay is good and she certainly looks good, but this is Cruise's movie.

In the end, no matter how good this movie is, it will always be remembered, as my brothers wrote, for Cruise sliding into view in just a dress shirt and tightie-whities. Just do a search on YouTube for Risky Business spoofs and when you see the thousands of clips that search returns, you'll have no doubt we're correct.

Photos © Copyright Warner Bros. Pictures (1983)

© 2000 - 2017 Three Movie Buffs. All Rights Reserved.

Tom Cruise's infamous underwear scene in 'Risky Business' turns 30 this week

• Steve Spears

"So your parents are outta town. Got the whole place to yourself?..." Man, I miss movies like Risky Business . The perfect combination of a teen sex comedy, coming-of-age flick and a quotable masterpiece. It's like Lawrence of Arabia , if Lawrence was a horny high school senior in surburban Chicago. And can you believe it turns 30 years old this week?

Yahoo Movies did a nice piece explaining the genesis of Tom Cruise 's famous underwear dance scene as Bob Seger blasts on the home stereo. And don't you dare try telling me you haven't replicated it yourself at one time or another.

"It was pretty much what you saw — it was in my head," film director/writer Paul Brickman told Yahoo. "Obviously I didn't know it would have the shelf life it seemed to have have," he says. "You never think that."

HOW DID IT READ IN THE SCRIPT: "As rock-'n'-roll blasts through the house, Joel is quite ripped, standing in his Jockey shorts in the middle of the room feeling very free and sexy. He bops and struts around the room in a manic dance to freedom and privacy and general lewdness."

ABOUT THE MUSIC: "I was just looking for something that was a timeless rock-'n'-roll piece that wouldn't be dated," Brickman said.

ON THE SLIDE: Cruise was supposed to be barefoot for his dance, but he kept falling during the slide scene, so he put his socks back on. The socks and a freshly waxed floor became the magic combination. In the end, it took a full day to do the scene, with Cruise sliding past his "mark" over and over again.

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In many ways,  Risky Business  was  Home Alone  before  Home Alone , only with horny teenagers, sex workers and a lot more “What the fuck?”s going around. The 1983  teen sex comedy  stood out like no other of its time thanks to its moody tone and acerbic dialogue.  Roger Ebert,  who gave it four stars,  summed it up perfectly , writing, “ Risky Business  is a movie about male adolescent guilt. In other words, it’s a comedy. It’s funny because it deals with subjects that are so touchy, so fraught with emotional pain, that unless we laugh, there’s hardly any way we can deal with them — especially if we are now, or ever were, a teenage boy.”

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For Risky Business ’ 40th anniversary, we’ve gathered 40 bits of trivia about making the film that led to practically every comedian lampooning Tom Cruise’s dance moves...

40 It Was Cruise’s Idea to Do That Famous Dance Scene in His Socks

“I kept falling,” Cruise  once explained to Oprah  about bopping to “Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll” without those socks on. “So I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to put on my socks.’ I got on the floor. I literally waxed the floor on my hands and knees to get it prepped.”

39 No, Rebecca De Mornay Isn’t Naked on the L Train

Many folks believe that the actress is naked by the end of that famous subway scene, but the filmmakers have confirmed that it was just an editing trick . Editor Richard Chew  was the one  who came up with the idea of step-printing the footage, which means duplicating the film frame to create a slow-motion effect. 

38 Tangerine Dream Originally Provided a Way Different Movie Score

The German electro band provided the film’s iconic score, but their first attempt was quite different from the ethereal motif we eventually got. “Initially, we sent some film to Tangerine Dream in Germany, and they came back with their first pass, and it was clear they were trying to write music to a typical teen movie,” writer and director Paul Brickman  remembers.  “The chord changes were like ’50s and ’60s teenage rock. I remember going, ‘Oh, man. Do we start looking for new composers, or do we stick with these guys?’ That’s when we — the music supervisor, producer Jon Avnet and I — got on a plane and went to Berlin. We hung out in Tangerine Dream’s studio for 10 days and knocked out the score with them.”

“I’ve played piano my whole life, so I have some musical background,” Brickman continued. “We were very fortunate because the guys in Tangerine Dream were great collaborators. They had strange working hours. They owned and worked in an old church. We’d start work around dinner time and work through the night every night.”

37 It Was Brickman’s First Movie

Brickman wrote  The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training  and  Handle with Care  but made his directorial debut with  Risky Business.  The film would go on to be his  biggest critical success  to date.

36 Curtis Armstrong Kept a Journal While Making the Movie

The actor who played Joel’s buddy, Miles — the one who teaches him that sometimes you just have to say, “What the fuck?” — said that he’d always thought of himself as a stage actor. Making a movie felt like such a foreign concept to him that Armstrong kept a journal “so that, in the future, I could remember what making a movie was like,” he  once quipped  during an interview. The actor would, of course, go on to make the  Revenge of the Nerds  movies as well as a string of other feature films and shows.

35 It’s Regarded As Cruise’s Breakout Movie

Cruise wasn’t an on-screen success  right off the bat;  he had a bit part in  Endless Love  (1981) and his first significant supporting role in  Taps  that same year. It would be two more years before he’d really garner people’s attention with  All the Right Moves  and  Risky Business.

34 Warner Bros. Reportedly Wanted More Sex in the Party Scene

According to Armstrong, the studio told Brickman that there had to be more sex in the “brothel “scene. “They were adamant that the party scene needed a lot more,”  Armstrong wrote.  “Here was this long sequence, packed with hookers and horny high-school boys, and not a single bare breast was revealed. Brickman ignored them. ‘You can call off your dogs,’ Paul joked to studio executives after a highly successful test screening.”

33 A Producer Taught Cruise How to Drive a Stick

In the movie’s making-of documentary, Jon Avnet  said  that he taught the actor how to drive a stick using the film’s Porsche. The car was also initially green, but the film’s crew painted it gold, with a total of four models being used in the movie.

32 Warner Bros. Didn’t Think the Script Was Funny Enough

Brickman originally had a deal with  Warner Bros.  to write and direct the screenplay, but the studio thought it was too dry of a script for a teen comedy. “I couldn’t believe no one wanted it,” Avnet  once told  Variety, explaining that he and his partner Steve Tisch subsequently signed on to the project. Together with Brickman, they tried to shop the script all over Hollywood, but folks were apparently hard-up for comedies in the vein of  Porky’s . David Geffen, however, eventually took on the production (after initially passing on it, too), with Warner Bros. set as the distributor.

31 It Launched the Geffen Film Company

The  company  that would give us classic hits like  Beetlejuice , Interview with the Vampire and  Beavis and Butt-Head Do America   was founded in 1982. Their first movie,  Personal Best,  found critical success but underperformed at the box office.  Risky Business ,   making  10 times its budget  during its domestic release, helped the company later churn out a string of successful titles.

30 Tom Hanks Auditioned for the Lead Role

Yes, the man who would become  “America’s Dad”  auditioned for the character who exploits the sex trade to fix his dad’s banged-up Porsche. Hanks  probably  lost out on the role because he was in his late 20s, while  Cruise was 19  when they shot the movie and turned 21 when it was released.

29 The Other Big Stars Who Almost Played Joel

Sean Penn , Gary Sinise,  Kevin Bacon and John Cusack  all auditioned  for Joel before Cruise bagged the role.

28 The Opening Shower Sequence Took 18 Hours to Film

Warner Bros.

On the movie’s  commentary track,  the filmmakers revealed that the shower dream sequence took a helluva long time to shoot, joking that the “poor girl (Francine Locke) looked like a raisin by the time this scene was over.”

27 It Was Megan Mullally’s First On-Screen Appearance

In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, you can spot Mullally’s  first feature film appearance  as a call girl in the background of the house party sequence.

26 The Movie That Inspired the Movie

“What I was inspired by, greatly, is Bernardo Bertolucci’s  The Conformist,”  Brickman says.  “I thought, Why can’t you present that as a film for youth and aspire to that kind of style and still have humor in it? That was the test: To meld a darker form of filmmaking with humor. Tone is what I wanted to play with. The Tangerine Dream score was all tone and texture.”

25 Cruise Politely Offended the Casting Director

Casting director Nancy Koppler  said  that the young Cruise was a polite kid, but he called her “‘ma’am,’ which I hated because it made me feel old.” Koppler would go on to  cast  hits like  Office Space ,   The Devil’s Advocate  and  Ray.

24 The Movie’s Original Title

The working title for  Risky Business  was  White Boys Off the Lake . “I think the studio rejected that because it sounded like an Off-Broadway play,”  Brickman has explained.  “So we started doing word association to come up with a new title.”

23 David Geffen Had Two Requests Before Taking On the Movie

Geffen initially passed on  Risky Business,  mainly  due to the fact  that the character of Lana was first written as a 16-year-old. He told Brickman that he’d only do the movie if they made Lana older and cast an actress who was clearly 21. 

22 The Alternate Intro of Cruise’s Dance Scene

Before deciding to sport some socks and slide into that dance scene, Cruise apparently tried all sorts of intros, many of which made Brickman laugh. At one point,  according to the director,  Cruise entered the scene by jumping from a trampoline off-screen and trying to stick the landing “like a gymnast.”

21 Bronson Pinchot Said That Cruise Kept Making Homophobic Comments on Set

The actor who played Joel’s buddy, Barry, was clearly not a fan of Cruise from the get-go, saying he was kind of boring and pretty intense. “Tom had picked up this knack of calling everyone by their character names because that would probably make your performance better, and I don’t agree with that,” Pinchot  told  The A.V. Club.  “I think that acting is acting, and the rest of the time, you should be you, but he called us all by our character names. He was tense and made constant, constant unrelated homophobic comments, like, ‘You want some ice cream, in case there are no gay people there?’ I mean, his lingo was larded with the most… there was no basis for it. It was like, ‘It’s a nice day; I’m glad there are no gay people standing here.’ Very, very strange.”

20 Rebecca De Mornay Found Lana Relatable

“I understood the part of Lana so well,” De Mornay  told  The Wrap  about her character. “I’ve lived by myself as a young 19-year-old in London, fending for myself. (I’ve) gone through a lot in my life in terms of upheaval and family stuff, and suddenly there was a part that just fit me like a glove that I knew. I wanted to maintain her dignity, regardless if she’s having sex for money. She maintained some source of integrity and soul. I wanted to present the underdog who was reduced to having to be a prostitute, exploited in our capitalist system, trying to get by as best she could without the cushion of having a family of money and connections.”

19 The Train Scene Was Added After Production Had Wrapped

Cruise was already in production for  All the Right Moves  when he  had to go back  and film the added scene.

18 Cruise’s Auditions Didn’t Go All That Smoothly

“Originally, Paul had seen  Taps  and said, ‘This guy for Joel? This guy is a killer! Let him do  Amityville III ! ’”  Cruise once told Cameron Crowe  in an interview , referring to his  murderous character  in the 1981 thriller. “Somehow, my agent, without me knowing, arranged to have me just drop by the office to say hello. So I went in wearing a jean jacket, my tooth was chipped, my hair was greasy. I was pumped up and talking in an Oklahoma accent, ‘Hey, how y’all doing?’ Paul just sat there, looking at me. He said, ‘Let’s just read a little bit.’ I’m not a very good cold reader. What I do is start with a line and go off and ad-lib and kind of find my way down the script. I started reading the thing, and they were ready to say, ‘Okay, thank you.’ I didn’t know. I cut them off and said, ‘Let me try it this way.’ I started from the top again, and I did it another way, and we ended up reading through half the script. It was fun; we were all laughing.”

Cruise added that his callback audition with De Mornay also didn’t go so well but that he talked to the director “for a long time” about what he wanted to do with the character, and Brickman gave him his shot. 

17 Joe Pantoliano Was Going Through a Rough Time When He Got the Audition Call

The actor who played Guido  said  his mother had just died, and he was moving between his home in California and New Jersey, where he was filming  Eddie and the Cruisers , when his agent called him up. He went for the audition, but when the callback came, he didn’t want to go back because things were too frenetic. He felt like he was starting to play the same character repeatedly but ended up doing the movie anyway.

16 Fans Made a ‘Realistic Audio’ Video of the Dance Scene

The Mix Minus YouTube channel created a video that imagines what the socks scene would look and sound like on set without the music playing. It is pretty realistic as far as these things go.

15 Filming in Chicago, Brickman’s Hometown

Brickman grew up in Highland Park on the city’s North Shore, and many of the locations in the film are personally significant to him. “The exterior of Joel’s house is three minutes from the house where I grew up,”  Brickman revealed.  “Shelton’s Ravinia Grill, where Joel and his friends talk about their futures, is where I used to hang out after walking home from school in the eighth grade. We’d go there and throw French fries at each other. Part of the car chase sequence with Guido, the killer pimp, goes by the Highland Park Movie Theater where I saw movies as a kid.”

14 Brickman Gave Cruise the Chance to Choose a Different Dance Song

Cruise  told Crowe  that Brickman had picked Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll” but that he also told the actor he was free to suggest a song. Cruise said he went “through tape after tape” but that, in the end, “nothing beat Bob Seger.”

13 Sean Penn Occasionally Hung Out on Set

Penn had befriended Cruise while the two of them were shooting  Taps , and he’d  pop in  on the set of  Risky Business  whenever he wasn’t busy filming  Bad Boys . Penn also  ended up in the movie  as the guy next to Cruise in the Porsche as it backs out of the garage. The stall was unintentional, as Cruise said Penn distracted him with laughter.

“I remember the first poster was a cartoon Joel with all these buxom bikini girls in bed with him and money raining down,”  Brickman said,  adding that the marketing department found it tough to promote his unconventional teen sex comedy. The final poster, of course, went with the somewhat darker tone of the movie.

11 Cruise Lost Some Weight to Play Joel

While Cruise got slightly buff for his role in  Taps , the actor said he lost around 14 pounds in five weeks to play the lean babyface high schooler in  Risky Business . “Joel’s a very vulnerable person,”  Cruise explained.  “I didn’t want any physical defenses up for him. No muscle armor at all.”

10 The Practical Effect in the Poker Scene

Brickman said that  not only  was the poker scene the first to be filmed (making it his first directed scene ever), but he also stood outside the frame, blowing smoke into the shot.

9 The Movie Made Brickman Ditch Hollywood

The director said he did not care for all the attention he received following the movie’s box-office success and turned down scripts like   Forrest Gump  and  Rain Man . “The success of  Risky Business  was strange because I had Hollywood coming at me full throttle,”  he remembers.  “I found it very uncomfortable. I moved out of L.A. immediately. Studio heads sent me wine goblets and food baskets. And people threw material at me right and left and lined up to meet me. It gets uncomfortable. Some people like the visibility. I don’t. I’m more from the J.D. Salinger school.”

8 Cruise’s Take on the Movie

“It’s about today’s capitalistic society,” Cruise  mused  when he was asked what he thought the movie tried to get at. “Do the means justify the ends? Do you want to help people, or do you just want to make money? Joel is questioning all of that. So am I… I’m not saying I’m some erudite political figure, but it bothers me. At least I’m asking the question. The movie is Joel’s exploration of society, how he gets sucked into this wild capitalistic ride.” 

7 The Affair That Caused Some Behind the Scenes Drama

According to Armstrong’s extracts from his  Risky Business  journal (published in his memoir,  Revenge of the Nerd) , Cruise and De Mornay’s relationship had started during the movie’s filming, even though they only made things official after it was released. At the time of filming, however, De Mornay was still dating Harry Dean Stanton, and his occasional presence on set made things somewhat uncomfortable. “It’s no secret that Tom engaged in an intense affair during the shooting with De Mornay,”  Armstrong noted . “Their romance was some time aborning. Part of the delay was caused by the presence of Harry Dean Stanton, who was involved with Rebecca. I suspect that most of Harry Dean’s great qualities were lost on Tom, who, I think, was beginning to regard him as a guest overstaying his welcome.” 

6 The Movie’s Soundtrack Was a Surprise Hit (For David Geffen)

While Avnet and Brickman loved the movie’s soundtrack and wanted to release it themselves, Geffen (who was also head of Geffen Records) wasn’t a fan and didn’t want to put it out as an album. The soundtrack was  only released abroad  through Tangerine Dream’s record company, Virgin Records, and it was such a hit that it was pirated in the U.S., where it eventually became a best-selling album. The Geffen Film Company ended up never making a dime from it.

5 The Original Ending

Initially,  Risky Business  would end with Joel not going to Princeton, not getting the girl and breaking his mom’s crystal egg. Neither Geffen nor the movie’s test audiences liked the ending, but Brickman persisted, saying that he’d shoot an alternate ending if they’d allow him to test out both. The happy ending tested higher, much to Brickman’s dismay. “I felt the whole film was compromised by this cheesy happy ending,”  he explains.  “I came very close to walking off the film. Some critics picked up on what they saw there (in the ending) as phony, and what can you say? You’re a smart critic.” 

No one except Brickman wanted to release his original ending on DVD, so he did it himself.

4 Michelle Pfeiffer Turned Down the Role of Lana

Pfeiffer had just starred in the  not-so-great   Grease 2  in 1982 and was offered the female lead in  Risky Business  but turned it down.  According to Geffen , she’s always regretted it.

3 Brickman Wanted to Write a Teen Comedy That Teens Hadn’t Seen Before

“I wanted to do a film for young people that was very stylized in a way that I hadn’t seen before,” the writer and director  once explained  to  Salon.  “I wanted to make the film that, if I were in high school, I would’ve wanted to see. I was writing it in the time just after Reagan had taken office, and everyone wanted to be a little capitalist, get their MBAs, and wear power suspenders. I thought, ‘That’s all dandy, but life is more complex and darker than that. It’s tough out there. Capitalism takes its toll on a lot of people.’”

2 Cruise Says He Still Dances in His Underwear Like in the Movie

Cruise  recently revealed to  Access Hollywood  that he still enjoys rocking out in his underwear.

1 The MTV Movie Awards’ Les Grossman/’Risky Business’ Dance Scene Crossover

In 2010, the MTV Awards did a bunch of short films featuring Cruise as his infamous  Tropic Thunder  character  inserting himself  as the  producer  of the show and everything else — including the dance scene of his younger self in  Risky Business.

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Tom Cruise Jokes He ‘Still’ Dances in His Underwear 40 Years After Iconic ‘Risky Business’ Scene

The ‘Mission: Impossible’ star is remembering how dancing in briefs helped launch a decades-long movie career

Shannon Finney/Getty ;  Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock (

Tom Cruise is looking back fondly on his breakout role. 

Of his iconic scene in 1983’s Risky Business — in which he danced in only a shirt, briefs, and socks — Cruise, 60, joked with Access Hollywood : “Look, I grew up dancing in my underwear in my house. Who didn’t?”

When asked if such dancing continues 40 years later, he responded with a smile: “Yeah, I still [do].”

Cruise, who is currently promoting his new film, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One , revealed that Risky Business is what helped start him down the path to action stardom.

The scene in which his teenaged character Joel Goodsen — celebrating a house to himself — struts and dances to Bob Seger’s rendition of “Old Time Rock & Roll” has been recreated and parodied repeatedly since the box office success of the movie.

Cruise expressed awe that the film turns 40 this year. “That’s amazing,” he told Access Hollywood. “I made it in ’82, I was 19 when I made it. I'll never forget that night, that day that I shot that scene.”

 Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock (

Risky Business writer and director Paul Brickman, Cruise added, worked with the actor on its famous opening shot of Cruise sliding into the center of the frame.

“I had to figure out how I slide across the floor in my socks,” remembered the Oscar nominee. “So I saw the opening frame and I go, ‘I want to hit center frame.’ And it didn't work. And then I said, 'Well, let's just put [slick] stuff on the floor — and I slid all the way across.”

A sticky spray placed in the center of the frame eventually did the trick, Cruise said, revealing how “it was a learning experience for me… I went in the editing room and I saw the shots and looked at how editorially they were putting it together. So I started really understanding that cinematic process right from the very beginning.”

He continued, “I feel very lucky to have that opportunity, to be able to have that kind of script and that kind of material at that age.”

Scott Gries/Getty Images For TFF

Fresh off the box office-smash success of last year’s Top Gun: Maverick , Cruise recently called moviemaking “a privilege that I have never taken for granted.” According to Variety , the actor addressed a crowd in Rome, saying, “It’s my passion to entertain you, and I will always fight for big theaters and that kind of experience for everyone.”

He also weighed in on Scarlett Johansson’s comments that he’s a dream costar, telling Entertainment Tonight on Monday, “I'd love to make a movie with her!" 

"She is enormously talented," he said. "So charismatic, versatile. She has great physical ability obviously."

As for other movies on his radar, Cruise told Access Hollywood he “can’t wait” for Harrison Ford ’s upcoming movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny . 

“I can’t wait to see it," he said, "And I will keep going to [Ford’s] movies. That guy, he’s so charismatic, he’s such a great actor and movie star. And a great guy.”

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One premieres in U.S. theaters July 12.

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"Risky Business" Dance

A character who is home alone dances around like a fool, singing into a hairbrush and dressed in only his underwear or, if the writers are directly parodying the trope-naming Signature Scene of Tom Cruise dancing in Risky Business , then it will be a button-down dress shirt, "tighty-whitey" briefs, and white socks . (Parodies will frequently have the character wearing sunglasses , but – although Risky Business itself features Cruise in sunglasses elsewhere in the film and on the poster art – the actual dancing sequence does not show him in sunglasses.) Bob Seger 's "Old Time Rock and Roll" (or a parody/soundalike of it) will often be included in the scene, though not always.

Usually a celebration or declaration of freedom, but sometimes just a way of showing that a character is having goofy fun, it's especially common right after a character has scored a date with their longtime crush. A frequent addition for comedy is for someone to walk in on the person re-enacting the scene or for the character to slip and fall while trying to slide into frame.

• A 2020 Domino's ad features a man ( Jordan Fisher ) doing the dance set to "Old Time Rock and Roll" while he waits for the pizza he ordered to arrive (getting dressed again just in time for the pizza to arrive at his front door).
• The trailer for the first Garfield movie has Garfield wearing a pair of sunglasses and doing this in the living room.
• In the climax of Johnny English , the eponymous character tries to show the DVD featuring the Big Bad explaining his Evil Plan , but he apparently mixed up that DVD with one featuring him doing this.
• Love Actually : UK Prime Minister David ( Hugh Grant ) dances around to the Pointer Sisters' "Jump (For My Love)" at 10 Downing Street as he gets ready to finish up with his work. He is caught by a staff member but doesn't react in embarrassment.
• Mrs. Doubtfire : Robin Williams ' titular character does a fully-clothed version with a vacuum cleaner and a broom to "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" by Aerosmith .
• Later, viewing the scene in Avengers: Endgame , Rhodey and Nebula watch him dancing towards the Orb's hiding place, but without the music. Rhodey: So he's an idiot? Nebula: [hanging her head down] Yes.
• At the 2000 MTV Movie Awards, Ben Stiller , as Tom Cruise 's stunt double "Tom Crooze", recreates the opening slide, sliding hard against the wall.
• The ALF episode "Looking for Lucky" features ALF dancing around the house in a parody of this scene.
• Arrested Development , "Development Arrested", Ted is dressed like Tom Cruise (sunglasses, collar up, no pants) under the "Risky Business" banner. He can be heard saying "I couldn't see through the glasses and I slid into the ladder", implying he (unsuccessfully) attempted to re-create the famous "sliding in front of the stairs" scene from the movie, in front of the ladder.
• In a sketch on The Ben Stiller Show Stiller plays Cruise doing a one man show highlighting many of his most beloved film characters, obviously including the dance from Risky Business . This time Cruise is wearing a black leotard under his shirt & underwear.
• The opening scene of The Flash (2014) episode "Mixed Signals" has Barry sliding into the kitchen to "That Old Time Rock'n'Roll", except because he's the Flash, he does it faster and with lightning effects.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air In one episode, Geoffrey throws a house party with his fellow butlers and maids all singing and dancing to this trope.
• In Living Color! did a Black Comedy version, where the Menendez brothers do the dance while wielding rifles.
• In an episode of Friends Rachel celebrates having the apartment to herself for one night by dancing around, unaware that Ross can see her from his own apartment across the street. To add to the embarrassment, rather than dancing around in her underwear...she chose to dance around completely naked.
• Done on Glee by Sam, Ryder, and Jake during a mash-up of "Old Time Rock and Roll" and "Danger Zone" , during the movie-themed episode.
• Al Bundy tries to do this in the Married... with Children episode, "Breaking up is Easy to Do, Part 2" after he and Peg go through a trial separation, only to crash into the wall when he attempts to slide across the floor.
• The Nanny : At the end of "Canasta Masta", Niles does it (lip-synching to a tape and using a feather duster as a makeshift microphone) until C.C. walks in on him. Niles: You realize of course now I have to kill you.
• On Newsradio , Jimmy James does it at Dave's parent's house where he is hiding from the police.
• The Office : Michael Scott, making reference to Risky Business, instructs an employee to "take your pants off, run around."
• In Riverdale , Betty is elated to make the cheerleading squad and dances and sings in her room, posing in front of the mirror-its played completely straight and works as a scene of pure joy for her. Until her mother is standing in her doorway and promptly forbids her from the squad.
• Recreated pretty much shot-for-shot on a 1986 episode when Ronald and Nancy Reagan go out and leave Ron Jr. (that week's host) alone in the White House.
• During Nicole Kidman 's host monologue she gets one too many questions about being married to Tom Cruise , which she finally cuts off by doing this dance.
• In the Saved by the Bell episode "House Party," Screech's parents go out of town for their anniversary. Zack, Slater, and Screech take advantage of the empty house and plan a guys' night. The girls are curious about their plans, so they sneak in and find the boys dancing in their shorts to The Beach Boys ' "Barbara Ann." All three do the slide-into-the-frame move, but no one falls. (Well, until Zack spots the girls and falls off the couch).
• Ray attempts it in the Speechless episode "B-I-Bikini U-N-University", but gets a splinter on his foot from sliding on the floor.
• Tracker (2001) : Nestov, dancing around in his underwear to 'Old Time Rock And Roll' after tying up Mel and Cole. He gets interrupted by an annoyed Zin and his mooks .
• Lucifer (2016) : When Lucifer rushes off to Las Vegas on the same day as Chloe Decker's birthday, Chloe and Linda go to his apartment to find out where he is. When they realise he left and, annoyed he did so on her birthday, Chloe elects to just get drunk and have fun, then realises that she has access to Lucifer's very fancy penthouse. Cue her sliding in, wearing only one of Lucifer's shirts and some panties, dancing while Linda plays on Lucifer's piano. By this point, she's also gotten incredibly drunk, so she does indeed fall.
• Another of those parodies was played during the NCAA Basketball tournament in March-April 2009. It included coaches Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, Roy Williams, and Bob Knight as the lead singer - all dressed in the standard pink shirt and underpants.
• Used again for the ad for Band Hero nonetheless.
• While the ad campaigns for Guitar Hero World Tour had the song featured, it didn't come out as DLC until well after the game was released. Needless to say, many shouts of joy were heard when players saw the lead singer slide across the stage to the microphone when playing the song.
• On Dexter's Laboratory , Dexter's Dad does this while the rest of the family aren't at home.
• The Simpsons : In " Homer The Heretic ", Homer does this when he stays at home from church, but instead of "Old Time Rock 'n Roll," he sings "Short Shorts" by the Royal Teens.
• In one episode of Dilbert , the titular character dreams of dancing in nothing but his underwear and shoes if he ever got his own office. It does come true when the main office has to move to another one due to a mutagenic virus going around and Dilbert becomes the head designer of the building in exchange for his own office. However, once he gets it, his Pointy-Haired Boss informs him they can't afford the building's rent and will have to move back soon. Dilbert is crestfallen that he won't keep the office, but decide to fulfill his dream while he has the opportunity.
• Spoofed in King of the Hill : Bobby slides in in his underwear just as Luanne is watching the scene on TV. Turns out he hasn't seen the movie.
• Boba Fett does this in the stinger to the third Robot Chicken Star Wars special, with the Weequay on piano(-thing).
• Kyle of South Park does this when his parents are arrested for child molestation, leaving him to take care of himself.
• In the Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) episode "Me Time," Peter does this after getting the house to himself, even dancing on the ceiling at one point.
• In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Three's A Crowd," Discord briefly does this in jubilation after successfully getting Twilight to go to the ends of Equestria to find a cure for his fake illness (even wearing the same shirt and shorts from the movie).
• Doug does this in one episode when he gets the house to himself for the evening after his parents go out to chaperon Judy's dance, but with royalty-free friendly music.
• The Loud House : In "No Such Luck", Lincoln does this when he spreads a rumor among his sisters that he's a bad luck charm, making them ban him from their activities and giving him all the free time he wants. The scene is repeated the next day, only now, Lincoln is bored because he realized his plan worked too well and misses spending time with his family.
• In the episode "Lost Louse", Jacob Two-Two imagined doing this when he learned he would be alone at home for the first time in his life. The ending of the episode implies he carried it out.
• In Justice League Action , Booster Gold ends up doing this while wearing Batman's outfit when he thinks everyone is gone (he ends up crashing into the wall when he slides across the floor), then in Superman's outfit... and then in Wonder Woman's.
• In The Fairly Oddparents episode "Freaks and Greeks", Timmy starts to do this when he has the house to himself while his parents are at a party. He only has time to slide into the hallway before realizing his parents hadn't left yet.
• In the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "The Clothes Don't Make The Turtle," part of Leonardo's fashion montage is doing this, wearing the shirt and socks, and singing into a candlestick.

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Bob Seger in ‘Risky Business’ – Classic Rock at the Movies

Tom Cruise has come a long way since his star-making role in 1983's 'Risky Business' -- but to many movie-goers, he'll always be that guy who boogied in his tighty-whities to Bob Seger 's 'Old Time Rock and Roll.'

In the film, Cruise's Joel Goodson is a suburban Chicago high school student whose parents go on vacation, leaving him alone in the house. On their first night away, Joel revels in his new-found freedom, raiding the liquor cabinet and cranking up the stereo.

And then, dressed only in his underwear, socks and a pink button-down shirt, he slides across the floor as 'Old Time Rock and Roll' begins to play, lip-syncing into a candlestick and dancing around in a scene that's since been both honored and spoofed at least eleventymillion times.

The rest of the movie of course involves Rebecca De Mornay's hot call girl Lana, a Porsche that goes swimming in Lake Michigan, Joel turning his parents' home into a makeshift brothel, a perilous brush with "Guido the killer pimp," and a sex scene on one of Chicago's L trains -- but even with all that, it was the few minutes Tom Cruise spent gyrating to Bob Seger that everyone remembers most.

When it was released in 1979, 'Old Time Rock and Roll' reached No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100. It reentered the charts after being featured in 'Risky Business,' and has been a staple on album rock stations ever since.

Watch the ‘Risky Business’ Scene Featuring Bob Seger’s ‘Old Time Rock and Roll’

Next: The Beatles in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'

More From Ultimate Classic Rock

Tom Cruise 'still' dances in his underwear 40 years after memorable 'Risky Business' scene

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Tom Cruise 's affinity for old-time rock and roll remains unchanged. As the 40th anniversary of the 1983 film 'Risky Business' approaches, Cruise openly acknowledged the movie's profound impact on his acting journey, describing it as a pivotal and formative experience.

When questioned about whether he still engages in the iconic underwear dance, reminiscent of his character Joel Goodsen, Cruise playfully responded, "Yeah, I still [do]", before delving into the behind-the-scenes intricacies of the famous pants-less scene. Cruise fondly recalled his time filming the legendary dancing scene in the movie when he was just 19 years old, adding he would "never forget that night." 

'I grew up dancing in my underwear'

Cruise, who is currently promoting his new film 'Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One', revealed that 'Risky Business' played a significant role in launching his action star career. When director Paul Brickman mentioned the choreography involved in the scene, Cruise didn't hesitate to take it on. "Look, I grew up dancing in my underwear in my house," he told Access Hollywood . "Who didn't? So I was like, ‘I’ve got this.'" 

Tom Cruise shared the challenges he faced while figuring out how to successfully "slide across the floor" in only socks during the filming of the scene. "I saw the opening frame, I go, ‘I want to hit center frame.’ I tried to slide in my socks; it didn’t work," Cruise said. "Then, I said, ‘Well let’s just put stuff down on the floor and I slid all the way across. That didn’t work." he said. "Put the sticky spray there so every time I’ll slide and land center frame."

'It was a learning experience for me'

According to Cruise, the making of 'Risky Business' was a pivotal moment in his career. "It was a learning experience for me, not just as an actor going through it, but then I would spend a lot of time in the editing room," he said. "I went in the editing room and I saw the shots and looked at how editorially they were putting it together." He added, "So, I started really, from ‘Taps’ to that – understanding that cinematic process right from the very beginning. That was a formative experience. I feel very lucky to have had that opportunity, to be able to have that kind of script and that kind of material at that age."

Tom Cruise's 'Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One' held its world premiere in Rome on June 19, 2023, and is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on July 12.

Tom Cruise improvised the underwear dance in Risky Business

Well before his death-defying stunts in Mission: Impossible, Tom Cruise was showing off his dance moves in the '80s movie Risky Business

Anthony McGlynn

Published: Aug 17, 2022

Tom Cruise has been a Hollywood star almost as long as he’s been acting. One of his earlier hits was ’80s movie Risky Business, with that great dance sequence when he’s in his underwear. Turns out, that was entirely improvised, proving he already had a knack for making an entrance.

In a 1986 chat with Interview Magazine , Tom Cruise spoke about collaborating with director Paul Brickman on that. They tried several songs, but only ‘Old Time Rock and Roll’ by Bob Seger fit. From there, Cruise took charge. “I took the candlestick, and I said, ‘How about making this the audience?’ And then I just started ad-libbing, using it as a guitar, jumping on the table,” Cruise recalled.

Floors were waxed, to make gliding easy, and the scene just got bigger from there. “As we went along, I threw more stuff in. Like the thing with the collar up, jumping on the bed,” Cruise states. “Originally, it was only one line in the script: ‘Joel dances in underwear through the house’. We shot it in half a day.”

Risky Business was very much a breakthrough Tom Cruise movie , establishing him as a leading performer. He plays Joel, a rich, young high school student in Chicago who goes on a wild weekend when his parents skip town.

The comedy movie was a huge success for all involved, not least Bob Seger, whose song became part of the fabric of Cruise’s career. The scene in question is very much an indication of Cruise’s charisma in front of the camera, and his anecdote about production goes to show he knew a thing or two about getting the most of a character beat as well.

Nowadays, he’s all about the Mission: Impossible action movies . The latest, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One, is in theatres June 14, 2023. Fingers crossed for another dance-along.

Anthony McGlynn Anthony is The Digital Fix’s News Editor and resident Irishman. He joined the team after nearly a decade of freelancing, appearing in such publications as Variety, Playboy, IGN, and many more. Though he loves Star Wars , Alien , and zombie movies , you’ll just as quickly find him watching Studio Ghibli or The Muppets . Speaking of which, he’s interviewed Animal, who might just edge out Gerard Way, Ray Liotta, and Neil Gaiman as the coolest moment of his career. Dublin International Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival, and FrightFest are among the events he’s covered, and he believes Blade Runner 2049 is almost as good as the first.

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Watch Ricky Martin Recreate Tom Cruise’s ‘Risky Business’ Underwear Scene on ‘Lip Sync Battle’

In a preview clip of the episode airing Wednesday (April 20), Martin takes on Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock n Roll," and recreates Tom Cruise's famous 'Risky Business' scene featuring the song -…

By Taylor Weatherby

Taylor Weatherby

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Ricky Martin

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Ricky Martin's Las Vegas Residency: 5 Performances We Hope He Includes

Martin’s opponent Upton also recreates an iconic vid for her performance , lip-syncing to Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time.” Dressed as schoolgirl Spears, Upton dances just like the pop singer did in her video, and puts up quite the fight against Martin’s  Risky Business  reenactment. As for who should win, heck, it could really go either way. 

Watch a clip of Martin’s performance below:

The full episode, hosted by Chrissy Teigen and LL Cool J, airs Thursday (Apr. 20) at 10 p.m. ET on Spike.

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Risky business, featured in.

"At the Movies" Movies That Changed the Movies (TV Episode 1984)

Between the Darkness and the Dawn (TV Movie 1985)

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Workout (Video 1982)

Referenced in

"Saturday Night Live" Danny DeVito & Rhea Pearlman/Eddy Grant (TV Episode 1983)

"At the Movies" Top 10 Best Selling Video Cassettes (TV Episode 1983)

The Brother from Another Planet (1984)

"The Glory Boys" Episode #1.2 (TV Episode 1984)

Trinity Brown (1984)

Metropolis (1927)

Annie (1982)

Rocky III (1982)

Class of 1984 (1982)

Electric Dreams (1984)

Revenge of the Nerds (1984)

Kinky Business (1984)

Frisky Business (1984)

"Saturday Night Live" Ron Reagan/The Nelsons (TV Episode 1986)

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