Why "Movie Star" Lea Thompson Didn't Initially Warm to Michael J. Fox Shooting Back to the Future

The cast of Back to the Future hasn't made a movie together in years, but they're still something like a family. They show up at conventions together, share stories, and generally all seem to look back on their time making the trilogy (now streaming on Peacock) with genuine fondness. But according to Lea Thompson, it didn't necessarily start out that way, at least when it came to her relationship with Michael J. Fox.

In a recent interview with the Still Here Hollywood podcast, Thompson, who played Lorraine Baines McFly in the series, explained that she and Fox got off to a rocky start when it came time to share the set of the first Back to the Future film. But if you know the history of the film, you know that there's a very clear reason for that.

Why Lea Thompson didn't initially warm to Michael J. Fox while shooting Back to the Future

Though Fox is now known around the world for his work as Marty McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy, work which made him a movie star, it's important to remember that he was not the original choice for the role. Production got underway, with Thompson already in her role as Lorraine, and Eric Stoltz in the lead role. When things weren't really working, director Robert Zemeckis made the difficult decision to recast Marty McFly, leaving Thompson and the rest of the cast with a little bit of whiplash. 

“I was friends with Eric Stoltz who had just gotten fired,” Thompson explained. “I had already done a movie called The Wildlife with him and so he was a friend of mine.”

Thompson and Stoltz would go on to make other films together, including John Hughes' Some Kind of Wonderful just a few years later, but at the time the loss of her friend on the set really stung. Then there was another, slightly more obscure reason for her dislike of Fox. At the time, he was best known for his role as Alex P. Keaton on the sitcom Family Ties, while Thompson was known for her films. They were from different worlds, and at the time, a "big division" existed between the worlds of film and television.

“It’s not as much [anymore], that’s for sure. It’s not the same as it was then,” Thompson said. “So I remember being like, ‘He’s just a TV star and I’m a movie star. I was in Jaws 3D'."

But while Thompson had her reservations about Fox in the beginning, eventually the pair started to warm to one another through their collaboration, and that helped a friendship take shape.

“He was so funny and so fun to act with,” Thompson said. “I had done some scenes with Eric already and then had to redo them with Michael so I could see how they were completely different scenes.”

Thompson and Fox would, of course, go on to co-star in two more Back to the Future films, and have remained friends ever since. 

The Back to the Future trilogy is now streaming on Peacock.