At 19 years old Debbie Reynolds saw Singin' In The Rain as her big chance. She still lived with her folks and commuted 3 hours everyday to the set by bus, sometimes preferring to sleep on the set rather than take the bus. One day Kelly verbally, and loudly, admonished Reynolds for not being able to dance and this brought her to tears. Fred Astaire, while visiting the set of SIngin' In The Rain one day, found Debbie Reynolds sitting under a piano and crying from Kelly's insults and tirades about her dancing. Fred Astaire taught Debbie Reynolds how to dance and the rest, as they say, is history.
Singin' In The Rain is about two silent movie stars named Don Lockwood, played by Gene Kelly, and Lina Lamont who was played by Jean Hagen. Their studio decided that their new movie should have sound so they would have to sing. Lockwood has no problem with that but Lamont's voice is horrible. They bring in showgirl Kathy Selden, played by Debbie Reynolds, to dub over Lamont's voice for the movie. The problem is that after working together for years Lamont has fallen in love with Lockwood but he is not interested in returning the affection. Lockwood, instead, falls in love with Selden. From there all the singing and dancing commences. Another funny fact about Singin' In The Rain is that Jean Hagen actually had a very nice natural voice so in the scenes where you see Debbie Reynolds as Kathy Selden overdubbing Lamont's voice it is actually Jean Hagen overdubbing Debbie Reynolds as she is supposed to be overdubbing Jean Hagen's characters voice. See how much fun Hollywood can be?