Back To The Future: Michael J. Fox & Christopher Lloyd Reunion

Back To The Future stars Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd were reunited at this year’s Comic Con, in a Q&A with an excited audience. The pair looked back on their friendship over the decades since the release of the iconic 1985 film trilogy, and covered a host of topics.

Back To The Future

Fox and Lloyd first met at the beginning of 1985, when the teenage character of Marty McFly was given to Michael J. Fox – after filming had already begun with actor Eric Stoltz. Several weeks into shooting the first movie, it was decided that the characterisation of McFly just wasn’t working out with Stoltz, and he was replaced with Fox.

As reported by AV Club, Christopher Lloyd described this strange time re-shooting the film with Michael J. Fox:

“I didn’t know Michael other than hearing about him, and I felt that I had barely made it through the six weeks, and now I was going to have to do it again? There was immediate chemistry, as they say.”

The pair clearly have a lot of affection for one another, with Fox describing Lloyd’s talent, calling him:

“The king of exposition. No one wants to do exposition because it’s boring…The freaking thing is you retain it all, because he’s just so good at it, and he’s brilliantly entertaining… I would be like, ‘I gotta watch my ass, because this guy will blow me off the screen.’”

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The conversation varied at the iconic session. Although the pair will always be ‘Marty and Doc’ to fans, Fox and Lloyd share a host of esteemed artistic accomplishments between them; Christopher Lloyd is a classically trained Shakespearean actor, while Michael J. Fox improved his guitar practice prior to the first Back To The Future film and mimed the notes and fingerings to such a good level that he actually played guitar in his 1987 film Light of Day.

Covering both light and more serious topics, Lloyd admitted that he’d stolen one of the Western shirts he’d worn in Back To The Future Part III, before the subject of Parkinson’s disease was discussed – Michael J. Fox has publicly battled the conditioned since his diagnosis in 1991. He has continued to act, and is responsible for founding the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which is committed to researching the disease and finding a cure – to date the foundation has raised over $1 billion for research programs. The actor explained:

“Parkinson’s is the gift that keeps on taking – but it’s a gift, and I wouldn’t change it for anything… People like Chris have been there a lot for me, and so many of you have. It’s not about what I have, it’s about what I’ve been given – the voice to get this done, and help people out.”

Back To The Future: The Musical

Following the pandemic closures in UK theatre, Back To The Future: The Musical managed to reopen on London’s West End, to great acclaim in the last year. The show has been so well-received that it is set to launch on Broadway in 2023. Fox and Lloyd were asked what they thought of the Olivier Award-winning musical theatre interpretation, and they praised the show, with Fox saying:

“They could have fallen into a trap imitating us, but they made the characters fully realized on their own. I’m gonna go when I come to New York.”

Ending the Q&A session, the duo were asked to impart a piece of advice to the audience. Christopher Lloyd is reported to have raised the roof, urging us all to remember the trilogy’s wise final message:

“It was said once in a movie — the future is what you make it.”

Also by Michelle Sciarrotta: