Editing Flashdance (section)

===Casting===
Three candidates, [[Jennifer Beals]], [[Demi Moore]], and [[Leslie Wing]], were the finalists for the role of Alex Owens. Two different stories exist regarding how Beals was chosen. One states that then-Paramount president [[Michael Eisner]] asked women secretaries at the studio to select their favorite after viewing screen tests. The other: the film's scriptwriter [[Joe Eszterhas]] claims that Eisner asked "two hundred of the most macho men on the [Paramount] lot, Teamsters and gaffers and grips ... 'I want to know which of these three young women you'd most want to fuck.'"<ref name="Curtis">{{cite web |date=February 3, 2004 |last=Curtis |first=Bryan |title=The Condensed Joe Eszterhas |url= https://slate.com/culture/2004/02/the-best-bits-of-hollywood-animal.html?pay=1686927604451&support_journalism=please |website=[[Slate Magazine]] }}</ref><ref name="thomas20110120">{{cite news | url=http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/television/3318625-421/beals-chicago-film-really-alfred.html | title=Jennifer Beals returns to Chicago with new cop drama | work=Chicago Sun-Times | date=2011-01-20 | access-date=May 4, 2012 | last=Thomas |first=Mike | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723042024/http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/television/3318625-421/beals-chicago-film-really-alfred.html | archive-date=July 23, 2012 | df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W223-nWPdMEC|last=Eszterhas|first=Joe|author-link=Joe Eszterhas |title=Hollywood Animal|pages=170–171|date=May 5, 2010|publisher=[[Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group]]|isbn=9780307530875|access-date=August 22, 2020|via=Google Books}}</ref>

The role of Nick Hurley was originally offered to [[Kiss (band)|Kiss]] founding member [[Gene Simmons]],<ref name="USAToday">{{cite news |last1=McKairnes |first1=Jim |title=What a feeling! Break out the legwarmers, because 'Flashdance' turns 35 |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2018/04/12/what-feeling-break-out-legwarmers-because-flashdance-turns-35/513302002/ |work=[[USA Today]]|access-date=16 June 2023 |date=2018-04-12}}</ref> who turned it down because it would conflict with his "demon" image. [[Kevin Costner]], a struggling actor at the time, came very close for the role of Nick Hurley, which went to [[Michael Nouri]].<ref name="USAToday" />