Plenty of Big-Name Stars Got Their Start With Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Penn's initial audition for the movie went terribly. "Long before I had a penny in my pocket, I had a kind of feeling of entitlement as an actor, not because I thought I was so good, but because I thought that the rest were not so good," he told Jimmy Fallon during a previous appearance on The Tonight Show. Luckily, he got a second chance and won the part.

Cates's dream sequence as Linda Barrett is considered "the most memorable bikini-drop in cinema history" by Rolling Stone.

"I understood her," Leigh said in an interview with The New York Times about her character Stacy Hamilton. "I went through all those hurts and joys. The joy of being miserable, and the terror of being miserable, but the wonderful thing about Stacy is she never loses hope."

"The marriage of Amy [Heckerling] and Cameron [Crowe's] sensibilities were perfect, if not God given," Reinhold said during a prior appearance at the Rome International Film Festival about the films's creators. "It was kismet. Cameron provided this affectionate authenticity about what it was like to be a teenager. But Amy gave it a feminist spin."

"When I got the role [of Damone] and I saw [the ticket scalping] scene, I had to go out and buy Cheap Trick albums because I didn't have any; I didn't really know who they were," Romanus said in an interview with USA Today.

Backer is best known for his role as Mark Ratner, but since the film, he's been in Moving Violations and Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol.

Walston died in 2001, but he'll always be remembered for his role as the straight-laced history teacher Mr. Hand, who engages in a one-sided war with Penn's Spicoli throughout the film.

"I was thrilled to be a part of such an extraordinary ensemble. It's a great feeling when a movie that I'm in resonates with the audience," Wyss told Meaww when previously asked about her reaction to the film's positive feedback.

"Eric Stoltz and I grew up together in Santa Barbara," Edwards once told Entertainment Weekly about his experience filming the movie. "We were best friends growing up and it was our first movie."

While Stoltz originally auditioned for the part of Spicoli, he ended up playing one of his stoner buds alongside real-life friend Anthony Edwards.

Whitaker was studying opera when he was cast in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. "Sean was pretty much in character. I was in character. We were all just young kids trying to find our way at the time," he said when asked if he had any idea how big the movie was going to be during an appearance on Live With Kelly and Ryan.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High was Cage's first film appearance, and he was credited as Nicolas Coppola.