The director, Amy Heckerling, was an NYU graduate with nothing but a short film to her name when Universal signed her to a deal to direct Fast Times.

Matthew Broderick turned down playing Jeff Spicoli. Sean Penn made it his breakout role.

Tom Hanks was considered for the role of Brad Hamilton, Judge Reinhold ended up in the All American Burger uniform.

Penn took a serious, method approach to his laidback stoner character. The actor would only answer to his character’s name. Speaking of method, apparently marijuana smoking in the van before the prom by Spicoli and company was real as well.

Around the time of “Fast Times” Crowe and Nancy Wilson of Heart had begun dating, and they would eventually get married. She’s in the film as well in the role “Beautiful Girl in Car.” She’s the one who laughs at Brad’s fast-food uniform.

There are two Bruce Springsteen connections in the film, there’s a Springsteen bumper sticker on Brad’s car, and his sister Dina is one of the cheerleaders in the movie, Pamela Springsteen…although they didn’t use a Bruce song in the soundtrack.

And finally, the film was a big success! At first, “Fast Times” was given a limited release with minimal advertising. Heckerling has said that she believes Universal did not have much faith in the film. However, it made back half of its $5 million budget that first weekend, and Universal gave it a full-scale release. The word of mouth spread, and the film made $27.1 million domestically alone.