MARTY MCFLY
Great Scott! We talk to Michael J. Fox about bringing Back To The Future’s everyday hero to life
An exclusive audience with Michael J. Fox, the man singlehandedly responsible for Nike’s world domination.
Congratulations on Marty Mcfly making the list, Michael.
It’s funny — I never thought of Marty in terms of being heroic. He’s more Robin than Batman. But it’s a real treat. It was a huge gift I was given in my career.
Famously, you replaced Eric Stoltz several weeks into filming, while you were making sitcom Family Ties.
Yeah. [Family Ties producer] Gary David Goldberg called me into his office, and said, “I have this script from [executive producer] Steven [Spielberg] and [director] Bob [Zemeckis] and [co-writer] Bob [Gale]. I said, “That’s great.” One week later I was on set with flames running through my feet.
Your head must have been spinning.
It was pretty fast. But after I read the script I thought, “Skateboarding kid who loves rock ’n’ roll and girls and trucks — I can do that.” And I fell into their magic. It’s one thing to get a job unexpectedly and have to create a world for your character. When I showed up, there was already a world for my character. Other people’s coverage of my scenes had been shot two weeks earlier in scenes with Eric. There are scenes in the movie, I don’t know which, where they’re reacting to Eric, not reacting to me.
It’s incredible how alive and energetic your performance is, given you were filming Family Ties during the day, and Back To The Future at night. You must have been exhausted.
I just kind of intrinsically understood that it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. You got the ball and you had to run. From the period of time between when we shot the bedroom scene with Lea [Thompson] — “You’re my mom…!” — to the ‘Johnny B. Goode’ scene, I knew if I could just hang around, it would be okay.
Presumably, then, a lot of the decisions had already been made for you in terms of costume?
Actually, I did have a hand in that. The shoe choice was mine. Eric had worn Converse. They said, “What do you want to wear for shoes?” I happened to be wearing a pair of Nike Monacos and said, “Will these work?” A huge relationship between Nike and Universal was born in that moment. And I get bupkis.
[laughs] No, Nike have been really great. They’ve been very supportive of our foundation [The Michael J. Fox Foundation For Parkinson’s Research]. The Nike automatic lace-ups Marty wore in Back To The Future Part II they auctioned for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that benefited our foundation.
So, you’re in the middle of this maelstrom, but can still make character choices that influence Marty.
Resources were available to me that were wonderful. When I did the ‘Johnny B. Goode’ scene, I had a great guitar teacher who taught me how to play. I said to Bob [Zemeckis], “When I do this scene, I play guitar, so you can finger-sync me. Feel free to cut to my hands any time you want.” Having said that, it put pressure on me to get it fucking right. So I had this guy named Paul Hanson, who was my guitar teacher. For about four weeks we worked this piece and at the same
time I was working with this choreographer for Madonna. I said, “I dance like a duck. I can’t dance. But what I’d like to do is incorporate all the characteristics and mannerisms and quirks of my favourite guitarists, so a Pete Townshend windmill, and a Jimi Hendrix behind-the-back, and a Chuck Berry duck-walk.” And we worked all that in, and he made it flow. It was moments like that when you don’t think, “I’m tired or I feel pressure to do this.” You just do it and have a blast.
There must have been a lot of you in Marty.
Normally I’d say, “Yeah,” but how to get to the ‘me’ that was useful was really due to Bob’s direction. There were times when I might do a scene and pull back on it a little, make it more low-key. And Bob would push me to do something… not bigger, but fuller.
What’s the quintessential Marty Mcfly moment for you? [In a flash] “Your kids are gonna love it.”
You’ve been asked this question before.
No, it just came to me really quickly. I don’t know if it’s that important for audiences, but for me, for my character, that moment is knowing that I’ve launched into this crazy shit that’s blown everybody away. “You’re not going to get this… but your kids are gonna love it.”