Tampabay.com

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

Hey bud, what's your problem? Nicolas Cage HATED making 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High'

Nicolas Cage in Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Name your favorite Nicolas Cage flick of the '80s! Quick! Valley Girl? Good one. Raising Arizona? Sure. Racing with the Moon? A little more obscure, but a good film. But what about Fast Times at Ridgemont High? A lot of people forget Cage was even in that cult classic, in which he plays a grill cook at All American Burger. Pretty sure he doesn't even have a line that made the final cut.

Cage hasn't forgotten it. In fact, it's one of his worst memories of filmmaking, according to an interview with the Hollywood Reporter.

"I must have auditioned for the Judge Reinhold part 10 or 11 times," Cage told THR, calling the film a "terrible experience." "I was underage, so I couldn't get it because I couldn't work as many hours. And I was surrounded by actors, whose names I won't mention, who were not very open to the idea of a young guy named 'Coppola' being an actor. So that movie was instrumental in me changing my name because of the kind of unfortunate responses to my last name."

"They would congregate outside my trailer and say things, like quoting lines from Apocalypse Now, and it made it very hard for me to believe in myself."

Buck up, Nic. Things turned out just fine for you. As for Judge Reinhold, he should be so lucky. Today's list could have been yours. Learn it. Know it. Live it.

TOP 5 JUDGE REINHOLD LINES FROM FAST TIMES:

5. "Hope you had a hell of a piss, Arnold!"

4. "Since when do you go bowling?"

3. "Mister, if you don't shut up I'm gonna kick one hundred percent of your a--!"

2. "I shall serve no fries before their time."

1. "Jeez. Doesn't anyone f---ing knock any more?"

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About the blogger

Relive the '80s music, movies and culture with Tampa Bay Times entertainment news editor Steve Spears. A teen during the greatest decade ever, Steve is obsessed with everything from Duran Duran to Journey, John Hughes to John Cusack, and parachute pants to Reaganomics.

E-mail Steve Spears:
stuckinthe80s@tampabay.com
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