Christopher Lloyd On Why Eric Stolz Was Replaced By Michael J. Fox

Christopher Lloyd On Why Eric Stolz Was Replaced By Michael J. Fox for the Back To The Future movie.
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[pavanbhatia]

I like the fact he says he was hurt by the decision. Glad to see loyalty. I would love to see the Eric Stolz version.

[JJ-svrh]

Eric was to tall and serious. Michael is funny and short and amazing

[rhymeandreasoning]

It took them almost FIVE WEEKS to see that Eric's performance was "lacking a certain sense of comedy"? It is up to the director, producers, studio to make sure they get/ are getting the "performance" they want out of an actor. The fact that filming was almost completed and then they decide they are not getting what wanted ridiculous. They should have seen it much sooner, and I think they did. It is not at all Eric's fault. Not that anyone was blaming him. The studio had to start filming so they used Eric, but really wanted Fox all along.

[Turco]

I love both actors but MJF was definitely a much better choice for this particular role.

[SceneComparisons]

Eric is pissed. Like Pete Best pissed.

[sruler]

Chris looks younger now than when he played Doc Brown - has he been using the time machine ?

[MrZIONart]

Christopher Lloyd is a great actor. I love watching his movies

[drewhendley]

What happened was, Robert Zemeckis said we are not getting the laughs that we need from Eric. We need to find a replacement

[TheAverageYouCuber]

Christopher Lloyd being the good fine upstanding gentleman that he is to be honest is really attempting to maintain diplomatic nautrality within the interests of filmmaking management in fairness to all the cast members past and present!
However according to Tom Wilson (Biff Tannen) there was however a scene were Eric Stoltz playing Marty McFly punching Biff in the cafe after Marty McFly trips up Biff did raise a few eyebrows off camera!
You see, after the roll for that take was finished Tom said to Eric hey it's just pretend dude, what's your problem, are you feeling ok?? were only meant to be acting (or words to that affect).
At this point Tom and other members on the set knew that something was up with Eric. It soon emerged that Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg made the executive decision to replace Eric with Michael J Fox. One can only suspect that someone on the set must have hinted to Eric that his character was being considered for replacement with that of another actor which later emerged to be Michael J Fox ofcourse after he became available after his contract with 'close ties' ended and a new contract drafted up for the BTTF production with Universal Pictures. A short time later Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg phoned up Tom Wilson (Biff) insisting he should come down to Universal Studios for a cast members briefing. What Christopher Lloyd and other cast members and the production team have confirmed that it was of the opinion of the senior producers that Eric Stoltz's performance and delivery as Marty McFly was just a tad too serious or maybe lacked a certain degree of personality which was certainly not what they were hoping for from that of Marty McFly's character that was ideally suited for Michael J Fox to portray. It's widely speculated that Michael J Fox being the number 1 choice for the role as Marty the whole time prior to auditioning! This being the mid 1980's at the time were last minute knee jerk decision making and random changes of contracts being ripped up after the auditioning process has been finalised would not be permitted in quite the same way nowadays especially with screen actors being union members of the Screen Actors Guild were new rules have since been introduced for the benefit of the rights of the screen actors whilst under contract! Even to this very day Eric Stoltz maintains that it was his fist you see punching Biff and not from Michael J Fox's hand as Marty McFly!! A similar fiasco and dispute occurred much later for BTTF2 as many of us are all too aware between Crispin Glover (George McFly) and producer Bob Gale regarding payment and portrayal of George McFly's character in the second installment for the 2015 scene by Jeffrey Weissman instead of Crispin Glover as George McFly!!

[divefraggle]

I'm sure that was a tough decision but what a brilliant move. I think it paid off as Michael J. Fox is so natural and funny as Marty McFly.

[pandorapink]

MJF is just a natural comedian. People remember Family Ties but Spin City was was favorite roll for him, so funny.

[JohnOakwest]

i really see the difference. Good call on the change.

[joejacobs]

Even though Fox did better, I would really like to see the Stoltz version..

[nebularain]

I like how everyone talking about this is respectful to Eric. Like they all say he was a great actor, but just not right for the role. I think if he'd been let go a week in to shooting instead of 5-6 weeks then it may have been easier to take.

[christhornycroft]

The same reason why a remake in the late 90s wouldn't have starred Leonardo DiCaprio. I'm not knocking Leo. He's an excellent, top tier, Oscar winning dramatic actor. But he wouldn't have been right for that kind of role. Same with Johnny Depp. That's not their niche. Not every actor is Robin Williams, who can jump seamlessly from goofy comedy to serious drama in a nanosecond. I like Eric Stoltz as an actor. He was great in Mask. But that was a serious, tragic movie, not a goofy sci-fi comedy. From the clips I've seen, Eric took the role seriously, and that's the problem. It wasn't a serious role. Michael J Fox was able to capture the goofy teenagerishness of the character perfectly while still being believable. But would I want to see him in Mask? Absolutely not, and Mike is my Burnaby boy and a fellow disabled guy, so no knock against him. There's a casting director for a reason. Good ones won't always get it right the first time, but they'll notice when an actor isn't working in a particular role and correct that mistake. Stoltz went on to do some seriously good work in his niche. You pick actors based on the tone of your movie, and some, regardless of how talented they are, will match or not match that tone.

[jamiepeterson]

Lloyd is supposedly a pretty shy an reclusive guy, Im sure doing these types of things in front of an audience makes things easy to forget or stumble over.

[kensandler]

Anyone stop to think about Michael J racing back and forth from FT to BBTF and really working as two characters at once? Not just lines and blocking, etc., but just needing to be two ( and 3, himself lol) people at once? Damn.

[Sirrom]

Martin character played by Stoltz originally was different from Martin character played by Fox. So both performances were good.They decided to make a funny movie so changed actor.IMHO because of Spielberg advice. To give a reasonably explanation they told the excuse of Stoltz interpretation, firing Stoltz. IMHO they are very coward people.

[comedydan]

To be Honest Michael J Fox was the first choice but he wasn't allowed to come out of the show family ties then Eric Stoltz was replaced but the producers thought it was a bad idea so they decided to go for Michael again and it worked, that's the full story behind it

[TantiveTV]

No offence to Eric, but I'm so glad that they replaced him. Without Michael, the whole Back to the Future universe would never be as good as it is today.