The story of how Michael J. Fox came to land the lead role in the Back to the Future franchise is one that has been told from many perspectives, and recently the actor himself recounted how his casting in the movie, taking over from Eric Stoltz, led to one of his costars getting “snobby” about his status as a TV actor.
Despite being friends now, when Fox was brought in to star in the role he was meant to play – as the original choice for the part of Marty McFly – Lea Thompson was not the most welcoming to him. During an appearance on The View, Fox told hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin:
“She tells the story about how when when I was brought in, she thought, ‘This guy’s a TV actor,’ She felt pretty good about her film career, she admittedly felt a little snobby about a TV actor. [She wondered] ‘Who is this guy coming in replacing my friend?’ She knew Eric really well.”
After noting that Thompson was “not prepared to give me a bit of slack” initially, his work on TV sitcoms soon began to shine through, which greatly helped him prove his worth to the production. He continued:
“But we started doing the scene and I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m just doing the schtick that I do. I said, ‘There’s a joke here.’ […] She got a huge laugh. She went off really happy. This is what I do in my sitcoms.”
‘Back to the Future’ Could Have Been a Flop Without Michael J. Fox
There are some castings that are just simply meant to be. When production began on Back to the Future, both director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter/producer Bob Gale wanted Fox to play Marty McFly. However, the studio wanted to get things moving, Fox was tied up in TV contract commitments, and Eric Stoltz was brought in as a second choice.
However, as has been recounted several times, the feeling was that Stoltz just did not bring the role to life in the way the team wanted. Despite a sizable portion of filming having already been completed, Gale and Zemeckis made it their purpose to get Fox into the film no matter what, and the rest is history.
While there is no way of knowing how things would have turned out if Stolz had continued on in the role of Marty McFly, it is hard to see the franchise being any more of a success than it was. Back to the Future is regarded as one of the best time-travel movies of all time, and turning a $19 million budget into a $388 million box office return is something that not many films can boast about. Having spawned two sequels, a cartoon series, a stage musical, made the DeLorean car one of the most iconic vehicles in cinema history, and been the source of numerous quotes, memes, parodies and an inspiration for several other movies, Back to the Future is still a movie that holds up against today’s films despite being made 40 years ago.
- Release Date
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July 3, 1985
- Runtime
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116 minutes
- Director
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Robert Zemeckis
- Producers
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Bob Gale, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, Neil Canton
- Sequel(s)
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Back to the Future Part II, Back to the Future Part III
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
