Reinhold aspired to become a great movie megastar in the 1980s, but everything changed in the blink of an eye.
After starring in the “Beverly Hills Cop” films with Eddie Murphy and a memorable role in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” Reinhold was given a chance to become a celebrity in “Vice Versa,” but as he explained In an unvarnished Wayne’s Truthful profile, an “executive assassination plot” overshadows the film and nearly takes over.
“Vice Versa” was a body-swap film starring Reinhold and Fred Savage playing his son. It was released in 1988, and even though the actor had acted in several successful films before this, the film did not perform well at the box office.
According to Reinhold, this was due to a number of issues that went missing behind the scenes.
Eddie Murphy spotted filming ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ wearing the iconic jacket
Reinhold starred in several successful films in the 1980s. (Getty Images)
He defined that “Chariots of Fire” creator David Puttnam was the CEO of Columbia Photos in 1986, and “he wanted to lower the price of the lead actors, but wanted to make real backend profits.”
Reinhold was confident in his concepts, although “unfortunately, he was not around long enough to prove that formula” as he referred to an “executive assassination plot” through high-ranking people within the industry.
He said Puttnam “spoke publicly with his disdain about how high the salary was and what he wanted to do, and he offended a lot of people. By the time we were ready to be released… he was not Knew, but the guillotine was put in place. People didn’t like him, so they wanted him out.”
Pass judgment on Reinhold during a photographed execution in Los Angeles on April 14, 1986. (Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images)
The actor called Puttnam “a very nice guy” and added, “I swear to God, I trusted him. He told me, ‘I want to use you as a template. Take a cut. , and we are going to make this work, and if the film is profitable, you will benefit.’ And that’s the way it should be and that’s why we will bring the price down.”
A few months before “Vice Versa” was released, the Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron-led film “Like Father, Like Son” came out – a film with a highly indistinguishable plot to Reinhold’s film. As he explained, that film actually fell into production after “Vice Versa,” and when it finally came time for his film to drop, it was given no fighting chance at the box office.
“That’s why I talk about the film in a disappointing way,” Reinhold instructed Wayne’s Truthful. “I’m proud of the movie. It was the first time that my name was above the title, and the studio pulled it (from theaters) right before the Easter holiday, when it would have had a chance to be released. It was hard. They kind of Suppressed it, and we worked really hard to watch it get destroyed.”
As he told the Los Angeles Times in 1992, “That was really the end of my highfalutin Hollywood career. That’s when the phone stopped ringing.”
Pass judgment on Reinhold, struggling with his occupation and then facing the workplace failure of “Vice Versa”. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Classification using Getty Pictures)
A few years earlier, in 1980, Reinhold’s first feature film was released – a film titled both “Running Scared” and “Desperate Men.” It was a low-budget work, but he said he beat out Dennis Quaid for the role.
The film was set in the Everglades, and at one point during filming, Reinhold remembered the director telling him, “Look, we don’t really have enough money to finish, we just have a very low budget. What “We can pay you when we get back to LA?”
He persisted, “And I said, ‘Hey, I’m green, but I’m not dumb.’ There was a ’59 Cadillac that I drove in the movie, I said, ‘You give me that car, I’m yours.’
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He added, “They solved it a little too easily.” “I got that car. My mom was a realtor in Boca Raton, and I had to leave the car with her and go back to Los Angeles to audition for ‘Ordinary People’ for Robert Redford., While I was doing this, my mother’s car met with an accident and it was found out that the car was stolen. Someone had erased the registration number. I remember being on the pay phone in L.A. and I had to explain it to them, and I told them where the production office was, but it was long gone.”
The judge on Reinhold was paid to film a stolen car. (Aaron Rapoport/Corbis/Getty Pictures)
In retrospect, he had a small part in “Stripes”, which starred Andrew Murray, Jon Sweet and Harold Ramis. He later came up with a trick he also used when performing with Eddie Murphy – holding his feet to keep himself from laughing.
He said, “To avoid being laughed at, I would put my hands in my pockets and at the end of the day would squeeze my thigh so hard it would hurt.” “I couldn’t make a deal with Bill. At times you could see even Candy almost lose it.”
In 1982, he starred in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, a job he got when he shared a duplex with the film’s director Amy Heckerling and dated her employee. Another factor that worked in his favor was that Heckerling asked Nicolas Cage to play the game in the section that ultimately resulted in Reinhold, although he was only 17 at the time.
Nicolas Cage, portrayed in the TV version of “The Best of Times”, was previously considered for the role of Reinhold in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”. (Bob D’Amico/American Broadcasting Firm using Getty Pictures)
He said, “Since he was still 17 years old, they would have to submit production for child’s work hours.” “They couldn’t fit a full schedule. The budget couldn’t accommodate Nick being 17 years old. So, very reluctantly, they let him go.”
He finally got the position, then his girlfriend instructed him that he could do it, and he went straight to filming a very memorable scene from “Fast Times” – a scene in which his character masturbates because of his weight. Stuck, presented via Phoebe Cates.
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Reinhold admitted, “If you take that scene out of context, it’s quite scary.” “But for me, when I read the script it was so much fun… It was probably one of the stupidest and bravest things I’ve ever done. Obviously, it was fake, but it was an extremely personal thing , and it was just insulting.”
Phoebe Cates passes judgment on Reinhold’s weight loss in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”. She is shown here with Zach Galligan in “Gremlins”, in which Reinhold also appeared. (Warner Bros. Photos/Amblin E/Sundown Street/Corbis using Getty Pictures)
She said, “When I read the script, I thought it was so funny. But when the time came that day… I don’t know what it was like for Phoebe. I think we were both awkward. We both Had to work.” Through it the audience doesn’t realize it, nor should they think about it, but it’s not easy, I just went with it (performance) it was easy Was Incredibly uncomfortable.”
Two years after “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” was discounted, “Beverly Hills Cop” crashed into theaters, even though in its early stages, it was a very different movie. When Reinhold was made, Sylvester Stallone had a management role, and the film was “fairly straightforward action”. He recalled meeting with Stallone so he could approve his casting.
From left to right, pass judgment on Reinhold as Det. William ‘Billy’ Rosewood as Eddie Murphy’s Det. Axel Foley and John Ashton as Det. John Taggart in “Beverly Hills Cop” (CBS using Getty Pictures)
After Stallone left the project, Murphy, already a comedy veteran, was brought into his fold and the script was slowly rewritten to incorporate additional comedy. Reinhold initially instructed that throughout filming, they would be opposed to “refining” scenes that were not working, and that they could neatly improvise to make the textures appropriate.
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“I learned on ‘Stripes’ what it really means,” he said. “If you’re not willing to jump off the bridge, find something else to do with your life. Eddie is really weird. I had to put my hand in my pocket again.”
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