Exclusive: Judge Reinhold's Oral History of 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High'

In the summer of 1982, you could be forgiven for thinking Fast Times at Ridgemont High was going to be a raunch-com like Animal House (1978) and Porky’s (1981). Its poster featured a young Sean Penn as a goofy-looking dude with two buxom girls leaning suggestively over him.

Into this cover of generic R-rated yuks, director Amy Heckerling and writer Cameron Crowe Trojan-horsed something weirder and more wonderful: A sprawling, shaggy comedy about the exquisite awkwardness of high school, now being rereleased to theaters for its 40th Anniversary on Friday.

It was infused with sex, but it didn’t depict the act as pervy, or horny young men as lovably date-rapey scamps; it also featured equally sex-obsessed female characters. In its modest 90-minute running time, it toggled between several different teenage groups and storylines, but its heart is freshman Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who’s trying to figure out sex and love, and her older brother, Brad (Judge Reinhold), whose final year of high school is turning into a shitshow.

Fast Times was, arguably, the birth of the modern teen coming-of-age film, and it caught critics by surprise. Apparently, they were notintobeing surprised. In the decades that followed, it’s been reassessed as a groundbreaking work, and occupies space on most top-comedies lists, including the American Film Institute’s. In 2005, it was added to the National Film Registry.

The movie's packed with young actors at the start of their careers—Penn, Jason Leigh, Forest Whitaker, and Nicolas Cage in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nonspeaking part as a fast food cook. One of Heckerling's leading men was Judge Reinhold, a 22-year-old from Virginia with a few TV credits and a small role in Stripes. As Brad, he introduced American audiences to a particular brand of gentle exasperation that would become his calling card in future comedy gems like Beverly Hills Cop and its sequels, and Ruthless People, not to mention a guest spot in Arrested Development’s third season and his stellar cameo as the close-talker on Seinfeld.

Fast Times made Reinhold one of the most famous faces in ‘80s comedy, not least for his role in one of the most-paused scenes in movie history: A sex fantasy about a girl (Phoebe Cates) interrupted when Cates’ character, Linda, catches Brad masturbating in the bathroom.

Now 65, Reinhold got on the phone with us from his New Mexico home to talk about being part of Heckerling's crew, drinking with an underage Nic Cage, his love of '70s movies and working with female directors and editors, and how the fledgling cast members coped with filming their more intimate scenes. “I'm excited about this,” he says. “I haven't talked about it in a while. And, you know, everybody’s point of view evolves.”

How do you see Fast Times differently now?

I went through this stage of saying, “Oh, it's just a teenage comedy.” But I don't see it that way anymore. I see it as a comedy about young sexuality, and as something that's really authentic. For people that don't know, Cameron Crowe masqueraded as a senior in a Long Beach High School to write an expose for Rolling Stone. We were so excited, because we knew that a lot of the dialogue was almost verbatim transcribed. That thing with Damone, his rules about how to get laid—Cameron didn't wear a wire, but he ran into the boys room and furiously wrote that down because it was so great.

Brad Hamilton starts out as this popular guy—but he’s not at all the stereotypical ‘80s jock or prep.

Tonally, I thought I was in a ‘70s film. That’s what I was excited about. The movies that made me want to be in movies were ‘70s films, and there was a very close overlap in this movie with the people that worked on them, like our legendary producer, Art Linson.

And then Amy Heckerling brought this new sensibility, because this was her very first feature.

Everybody adored Amy because they loved her student film, Getting it Over With. Amy was a humorist. I guess she was kind of a sexual renegade, because she was able to see men and women without judgment. To see sexuality without judgment, and with humor. She thought, I think it's safe to say, that human sexuality is very funny. It was a terrific, respectful collaboration between Cameron and Amy and Art. It was a really happy set. I’ll always remember Amy and Cameron laughing at the monitor, and feeling like a million bucks, because we were bringing it to life, and they liked it.

You weren’t the only contender for the role of Brad.

They would have cast Nic Cage in a second, but he was 17 years old, and they would have had to switch to child actor hours. I lived upstairs from Amy. She brought me in, but she told me not to tell Art that we knew each other, because if Art knew that we were friends, he probably wouldn't take me seriously. He later on said, “Yes, she was right. I would have blown you off.” I went in there knowing that they wanted [Cage] but they couldn't use him. So he wasn’t a threat. I read a few times, it was nerve-racking, and it came down to the final day. Art looks at me, and he goes, “Look how old he is. He’s as old as Ed Asner.” Like, I'm in the room! I’m like, oh my god. This is going on right in front of me.

[The producer] looks at me, and he goes, “Look how old he is. He’s as old as Ed Asner.” Like, I'm in the room! I’m like, oh my god. This is going on right in front of me.

How old were you?

I was 22. I had some footage of me in an after-school thing. So that helped them a lot. I didn't see my age as an obstacle, maybe because of arrested development or something. I didn't feel like I was that much older.

What were you reading?

I think it was a scene with the guidance counselor. It didn't make the movie, and rightfully so, because it's kind of redundant—Brad recounts to the guidance counselor everything that happened to him, and it’s like a “give me a break” scene, and I'm so glad they didn't use it. But Art said, “You're the only person that didn't feel sorry for himself when he read.” I understood the tone of the movie. I didn't realize, like, the big picture, that we were doing this American cultural statement. I just thought Brad was very, very cool. I wrote really bold on the front page [of my script]: “Brad is living the worst year of his life.”

That was my guide. How was he going to get through that? Everything is falling apart, but you got to keep doing the best you can. So that's what Art saw, I think, that I saw Brad as a survivor and not a defeatist.

Is that something that came naturally to you—are you an optimist?

I’m a humorist. Humor will never let me crash. I saw Brad as hapless, and I love hapless. It kind of defined whatever work I did. Alan Arkin was my comedy god. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, these were my gods. I understood Brad, and this is what I’ll tell my daughter, when she eventually sees the bathroom scene. If you take it out of context, it's kind of seedy, I guess, but I didn't see it that way, and neither did Amy. We saw it as, What's the worst thing that could happen to Brad? This is another thing that just devastates him. That's what I'm going to tell her, you gotta see it in context.

Oh, that's going to be a fun watch.

Yeah. Right. I'm not gonna be there. [laughs]

Critics wanted this to be a teen sex romp, and it wasn't. Even Roger Ebert just really didn’t get it.

Roger Ebert was a fan of mine! He gave me thumbs up so many times. Siskel and Ebert were my guys, they always got me when other people didn’t. But I get where he was at, because he was looking for light comedy. And Amy was not going to back off from that dark humor thing, which I love, that Roger didn't cotton to.

Pauline Kael liked the film. She called me “Judge Reinhold, the young man with the old man's name.” She said I was “a very affable actor, a charming cross between James Stewart and Donald Duck.” I wouldn't have blown my own horn without the capper, but that's what it said. And obviously I know it by memory because I love it so much.

To be anointed by Pauline Kael!

Oh my god, yes.

So Sean Penn: how Method was his Spicoli, really?

All I knew about him was that he was from Malibu, his dad was a TV director, his mom was an actress, but he was a surfer. So I didn't know where the actor ended and the character began. And he didn't let on until the last thing we shot, which was the Mi-T-Mart scene. Then he dropped it some, and he was just the most erudite, articulate [laughs]—and the way he was talking to Amy... I just thought, wow, what a trip.

He asked me to do the most Method thing, which I happily obliged because I was fascinated. He said, “Scream your lines to me, yell your lines to me.” I guess it created this barrier of pot that he had to, like, hear through? I don't know why he asked me to do it. And he really annoyed the girls. He ignored them in kind of a stoned stupor, and they didn’t think he was nice. Honestly, he wasn't mean, it’s just—how would Spicoli be about around women? Maybe sexist. He just saw girls from Playboy magazine, you know? That’s Spicoli’s reference. So that was Sean's reference.

[Sean Penn] really annoyed the girls. He ignored them in kind of a stoned stupor, and they didn’t think he was nice. Honestly, he wasn't mean, it’s just—how would Spicoli be about around women? Maybe sexist. He just saw girls from Playboy magazine, you know? That’s Spicoli’s reference. So that was Sean's reference.

Did people form friend groups based on the roles that they had? Was he hanging out with Eric Stoltz and Anthony Edwards—and you with Nic Cage?

Yeah. Nic was quiet, and didn't let on what he had going on. At this point, he was pretty insecure. I had him in my living room, sharing a bottle of wine—I guess he was underage, whatever [laughs]—he said, “What do you think? You think I have a chance?” I didn't know, the part was too small. You know, they gave him the part of [the fry cook]. He confided in me and said, “Don’t feel bad, I'm grateful that you got [the part of Brad], because I think it would have been too much for me at this point.” He was very open, but also there was this world that he lived in that he hadn’t kind of defined. But he was very, very original and unique, and we didn't really know what to make of him, I think that's safe to say.