‘Back to Future’ Cast Sets Record Straight on Eric Stoltz Firing
What To Know
- The cast of Back to the Future reunited and discussed Eric Stoltz’s original casting as Marty McFly, noting his serious Method acting approach did not fit the film’s tone.
- Donald Fullilove and Claudia Wells recalled Stoltz staying in character off-set, with Wells sharing anecdotes about Stoltz insisting on being called “Marty” even outside filming.
- After several weeks and significant costs filming with Stoltz, the production switched to Michael J. Fox, whose lighter performance and faster shooting pace were embraced by the cast and crew.
When cast members from 1985’s Back to the Future reunited at the Hollywood Show in Burbank, California, on January 10, 2026, they weighed in on one of the internet’s favorite topics: the time Eric Stoltz spent on the film as the original Marty McFly.
Stoltz — who had previously starred in the hit 1985 film Mask with Cher — shot several weeks of footage for Back to the Future before director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg realized they wanted Michael J. Fox to take the role in a more lighthearted direction. And according to cast members Donald Fullilove, Claudia Wells, and others, that might have been the right move — they recalled Stoltz using Method acting to tackle the role of Marty McFly, staying in character off-set, and otherwise bringing a seriousness to the role that didn’t quite mesh.
“Eric Stoltz … [is] telling me that I have to call him ‘Marty'”
ReMIND Magazine
The hilarious Donald Fullilove (pictured center), who played Mayor Goldie Wilson, took us back to the first day on set, where he gave big props to craft food services (“those were the biggest shrimp that I had ever seen in my life”), and recalled his first day shooting with Stoltz.
“This is the weirdest thing of my life. There’s Spielberg right there. And I’m dealing with this Eric Stoltz and he’s telling me that I have to call him Marty, and I’m running around and calling everybody by their real names, I’m just happy to be there,” Fullilove tells. “[We made the cut and in] two to four weeks, it was over. The shrimp were gone. It was close to Christmas, and I was a little depressed because I was on a big film and I had already spent the money that I had been paid.”
Then came what Fulliove described as his favorite moment of the film: “When they called me and said we’re going to do it again with Michael J. Fox.”
The same scenes that took four weeks to originally shoot with Stoltz were completed in about 73 hours with Fox, Fullilove recalled. “They had burned through millions and millions of dollars with Eric Stoltz so now it was like do or die time, and we did. But I didn’t have to call him Marty. I called him Mike. I called him J Fox. I called him Alex [reference to Alex Keaton from Family Ties].”
Stoltz stayed in character off-set, too
ReMIND Magazine
Claudia Wells, who played Marty McFly’s girlfriend Jennifer Parker, said Stoltz, a Method actor, used to call her house in preparation for the film.
“My mother would answer the phone, and he would say, ‘I’d like to speak to Jennifer, please.’ And my sister’s name is Jennifer, and she was living in San Francisco when we lived in Los Angeles. And my mother would say, ‘May I ask who’s calling please?’ And he would say, ‘Marty McFly.’
“And my mother was like, ‘Claudia, I think it’s that actor who was playing your boyfriend. Just come on the phone.’ And I’d be like, ‘Hello.’ And he’d be like, ‘Hey, it’s Marty.’ And I’d say, ‘Oh, hi, Eric. I mean, Marty,’ because he and I had actually taken acting class with Stella Adler when he first came to LA to be an actor.”
Wells took publicity photos with Stoltz but never filmed with him.
“Everybody knew that they had something super special once Michael signed up for the film”
Fox: MCA/Universal Pictures/Courtesy: Everett Collection Stoltz: Universal Pictures via MovieStillsDB
“There was a little bit of buzz going on because Eric Stoltz had just done the film Mask and received a lot of recognition for that part,” Johnny Green, who played Scooter Boy #1, recalls. “So, I had been excited to work with him, but it was two weeks of shooting the skateboard scene … a slow pace, nothing too exciting. Eric was a very dramatic actor. It was fun. It was cool.”
But, Green remembered, “One night I was sitting in my living room watching television, probably watching Family Ties. And the phone rings, I hear my mom answer the phone and she says, ‘Wait, what? You want him back? But this time with Michael J. Fox,’ and she’s like, ‘OK he’ll be there.’”
Green was a HUGE Alex P. Keaton fan. He’d even wear ties to school mimicking his idol, and said he’d get beat up for it, but he didn’t care. He was bouncing off the walls when he heard the news.
View this post on Instagram
“We show up to the set. I’m on fire. I’m so excited to meet my idol. It was surreal. It was like being on cloud nine when you’re 8 years old. And we start doing the skateboard tricks and start getting into the scene and Michael’s just electric energy. It was like catching lightning in a bottle.
“At that point, going back to the set, everybody on the set knew that they had something super special once Michael had signed up for the film. When it came time for Michael to pick me up off the scooter — I’m just like a little guy, maybe 80 pounds at that point — and he picks me up and we start playing, he’s throwing me around. I mean, it literally felt like Superman was picking me up. That’s how it felt. A very impactful time of my life.”
Did any Eric Stoltz scenes make it into Back to the Future?
ReMIND Magazine
Author, historian, publicist and star Michael Klastorin (pictured standing above), who wrote the book Back to the Future: The Official Book of the Complete Movie Trilogy, noted that rumors of Eric Stoltz being in the diner scene or it being Eric’s fist that punches Biff in the dining room have swirled on social media for a long time.
Klastorin confirmed that yes, Eric Stoltz is in the film — but it’s NOT in the diner.
Klastorin noted that he was friends with Harry Keramidas, one of two editors on the film. “And I said, ‘Harry, is Eric Stoltz still in the film somewhere?’ And he said, ‘Yes, he is. It’s not the diner. But I’m not going to tell you where it is. I’m not going to tell anyone where it is.’ So that secret is going with Harry. Nothing of Eric Stoltz was in that diner.”
Does Eric Stoltz get paid residuals?
If there is a scene from Stoltz’s time on set used in the final film, it stands to reason that he’d be paid some of the film’s enormous profits. But it’s not so: “He was paid to leave, but nothing else,” Klastorin says. “No residuals, or any of that stuff.” For an actor to get paid there has to be a discernible part of their body in the film.
Stoltz, clearly went on to many critically acclaimed and beloved films including 1987’s Some Kind of Wonderful where he starred opposite Back to the Future star Lea Thompson, 1989’s Say Anything, Fast Times at Ridgement High, Memphis Belle and so many others. His latest project, currently in post production, is the horror film The Autopsy of Albert Kemper.
Do you feel like you know which Stoltz scene made it to the final film? Let us know in the comments!
Remind 
1980s Top Summer Blockbusters
July 2019
Celebrate the biggest summer movies of the ’80s, when moviegoing morphed from mere entertainment to blockbuster events.
Buy This Issue