Back to the Future icon admits ‘friction’ with co-star on set of 80s film

Back to the Future star Michael J Fox has revealed which co-star he clashed with on the set of the 80s classic.

The actor, 64, who played Marty McFly in the iconic sci-fi film, said that George McFly actor Crispin Glover created tension behind the scenes.

Despite knowing Glover, 61, who played his father in Back to the Future, ahead of shooting, he was not ‘prepared to act with him’ as he never ‘did the same thing the same way twice.’

Glover’s ideas as to how his character should come across differed from director Robert Zemeckis and the wider film crew, which caused tension on set.

In his new memoir, Future Boy, as reported by The Independent, Fox continued: ‘Nobody puts Crispin in a box, but that didn’t prevent the camera crew from literally building a box around him.

‘As George McFly, Crispin had his own ideas as to how and where his character should move.’

The Teen Wolf star said Glover strayed from his mark during a scene they shot together, which led the crew to go to unique lengths to keep him on track.

‘As Crispin approached the camera, he was meant to stay in a lane between the clothesline and me. But Crispin had a different plan,’ he wrote.

‘My guess is that he saw George as a wanderer, a free spirit who travelled in random patterns – in this case, perpendicular to the camera.’

To tackle the problem, the crew made ‘a miniature corral of sandbags and C-stands’ to keep Glover in place.

But despite the chaos, Fox said that he ‘loved’ working with Glover, heaping praise on the esteemed actor.

‘His talent was unquestionable, although his methods sometimes created friction. Still, I respected how he remained true to George (as he understood and embodied him),’ he added.

Glover did not return to the franchise for the 1989 and 1990 sequels, instead being replaced by Jeffrey Weissman.

In 2023, Glover slammed the franchise for carrying ‘a bad message’.

‘I had a conversation with Robert Zemeckis about it, and I said, “I think if the characters have money [in the updated timeline at the end of the film] if our characters are rich, it’s a bad message. That reward should not be in there”,’ he told AV Club.

‘People love the movie, and of course, who am I to say — I was 20 years old, though. And again, I was stepping into it from a time period of questioning. But Robert Zemeckis got really angry. Essentially, he did not like that idea. He was p****d.’

He continued: ‘I still would argue all the things that people love about the film would still be there, and I think there would be a better message if, instead of the son character pumping his fist in the air or whatever, jumping up in the air because he has a new truck [in the new timeline], if instead, the reward was that the mother and father characters are in love with each other.

‘And that there’s the potential that money comes in. I think [equating their new riches with moral success] is a bad message. And this is aligned to those things in film that I’m saying serve the interests of a corporate element.’

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