Behind The Scenes of ‘Back to the Future’

Back to the Future, easily one of the biggest staples in the world of cinema. Marty McFly, the coolest kid in the 80s’ going back to 1955 with the help of Doc Brown and his time-travelling DeLorean. From perfect casting to a storyline that would change the game forever, this movie flows like no other, unanimously loved by all and has even been labelled as “the perfect script”.

But, achieving this masterpiece was no easy feat. From the script itself being turned down forty-four times to having to replace their lead actor five weeks into filming, we’ll be going back in time to look at what went on behind the scenes for one of the most iconic movies in cinematic history.

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Bob Gale Came Up With The Concept After Seeing His Dads High School Yearbook Photo

Bob Gale (writer/co-producer) and Robert Zemeckis (Director) had been tossing around the idea of doing a time travel movie for years. The only problem was that they were unable to find a hook. Then, an idea came to Gale after he and Zemeckis had just finished making the movie Used Cars (1980). After they wrapped, Gale was back in his hometown of St Lois visiting his parents. It was here Gale found his dad’s old yearbook from high school, the same high school Gale himself went to.

Gale then stumbled upon the fact that his dad was president of his graduating class (information he was completely unaware of) and he started to compare the president of his own graduating class to whom he was completely indifferent. The wheels started getting set in motion as Gale began to contemplate whether he would have hung out with his dad if they went to high school together.

Gale recalls when he took this idea to Zemeckis in an interview:

So, when I got back to California, I’m telling the story to Bob [Zemeckis] and he’s going, yeah that’s really interesting, so we just got going with that and that was the germ of the idea.

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The Movie Was Rejected By Almost Every Major Studio

After the release of Used Cars (1980), Columbia pictures were very happy with the results and asked that Bob Gale (writer/co-producer) and Robert Zemeckis (Director) bring their next movie idea to them first. It wasn’t long after that Gale and Zemeckis approached them with the concept of Back to the Future. About a kid who goes back in time, meets his parents, the mother falls for him instead of his father etc. Within days, the duo were given the green light to write two drafts for Columbia Pictures.

Unfortunately, after the first draft was turned in, the studio kept wanting to make changes, much to the dismay of Gale and Zemeckis. After turning in a second draft, the studio still wasn’t happy and ultimately decided to pass citing the movie wasn’t “raunchy” enough. This seemed to be the consensus from the majority of the studios that were shown the script. Except for Disney who passed for different reasons, Gale recalls in an interview:

So finally, Bob [Zemeckis] and I said, well let’s go take it to Disney. So, we set up a meeting and we go in, meet with an executive and we sit down and he says ARE YOU GUYS INSANE!? You’ve got the scene with the kid and his mom in the car, this is incest, we can’t do this!

After being turned down a total of forty-four times, it was only when Zemeckis directed Romancing the Stone (1984), which ended up being a hit, that studios started to change their minds about Back to the Future. Having initially rejected (politely) the help of Stephen Spielberg – fearing that people would see Spielberg as a crutch for the pair – once studios started taking notice, the two went back to Spielberg and asked if he was still interested. To their delight he was and Spielberg came on as an executive producer. Joining forces with Universal studios and his own Amblin production company to start production on one of the biggest time-travel movies ever made.

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The Time Machine Was Originally A Refrigerator

When it came to Back to the Future the main thing which got people on board was the story itself. It’s hard to think that the iconic time-travelling DeLorean, wasn’t actually in the first draft, it wasn’t even a car! Bob Gale (writer) described the original time machine as more of a “Time Chamber”. However, Neil Canton (Producer) cited in an interview exactly what it was originally:

In the draft I read, it was a refrigerator.

After going back and forth numerous times and not being satisfied with Marty’s form of transportation, it was Robert Zemeckis (director) that had the brainchild for a time-travelling vehicle. Gale recalls in an interview:

And Bob [Zemeckis] said, you know what, wouldn’t it make more sense for this to be mobile?

Much to the delight of Steven Spielberg, the next draft he read, Gale and Zemeckis had turned the time machine into a DeLorean. A DeLorean with a particularly unique look Zemeckis reflects in an interview:

As far as designing the car, you know, we just wanted it to look like it was something that could actually look like a time machine and also something that looked like it was built in someone’s garage and the third thing was, it had to look kinda cool.

Because, if you’re going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?… Plus, kids climbing into fridges after seeing the movie probably would have been a bit frowned upon.

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Johnny Depp Auditioned For The Role Of Marty

Given when this movie was made, it’s no surprise you had a lot of the big names from 80s’ teen movies, audition for the role of Marty. Thomas C. Howell, John Cusack, Ralph Macchio, even Johnny Depp!

Depp was an unknown name at the time, but still, that shouldn’t have mattered if he managed to nail the audition. Unfortunately, this was not the case, Depp didn’t necessarily have a bad audition, but what could perhaps be considered worse, they don’t even remember him auditioning for the part! Bob Gale (writer) cites in an interview with Premium Hollywood:

I looked through the notes, and I said, ‘Geez, I don’t even remember that we read Johnny Depp! So whatever he did, it wasn’t all that memorable, I guess!

Thankfully, after Depp burst (literally) onto our screens in A Nightmare on Elm Street, followed by 21 Jump Street, his career just got better and better!

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Christopher Lloyd Wasn’t The Only Choice For Doc Brown

Unlike Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd wasn’t the producers first choice when it came to the role of Doctor Emmett Brown. Given the eccentric nature of this scientist, their alternative choices weren’t necessarily a bad fit. You had John Lithgow, Dudley Moore, even Jeff Goldblum (who went on to play a very different kind of mad scientist the following year in David Cronenberg’s ‘The Fly’).

Who knows what the other interpretations would have been like, but one thing’s for sure, Lloyd absolutely nailed this particular “crazy, wild-eyed, scientist”.

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Christopher Lloyd Originally Passed On The Movie

Whilst filming another movie in Mexico City, Christopher Lloyd received a call from his agent regarding a new movie being made called Back to the Future and sent Lloyd the script. Lloyd ultimately decided the movie wasn’t for him, set the script to one side and travelled to New Haven to do a play. It was only when a friend of Lloyd’s gave him some words of wisdom which made him give the movie more consideration, Lloyd recalls in an interview:

And a friend said, never leave a stone unturned as far as the business goes, you never know, you know?

So, with that, Lloyd went back, read the script and decided the least he could do was meet up with Robert Zemeckis. Lloyd reflects on the meeting that ultimately led him to change his mind, in an interview:

He [Zemeckis] was very engaging, he exuded confidence, intelligence and just a certain rapport I felt immediately with him, and I felt, I’m in good hands here, this is something that, if this man’s involved with this project, it’s something I should do.

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Eric Stoltz Was The Original Marty Mcfly And Even Filmed Scenes

Given how iconic Marty McFly now is, it’s not hard to believe when it came to casting this timeless (no pun intended) character, it was quite an exhaustive process. Michael J. Fox was always their first choice, however, at the time, Fox was filming his hit television series Family Ties and was unable to be released from his contract to shoot the movie. Unfortunately, they could not simply wait until Fox was available, director Robert Zemeckis reflects in an interview:

We were given a mandate, that we had to make the movie by a certain date and if we didn’t make the movie by a certain date, they would cancel the movie.

With their backs up against a wall, they started looking at alternative actors who embodied the qualities they were looking for. It was at this point, that time that was running out and they had to make a decision, so they ended casting Eric Stoltz (Mask, Pulp Fiction, The Rules of Attraction). They shot for five weeks with Eric, citing he was very professional throughout the shoot, but there was just “something missing”, Zemeckis reflects in an interview:

He’s [Stoltz] a magnificent actor but his comedy sensibilities were very different than what I had written with Bob [Gale] and he and I were just never able to make that work.

After showing their initial footage to Spielberg, he was also in agreement and Stoltz was dropped as Marty McFly. Luckily, Zemeckis was able to convince the studio to let them reshoot those five weeks of work. It was then the Zemeckis, and co-writer Bob Gale went back to the creator of Family Ties, Gary Goldberg and pleaded to let them have Fox. To which Goldberg negotiated that if they were happy to accommodate Family Ties always coming first, he would give Fox the script and leave it up to him. Thankfully after Fox was given the script, he described it as “the best thing I ever read”.

The rest. . . is history.

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The Original Marty Was A Bit Too Rough With Biff

After filming for five weeks, it was decided that Eric Stoltz just wasn’t right for the part of Marty McFly. Among his filmed scenes included the hostile altercation in the high school cafeteria between Marty and Thomas F. Wilsons, Biff. Eric Stoltz with his Method approach, apparently took things a little too far, which was later confirmed in the book We Don’t Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy:

Despite repeated requests from Wilson to take it easy, Stoltz didn’t, forcing the heels of his hands into the supporting actor’s collarbone with increasing strength.

Due to Stoltz being dropped from the production, Wilson, unfortunately, never got a chance to get his own back on the actor.

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Claudia Wells Originally Had To Turn Down The Role Of Jennifer

Before auditioning for Back to the Future’s, Jennifer, Claudia Wells had also auditioned for Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), Gremlins (1984) and The Goonies (1985), which were all Amblin productions. For these auditions, it would always come down to Wells and another girl. So, by the time she auditioned for Back to the Future, it was all the same producers from her previous auditions, and she finally got offered the part.

During this time, Wells had just filmed a pilot for ABC called Off the Rack which would have had to be filmed at the same time, but thankfully, the pilot wasn’t picked up. However, after being cast for ‘Back to the Future’, ABC changed their minds and picked up the pilot, meaning Wells had to drop out of the movie and she was replaced.
After Wells filmed the six episodes for the series, this was at the same time Eric Stoltz was replaced by Michael J Fox and they had to re-shoot everything anyway. So much to Wells delight, she was recast as Jennifer. Sadly, Wells would eventually be replaced in the sequel when her mother fell ill and she was unable to return.

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Michael J. Fox Filmed ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Family Ties’ Back-to-Back

When Michael J. Fox joined the production of Back to the Future it was under the condition that his television show at the time, Family Ties, came first. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the business and especially the deadlines, this meant that in most instances, Fox would have to film the two projects back-to-back. Kathleen Kennedy (Executive producer) reflects in an interview:

We literally set up this plan where we had a station wagon in the back and Michael would finish his tapings on the TV show, then he’d get into the station wagon and he’d drive out to the set for night shooting.

In some instances, Fox wouldn’t finish shooting Back to the Future until 4:30/5:00 am, only getting an hours sleep before having to be up to film Family Ties the next day. This meant (a lot of the time) people would have to take him home and literally put him to bed.

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Lea Thompson Spent Three Hours in Make-up

The story is predominately set in 1955 following the lives of young high schoolers AKA Mart McFly’s parents. Due to this, when it came to revisiting these characters in the present day (at the time) of 1985, make-up and prosthetics were required in order to age them.

Although prosthetics were becoming more and more commonly used in the 80s’, Lea Thompson (Lorraine) still had to sit in a make-up chair for three hours when getting the years added to her face. Not only did this pay off in the final product, but Thompson cites even her mother was absolutely terrified when she saw her fifty-something daughter standing in front of her for the first time.

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Three DeLorean’s Were Used For The Movie

As is typical with onset props, cars and things of that nature, there’ll generally be several used during production. Although Marty McFly only has one car at his disposal throughout the movie, during the production, three cars were used for the time-travelling DeLorean.

Car ‘A’ was used for principal photography, it had all the integral parts and gizmos which told parts of the story. Car ‘B’ was used specifically for the actual driving, the stunts and wider shots and had a lot less parts. This was for the simple fact that the camera would never be that close for audience members to notice. Finally, Car ‘C’ was used for interior shots and was sawn apart in the relevant places to accommodate the cameras.

Michael J. Fox recalls his memories for the car/cars in an interview, which weren’t the fondest:

I gotta tell ya, I hated that car, I really hated it. You had that friggin’ sharp metal box that, you know, I just went like that and just jam my knuckles and I just ripped my hand up, and also it limited the gears, so it would only be low gears and I’d be revving high at low gears and thinking that it was gonna crap out.

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The Movie Almost Had A Ridiculous Title

Although Back to the Future fits in with the movies aesthetic perfectly and looking back now it’s hard to believe it could be called anything else, this was very nearly the case.

At the time studio executive Sid Sheinberg loved the script, but the one thing he was less than impressed with, was the title. So, he proceeded to send a memo to executive producer Steven Spielberg expressing his concerns. Sheinberg suggested a title which (he felt) had “heat, originality, and projects fun”. . . Space Man From Pluto (yes, really).

Even though there was no way Spielberg was going to let that title anywhere near their movie, he was able to veto the suggestion without hurting Sheinberg’s feelings. Simply writing the following response:

Hi Sid, thanks for your most humorous memo, we all got a big laugh out of it, keep ‘em coming.

Unsurprisingly, they did not receive any more title suggestions from Sheinberg.

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