Sean Penn revealed in an interview about his character inspirationsthat he recently ran into his inspiration for Jeff Spicoli from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” for the first time in decades…

The actor actually based his iconic character from the 80s classic on a real guy and Penn just saw the guy the first time since they were kids.  They passed each other on a trail to the beach.

Apparently he’s NOT the same dude.  Sean says he, quote, “spoke in this very articulate way… I couldn’t believe it was him.”  Sean claims the guy never even knew he was the inspiration for Spicoli!