While watching—you may know the scene (wink)—”Risky Business” one day, I had the idea to do a yoga video on a real train.

It was the first movie I ever saw at the famous Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd. I was 16-years-old. And a few months later, I saw The Police in concert for the Synchronicity Tour at the Hollywood Park Racetrack. I sat next to Tom Cruise and his “Risky Business” co-star Rebecca De Mornay in box seats that my three best friends and I had snuck into, trying not to freak out when he put on my Ray-Bans and danced with me to “Message in a Bottle” (at least not more than the appropriate amount). Did I mention I was 16?

At the time, we had an oft-repeated saying straight out of the movie:

“the dream is always the same…” 

Tom Cruise’s character Joel used it to describe a recurring fantasy, one that starts with the ol’ I-wander-into-the-house-next-door-where there’s-a-hot-chick-I’ve-never-seen-before-taking-a-shower–who-wants-me-to-join-her. Joel ends up falling for a call girl who wants to make love on a real train. And they do.

So I talked my friend Justine into doing what we called “yoga on a real train” with me, and after many trips to Union Station in downtown L.A., a few completely futile attempts at actually doing yoga on a moving train, having a panic attack two stories underground at the Metro Station at Hollywood & Highland, being chastised by a security guard for doing a backbend in the middle of Union Station, getting yelled at by another security guard at the Griffith Park Train Museum for wanting to film without permission, almost giving up, getting accidentally locked in the park once after they closed and strutting around for hours in those damn boots that almost broke my spirit, here it is, a year in the making.

Totally worth it.

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Relephant Read:

How Tom Cruise Wound Up in My Bed. ~ Wendy Aron

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Author: Anne Clendening

Editor: Renee Jahnke

Image: Courtesy of Author