Marty McFly spoke about his support of research for Parkinson’s and his off-screen relationship with Doc Brown as he made a surprise visit to the Sundance Film Festival this week. McFly actor Michael J. Fox was there to speak about his latest project, a documentary based on his career and life with Parkinson’s. The documentary is based on a 2020 memoir titled “No Time Like The Future.”
After the screening of Fox’s “Still: A Michael J Fox Story” he received a standing ovation. He was later celebrated for having helped raise over $2 billion for research into the life-altering, ultimately life-ending, disease.
“That number, as impressive as it is, kind of in a way pisses me off, because I thought that we’d be done with it by now,” Fox said of the pursuit of treatments and a cure. “But science is hard.”
But he wasn’t all doom and gloom. Fox acknowledged progress has been made and will continue to be made in the future.
“People say, ‘But that will be after your time, are you OK with that?'” Fox asked of himself before answering his own question.
“Sh– yeah,” he said. “That would be great. Just get it done. I don’t care if I’m on the bus.”
Few people now know or remember that Fox was never supposed to be the star of the blockbuster series that launched his career into the stratosphere. The Robert Zemeckis-directed movie initially starred Eric Stoltz and had essentially wrapped up filming before Fox was added to the set.
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Zemeckis screened early versions and was displeased with how the lead actor portrayed his vision of Marty McFly. And the rest is history.
Fox spoke about how he and Doc Brown actor Christopher Lloyd are now extremely close, but that building their chemistry took some time, especially because they hardly worked with one another for the first movie. It really took all three films to bring them together.
“Chris is a great guy. He’s very enigmatic,” Fox said. “It took me a few films to get to know him. On ‘Back to the Future Part III’ we connected in a way we hadn’t on the other films. I came to see how much he loved acting. I never got that before.”
Fox late praised Lloyd for his versatility and range as an actor, saying, “To sit down and talk about acting and talk about Shakespeare and ‘King Lear’ … This guy can play King Lear! People don’t expect that of him. He’s full of surprises.”
“He can tell a movie’s worth of story in two seconds, and you get it. Us regular actors have to lay out hours and hours to get the information out,” Fox went on. “Chris is brilliant at it. His love of film and his love of being an actor. He’s not just a crazy guy, he’s an artist.”
Filmed on a budget of just $19 million, the original Back to the Future film went on to earn over $400 million at the box office and spun off two successful sequels. It even earned some Academy Awards nominations, winning one.
The movie won for best sound effects editing and carried a nomination for its original song by Huey Lewis and The News.