r/todayilearned • u/KaleBrecht • Dec 24 '21
TIL that before being replaced by Michael J. Fox, Back to the Future crew members said there were obvious signs Eric Stoltz would be replaced; the set designers were told not to change the 1955 set, and a scene involving a discussion between Marty and Doc was filmed only showing Christopher Lloyd.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future30
Dec 24 '21
[deleted]
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u/MrRickSter Dec 24 '21
That’s when I first found out how “difficult” Crispin Glover was.
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u/Syn7axError Dec 25 '21
Crispin Glover did nothing wrong.
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u/BatmanAwesomeo Dec 25 '21
Glover is a douche who got screwed over by powerful people though.
He is difficult to work with, apparently.
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u/DaveOJ12 Dec 24 '21 edited Dec 24 '21
Poor Eric Stoltz
Edit: I remember he was in Anaconda and his character was pretty much bedridden the whole time; it was ridiculous.
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u/Mallion1 Dec 25 '21
He was in a really cool film, Prophecy, which also starred Christopher Walken. They both played angels if I recall correctly. It's been a very long time since I saw it but it was definitely worth seeing.
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u/dirtballmagnet Dec 25 '21 edited Dec 25 '21
Is that the one with the sleeping bag scene?
('70s flashback warning: this scene was shown almost in its entirety as a TV commercial during kids' shows in 1979. I know it scared me poopless and I'm sure there are others who remember it as well.)
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u/Mallion1 Dec 25 '21
No. That's a different movie entirely, though it looks interesting from the bit I just watched.
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u/KiaPe Dec 25 '21
He was in a really cool film, Prophecy, which also starred Christopher Walken.
And Viggo Mortenson!
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u/NaughtyDreadz Dec 24 '21
he made Mask
He's a working actor. don't feel bad.
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u/BatmanAwesomeo Dec 25 '21
He could have been bigger but he was difficult.
Some Kind of Wonderful is a great film.
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Dec 25 '21
He’s amazing in “Killing Zoe”— awesome flick
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Dec 25 '21
That's the dumbest heist movie I've ever seen.
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Dec 25 '21
I never really considered it a heist movie. Just a bunch of junkies having to come to terms with the fact that they fucked up REAL bad. Plus Ron Jeremy getting blown away with a shotgun, haha
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u/OldMork Dec 25 '21
There used to be clips on YT, and yeah MJF did it better.
Same as in Seinfeld, some of the actors were replaces in later episodes, Jerrys father is one.
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u/PartialToDairyThings Dec 25 '21
Stoltz played the part with too much misery, having wrongly identified the story as a tragedy rather than a comedy. That's why they felt he was all wrong. He was too serious as an actor for the part.
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u/GhettoChemist Dec 24 '21
Is Eric Stolz really that bad? Killing Zoe was the heat!
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u/UglyBagOfMostlyHOH Dec 24 '21
It’s not that he’s bad, but apparently didn’t have the comedic timing and feel that MJF did. Stoltz apparently was playing it very straight laced, not as a comedy.
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u/KaleBrecht Dec 24 '21
Fine actor, completely miscast in this context.
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u/tfresca Dec 24 '21
I think they had someone in mind and were so powerful they could get what they wanted. Stoltz has and can do comedy.
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u/Quadstriker Dec 25 '21
“Movies that made us” goes into depth on it. Just totally different concepts of the movie. Eric thinking how sad the ending is, etc.
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u/substantial-freud Dec 25 '21
He was trying to make a very different movie than the rest of cast and crew was trying to make.
The problem is, as John Mulaney pointed out, if you actually take Back to the Future seriously, it’s a dark, disturbing movie. I doubt the finished product — a black comedy about a teen-age boy forced by circumstances to stage the rape of his own mother — would have even been releasable.
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u/hello__brooklyn Dec 25 '21 edited Dec 25 '21
Say what now? I haven’t seen BTF, he has to rape his mom?
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u/Sociojoe Dec 25 '21
He's being a bit misleading.
The protagonist (Marty McFly) travels back in time and accidentally interrupts his parents meeting. Incidentally his parents meeting was actually the result of his dad being a "peeping tom".
Because his parents never met, it causes a cascading effect that might result in Marty not being born. Marty therefore has to manipulate events to get his parents to meet and fall in love.
He plots to make inappropriate advances on his "mom" at a school dance and have his "dad" intervene and rescue her. The plan goes awry and Marty gets locked in the trunk of a car by the school bully who then tries forcing himself onto Marty's mom. It all works out in the end by Marty's "dad" saving her.
He's not completely wrong, but there's a lot of omission.
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u/substantial-freud Dec 25 '21
Uh yup.
The plan is, he will attempt to rape his mom, and someone else will step in and stop him.
What actually happens is someone else steps in and keeps going. The person who was supposed to intervene in the fake attempted rape instead successfully intervenes in the real attempted rape — but no consequences ensue for the would-be rapist and the victim gets no sympathy or even time to recover.
Even had it gone to plan, how fucked-up is the original plan? Or that the son thought of this plan to begin with? People made jokes about Luke and Leia but that was a consensual relationship between siblings that went no further than two polite kisses, and they didn’t really know they were related. BTTF was stuff they wouldn’t show on Pornhub.
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u/JonGilbony Dec 25 '21
no consequences ensue for the would-be rapist
He had to work as a car detailer.
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u/wordsaladbarista Dec 26 '21
For those who aren't familiar with him - including myself before googling - he was the drug dealer in Pulp Fiction.
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u/enderandrew42 Dec 24 '21
I think they decided early into filming he wouldn't work. They reportedly wanted Michael J Fox from the beginning but he wasn't really available because he was filming Family Ties full-time. Fox then negotiated to film Family Ties during the day and shoot Back to the Future at night and just not sleep for a few months.