Lea Thompson Explains Why She Didn’t Want to Like Michael J. Fox Before Meeting Him: ‘I Specifically Remember Being Really Snooty’

To see the cast of Back to the future trilogy get together these days, you might assume they’ve always been the closest of friends, and that’s largely true. Once they met, they all had great love and admiration for each other, but by his own admission, Lea Thompson was actually a very tough nut to crack when it came to meeting his co-star Michael J. Fox.

During a recent interview on Hollywood here again podcast (via CinemaBlend), Thompson, who played Lorraine McFly in all three Back to the future movies and Maggie McFly Part IIIshe reminded host Steve Kmetko that she “probably” didn’t get along with Fox right away.

This was partly due to the fact that she was friends with the actor Eric Stoltzwho was originally supposed to play Marty McFly, but was fired after the director and co-writer Roberto Zemeckis he felt he wasn’t right for the role after all, even though he had shot several scenes for the film. Thompson moved on two years after the first Back to the future the film will begin alongside Stoltz in the classic 1987 teen romantic drama Kind of wonderful.

In addition to her friend being kicked off the project, Thompson shared that she despised Fox for another reason:

“I specifically remember being really snooty because at that point there was a big divide between movie stars and TV stars. I remember thinking, “He’s just a TV star and I’m a movie star.” I was in Jaws 3D.’ So, I think it took me a while to get used to him, but he was so funny and it was fun to act with him.”

Fox famously became a household name while starring in the beloved series Family ties. Anyone who watched an episode of that show would know that Fox was immensely talented. He had such great comedic timing, it makes sense that he became a huge star. This was why he was always the studio’s first choice to play Marty McFly, but was replaced by Stoltz when Fox’s television schedule seemed impossible to get around. Once reconnected, he was able to strike a deal that allowed him to make both his show and hit movie.

Despite her initial coldness towards Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson believed that recasting Marty McFly would improve Back to the futuresuccessful, reasoning that the filmmakers had to know what they were doing due to how expensive it was to change actors at this point in the creative process. The actress also said:

“You know, everyone always wants to say, ‘Oh, wasn’t that fun?’ You know, that’s what people want to hear. And it was a lot of… it was a lot of pressure, and it was a scary deal, especially after they fired Eric Stoltz. You were like, “This is not a fun game.” deal and, you know, a big deal.’“

In the end it all worked out and luckily Fox showed Thompson that he was not only the right person for the job, but also a really nice guy.