In his new memoir, Michael J. Fox reveals why he doesn’t remember the end of filming “Back to the Future“.
In “Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum”, the 64-year-old Fox shares how he landed the role of Marty McFly and the exhausting marathon he had to endure to star in the first film of the franchise.
Fox was the producers’ first choice — including Steven Spielberg — but there was one issue: at the time, Fox was starring in the hit sitcom “Family Ties.” Because of this scheduling conflict, the filmmakers initially hired Eric Stoltz to play the young man who is accidentally transported back to the 1950s.
Fox recalls that Gary David Goldberg, the show’s creator, wasn’t thrilled about the idea of Fox taking on another project but eventually agreed — as long as the actor’s work as Alex P. Keaton on “Family Ties” wasn’t affected.
The actor explains that he ended up working double shifts: filming the sitcom during the day at Paramount Studios, then heading straight to Universal at night to work on “Back to the Future,” leaving little time for rest.
For three months, he lived a whirlwind routine, filming both the NBC sitcom and the now-classic movie simultaneously. Fox says that’s why he has no memory of the final day on set.
“Let me tell you what I remember from that last day: nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Zero. Nothing,” Fox wrote in his book. “When we wrapped, I was too exhausted to look for any signs of greatness.”
“Back to the Future” became the highest-grossing film of 1985, spending nearly three months atop the box office and spawning two sequels. The franchise has since grossed over $1 billion worldwide.
Images: NBC, Universal, Flatiron Books. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
