Judge Reinhold joins WTOP to reflect on ‘Fast Times,’ ‘The Santa Clause’ ahead of ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ sequel
Judge Reinhold reunites with Eddie Murphy next month in the fourth installment of “Beverly Hills Cop.”
He joined WTOP to discuss his life and career with local ties as a native of Wilmington, Delaware, who mostly grew up in Fredericksburg, Virginia, overlooking the Rappahannock River.
“I was pretty much raised in the ‘Burg, yeah,” Reinhold told WTOP. “I went to Mary Washington College, really I was just hanging out at the drama department. At that time, it was just a girls college and they didn’t have any guys, so that was the extent of my involvement with Mary Washington. I was just in place there, they needed guys and I had a (college) freshman girlfriend. I was still in high school, it was a pretty cool time.”
His first big break was a small part alongside Bill Murray in Ivan Reitman’s military comedy “Stripes” (1981).
“What an incredible school that was to be around John Candy, Bill (Murray) and Harold (Ramis),” Reinhold said.
“That was ‘Cheech & Chong Go to the Army’ but they couldn’t make a deal. … Warner Bros. still wanted to do the movie, Ivan Reitman came in. … The stuff that would come out of Bill’s mouth, Candy would put his head down to hide, I’d put my hands in my pockets and squeeze my thighs so hard (to stop laughing) that I would have a bruise.”
Still, his major breakthrough was “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (1982), written by Cameron Crowe (“Say Anything,” “Jerry Maguire,” “Almost Famous”) based on his own 1981 book “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”
“A lot of the dialogue was transcribed from real students when Cameron Crowe masqueraded as a senior in a Long Beach high school,” Reinhold said.
“Cameron looked very, very young for his age, so when he was in his 20s, he still looked like he was 17 or 18, so he pretended to be a senior. Nobody knew, I think maybe the principal knew, even the teachers didn’t know, but he was writing an expose for ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine, then he turned it into a book.”
Crowe’s script was directed by Amy Heckerling, who went on to direct another teen classic, “Clueless” (1995).
“I got spoiled so quickly so early in the game; Amy was fantastic,” Reinhold said.
“I was too young to realize what an anomaly it was to be working with a woman. Also, she was a friend of mine, so we had a great shorthand. People wonder: How does a really good movie happen? It’s usually a marriage of sensibilities between the writer and the director — and in this case, the producer, Art Linson. … The three of these people really came together and pow!”
Reinhold memorably played the brother of Jennifer Jason Leigh in a young cast of future Oscar winners, including Forest Whitaker, Nicolas Cage and, most memorably, Sean Penn as the ultimate stoner burnout Jeff Spicoli.
“We have three Oscar winners in that cast — it’s crazy,” Reinhold said.
“Nobody knew who Sean was. … I thought this guy was a comic who only had one shtick of playing a stoner. … I had no idea until the last few days when we shot the Mi-T-Mart scene when he started to drop that and became this incredibly sophisticated, insightful guy and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this guy is brilliant!'”
The soundtrack is just as big of a character, from The Go-Go’s “We Got the Beat” during the opening shopping mall sequence to Jackson Browne’s “Somebody’s Baby” during a little ball field lovemaking.
Such moments provide a time capsule of the 1980s just like “American Graffiti” (1973) provided for the 1960s and “Dazed and Confused” (1993) provided for the 1970s — only in this case it wasn’t just nostalgia; it was all captured in real time.
“Kids have after-school jobs because they need money and they’re interested in sex — that’s pretty universal,” Reinhold said.
“Universal started to get cold feet because of the nudity. … Art Linson, being the brilliant producer that he is, ran to Irving Azoff, who was running Universal MCA and was also manager of The Eagles. He said, ‘Irving, do you want to be a movie producer? … I need this artist, that artist,’ and that’s how we got our soundtrack.”
He followed “Fast Times” by co-starring with red-hot Eddie Murphy in the action comedy “Beverly Hills Cop” (1984), which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
“Eddie was 19 and pulled ‘Saturday Night Live’ out of a ratings quagmire just by himself with James Brown’s Hot Tub, Gumby and Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood, so he was already a big star,” Reinhold said.
“‘Beverly Hills Cop’ was originally an action vehicle for Sylvester Stallone. I was cast before Eddie was. Stallone was supposed to play Axel, but Stallone decided to make ‘Cobra’ instead. … Suddenly, I was in an Eddie Murphy movie, but it wasn’t a comedy, so we had write ourselves through it (with jokes). … We got fresh pages every morning and had to improv.”
This year also marks the 30th anniversary of “The Santa Clause” (1994) where Reinhold played the straight man Dr. Neal Miller who doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, portrayed by Tim Allen at the peak of “Home Improvement.”
“Tim had made so much money for ABC and Disney that he brought ‘The Santa Clause’ to them, but they weren’t that crazy about it, they thought it was too far-fetched,” Reinhold said.
“That movie was made for a budget price, then it went on to (success). We won the People’s Choice Award, it was very exciting. Tim was another person who I had to put my hands in the pockets for. … Between Eddie, Tim and Bill, I’ve had a lot of bruises on my thigh.”
His sole career Emmy nomination came as “the close talker” in NBC’s “Seinfeld” (1994).
“I was the instigator of that, so somebody else had to put their hands in their pockets,” Reinhold said.
“The crew, when I got to Jerry, they were laughing a little too hard. I said, ‘What’s so funny?’ They said, ‘Jerry has a terrible spatial thing, so we’re just laughing because it’s so uncomfortable for him,’ so I just got closer. By the time we got to camera, I was almost touching his nose. … That might have been Larry David’s way to get at (Jerry).”
NOTE: At the time of this interview, Judge Reinhold was planning to attend a screening of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” this Saturday at D.C.’s Warner Theatre, but that event has since been canceled.
Hear our full conversation on the podcast below: