‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ team on film’s 40th anniversary – The Hollywood Reporter

Fast times at Ridgemont High‘His rise to the comedy classic was a slow process.

Amy Heckerling, who had only directed student work until then, was said to be leading an MGM project when it was scrapped during an actors’ strike. During the intermission, producer Art Linson introduced her: Cameron Crowebook from 1981, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Storywhich the young journalist wrote after spending a year undercover as a high school student.

Linson asked Heckerling to direct Crowe’s screenplay, an actual student fictionalization that focused on Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a sophomore navigating through social dynamics and early sexual experiences. The comedy launched the careers of future Oscar winners Sean Pennas lovable stoner Jeff Spicoli, and Forest Whitakerjock Charles Jefferson – not to mention a teenager? Nicholas Cagecredited as Nicolas Coppola in a small role for his first film.

Heckerling praises Crowe’s brilliance and thanks their band for making the process a joyous one. “It was just so much fun – I can’t imagine a work experience will ever be this good again,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “You just see him, and you’re happy, and you want to do things.”

Judge Reinhold, who played Stacy’s older brother, Brad, recalls that the film team wanted to cast Cage in that role, but the future star was only 17, which would have limited his hours on set. With Cage out of the picture for Brad, Reinhold — a previous friend of Heckerling’s but who had yet to audition — was in the mix, despite being 22 and looking older than a typical high school senior.

“I’m sitting in the room the last time I read, and Art says, ‘Look at him. He’s as old as Ed Asner,’” Reinhold recalls, laughing. upper class cast a little older.'” Which helped him get the part, Linson tells him, “You’re the only one who didn’t feel sorry for himself when you read.”

Heckerling realized early on that making her first feature film involved a learning curve, including a moment during the casting process when she was blown away by a theatrical monologue Whitaker held during his audition. “I went, ‘Wow, that was great — you got the part if you want it,'” Heckerling says. “Then I looked out the window—I mean, he’s a big guy—and he skipped across the parking lot to his car. And then everyone got mad at me because they said, ‘You can’t say that. We have to negotiate with their agents. That’s not how it works.’ And I had no idea how anything works.”

As for working with Penn, the cast remembers staying in character throughout production. “I didn’t get to know Sean – nobody got to know Sean because he was Spicoli the whole time,” Scott Thomson (who played Arnold) tells us THR with a smile. “I kept thinking, ‘Where did they find him?'”

Thomson shared a short scene with Cage (who played “Brad’s Bud”) in which Arnold connects with his hamburger co-worker Brad. “I’m going to sit down with [Brad] and his entourage, of which Nick Cage was one of them, and Nick Cage ad-libs: “So Arnold, what do you think of green jello?” because I had it on my tray,” Thomson says, bursting. “I didn’t know how to react – I just stuttered.”

There have been rumors of famous names being considered for roles, and Heckerling is quick to dismiss most of these as conjectures. However, she also adds: “I went through boxes of junk in my house, and I don’t know if this is true, but there was a list of people who came to cast one day, and one of the names was Michelle Pfeiffer.” Despite not being able to remember meeting Pfeiffer before the film, the director continues, “If she was reading for Stacy, I know I wanted her to look like a real girl, not glamorous, and it’s possible.” that Michelle looks lovely. But I can’t imagine not remembering Michelle.”

Regardless of what might have been, the movie itself was clearly special – THR‘s review called Heckerling a “truly gifted director.” However, the film’s team recalls that Universal Pictures withdrew from a major marketing push due to a lack of household names and concerns about its portrayals of sexuality.

“We were really saddened because someone in high regard said, ‘This is pornography, and Universal is definitely not going to release this movie,'” Reinhold said. “We didn’t think of it as this horny high school movie at all. We saw it as an opportunity to do something authentic that was based on the actual experiences of the children that Cameron recorded that whole year.”

Indeed, Heckerling agrees that the studio didn’t have high expectations for the final product. “They wanted to put it on the shelf because they didn’t see how it would make money,” she says. “They decided they would just open it in a couple of theaters on the west coast, and they did, and people kept coming back and knowing all the dialogue. So then they quickly released it in the rest of the country. There was no advertising beforehand – I was devastated.”

The film was given a limited release on August 13, 1982, and through ecstatic word of mouth it reached the top 30 of the year at the domestic box office with $27 million ($83 million today).

“It’s the event that changed my life,” said Robert Romanus (who played Mike Damone) THR from the movie. When asked how often he hears from Fast times fans, he replies: “Every day. One of the most amazing things to me is how many legs this movie has.”

Heckerling, who later directed Look who’s talking and ignoranttells THR of the film’s intentions: “The whole theme, even the title, is that it’s moving too fast for young people. They shouldn’t be so concerned about sex at such a young age.” She adds that she’s not sure if… Fast timeswhere Linda (Phoebe Cates) talks about losing her virginity at age 13 and Stacy gets a abortion, would be made today. “We’re going backwards in so many ways.”

A version of this story first appeared in the August 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.