15 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Fast Times At Ridgemont High
11. There was no original music recorded for the film. As the budget was a low $5 million, one way to cut costs was to only use prerecorded music from Univeral’s library.
All Star, Rex Features
12. The film was originally awarded an X rating by the MPAA so cuts had to be made to secure the much more commercially viable R rating. The bit that caused offence was the sex scene between Stacy and Damone, which had included full frontal nudity before.
All Star, Rex Features
13. Jodie Foster was originally approached to play the role of Stacy but she was focused on her studies at Yale. The part ultimately went to Jennifer Jason Leigh.
All Star, Rex Features
14. After the film was a surprise success ($27 million gross from a $5 million budget), producer Art Linson was keen to work with Cameron Crowe again. They developed a “spiritual sequel” called The Wild Life which focused on teenagers post-high school. It starred Eric Stoltz, Chris Penn, Rick Moranis and Lea Thompson. Interestingly, the film hasn’t been released on DVD because of music rights issues. It was co-composed by Eddie Van Halen.
All Star, Rex Features
15. The pizza delivery guy in the infamous classroom scene is played by Taylor Negron, who went onto become one of the most commonly used “where have I seen that guy?” actors. He can be seen in The Last Boy Scout, Seinfeld, ER, Stuart Little, Curb Your Enthusiasm and playing a pizza guy again in Amy Heckerling’s recent comedy Vamps.