Cult classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High nearly slapped with X Rating for showcasing naked men

"It's not that I want to see naked men, but I felt like there should be some equality."

The coming of age comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High is not a surf film, per se, though must be included in the surf film conversation as it is the vehicle through which the most iconic cinematic surf character arrived. But who could ever forget Sean Penn’s Jeff Spicoli? His Southern California drawl, glazed eyes and re-ordering Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, placing tasty waves and a cool buzz on the very top.

Though the world might never have known Spicoli if Amy Heckerling had stuck to her artistic guns.

The now-72-year-old sat down on the It Happened in Hollywood podcast to share that the 1982 classic almost got slapped with an X rating because she wanted to show both the men and the women naked, like they do it in Europe.

“I thought, well, you know, maybe it’s because all these films are made by men, and they wanna see naked women, and they don’t want to see naked men,” she declared. “It’s not that I want to see naked men, but I felt like there should be some equality.”

The Motion Picture Association told her if there were any nude mans, the film would be rated X and therefore only shown in creepy little theaters very late at night.

Heckerling, angry at the blatant difference in standards, continued, “I said, ‘But if it was a woman, it wouldn’t be an X rating,’ ” she recalled. “And they said, ‘Well, the male organ is aggressive.’ How do you fight that?”

She didn’t, changed the scene and Spicoli is now our stereotype.

Opining now, Heckerling added, “A part of me thinks maybe this is just too much now. At the time, it was like there was all this freedom, but it was one-sided, and I wanted to fight that. It was like there was a door closing slowly on sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. And then the Reagans came in, and it was just say no to everything. We got in right as it was closing.”

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