Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. A little bit ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson to talk a little bit about one of the finest sci-fi franchises of all time, which just so happens to be all the rage right now as it celebrates its 30th anniversary.
Back to the Future is a big deal for kids of my generation and a big deal to kids today. I recently took my 8 year old nephew to a triple feature screening of all three and he nerded out just as hard as I did at his age. This movie still talks to kids and those young at heart and I expect it will for generations to come.
In my limited time with Mr. Lloyd and Ms. Thompson I covered everything from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to crazy Back to the Future fan theories. Lloyd especially perked up when it came to talking about his work in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It’s a fun chat. Give it a read below:
Quint: We’re here to talk Back to the Future, which is awesome, but I wanted to start by asking Christopher another one of my favorite films: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I know that was very early on in your career…
Christopher Lloyd: It was my first film.
Lea Thompson: What a nice way to start!
Quint: How amazing of an experience that must have been for you. Even though your character is small the way the story is set up you’re in almost every scene, even if it’s just in the background somewhere. Do you have any memories of that experience?
Christopher Lloyd: I wanted to do film. I was living in New York and working in theater, but I always wanted to do film. I did so many interviews and auditions for films and it was just zilch. Nothing I did impressed anybody! I could just feel it. It was always “Okay, thank you, Mr. Lloyd.”
Then out of the blue Cuckoo’s Nest came to cast. A casting director who sent me up for different things over the years sent me up for that and it just clicked. I was blown away, just so excited.
Quint: You weren’t offended after all those years trying someone finally said “You’re great… as a crazy person!”
Christopher Lloyd: I felt no offense at all. (laughs)
Quint: I don’t mean to leave you out, Lea. As a kid I was also obsessed with Space Camp and Howard the Duck.
Lea Thompson: Not quite Cuckoo’s Nest…
Quint: Everybody knows that Back to the Future II and III were shot back to back, an unheard of move back then. I’d like to talk about the time before that, though. When the first movie wrapped you guys had to know that a sequel was being set up. Did the Bobs tell you anything about their plans on where the series was going to go?
Lea Thompson: They didn’t negotiate sequels with us. They didn’t think about it. That was kind of a last minute thing. I’m sure never again has Universal not negotiated for sequels, but they didn’t think they were going to make another one.
Christopher Lloyd: Yeah, I had no expectation that was going to happen.
Lea Thompson: Once it was a hit, I guess maybe we thought there would be, but it was a few years, wasn’t it?
Christopher Lloyd: It was a two year gap.
Quint: Did you guys ever talk amongst yourselves about where the story might go? Because the movie still ends with a tease about needing to right a wrong in the future.
Christopher Lloyd: I remember having thoughts about it. There were maybe other people that were thinking about it, but…
Lea Thompson: Yeah, if they had known they were going to do a sequel they wouldn’t have put Jennifer in the car. That was always a big problem for them. They had to knock her out and stick her on a porch for the whole movie!
I was just hoping that I would be in it because there was the whole thing with Crispin (Glover, who was not asked to return to the role of George McFly). I just hoped they’d figure out a way to put me in it. I was lucky because it was a great part and I got to do a lot of great stuff in Back to the Future II.
Christopher Lloyd: This is a little bit off topic, but I did a lot of workshops in New York, off-off-off-off and further off-Broadway. And somehow in all of them someone would come in with the rumor that they heard “we’re going uptown.” That happened so many times and of course nothing would happen.
Lea Thompson: And that’s what happened with Back to the Future. “We might be going uptown!”And it happened!
Quint: I think Back to the Future Part II is an incredibly smart sequel. I like how they layered the action over the events of the first movie. Both of you get to play off echoes of what you’ve done before, Lorraine in particular. You have to do the same scene in many different ways throughout the trilogy. Was it difficult for you to try to bring something new and unique each time you woke Marty up?
Lea Thompson: You know what? The characters were delineated so beautifully. Lorraine in Back to the Future II with the boobs… that was so specific and so dark! Bob Zemeckis still thinks it’s one of the darkest movies he’s ever made.
It was hard to recreate the prom without Crispin. That was really weird. I didn’t like that very much. Also, to get in that dress again… (laughs).
Quint: Christopher, you’ve worked with Bob Zemeckis a bit and he always seems to cast you as really zany characters. Doc Brown and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit both seem to have a screw loose in some way. As an actor do you like playing the crazier character more than the straight man?
Christopher Lloyd: Judge Doom is such an evil cartoon! It was just such fun to do. I liked the whole mystique of it: the long cape, the glasses and all that stuff. You grow up with horror films as a kid and it all seemed to be embodied in that one guy. It was fun.
Lea Thompson: I think it’s the mark of a very, very great actor to be able to play such a big character and still make it feel real. I recently had the privilege of watching Back to the Future with an orchestra and I really got to appreciate your work from a completely different perspective, even as a director, because he has such giant stuff to do. That whole last sequence where you’re screaming and stretching time… They stretch this second for, like, 5 minutes! I was like, no one could do that! It takes a great actor, a great trained actor, like him to play those kinds of characters.
It’s not naturalistic. It’s like, “Oh, really? You’re just going to mumble through that?” No. He screams through it and you love it! You’re a genius.
Christopher Lloyd: Thank you, thank you.
Lea Thompson: Star Trek, as well.
Christopher Lloyd: One of the things I like and appreciate a lot is when somebody will come up to me and tell me how much Judge Doom terrified them as little children when he takes the shoe and puts it in the dip. They were literally scared out of their minds. I love that.
Quint: You love traumatizing children is what you’re saying.
Christopher Lloyd: Well, I remember when I was a kid seeing the first Disney films, like in Bambi… there were wolves, I think and there was a moose that was really scary. In Snow White there was that witch. I remember being horrified as a kid, so I feel like it’s kinda like payback! (laughs) I don’t feel sorry for them at all!
Quint: I want to wrap up talking a little bit about fan theories. You must have Back to the Future fans coming up to you guys all the time with some crazy theories. One of my favorites is that Marty actually died in the tunnel in Back to the Future II, that Biff ran him down. Because Doc suddenly comes out of nowhere and rescues him at the last minute. The theory is that he died and Doc went back to save him. Do you guys ever hear stuff like that from fans?
Christopher Lloyd: I kind of remember that there is a little mystery as to how Doc knows he’s in the tunnel, but I never thought about it. I just thought it was the magic of time. I had no theories.
Lea Thompson: But it’s cool that people think about it in such an intricate way. It’s neat that they care that much and enjoy it. But you know what? Bob Zemeckis is really smart. He might have slipped some crazy stuff in there. You never know.
Quint: Thank you both very much for your time. I appreciate it.
Christopher Lloyd: You’re welcome.
Lea Thompson: Thanks.
You guys have no idea how much restraint I exercised by not bombarding Lea Thompson with Howard the Duck questions. Hope you guys enjoyed the chat as it was. I could have spent the whole time just grilling Lloyd on his One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest experience, but you work with the time you got.
To commemorate the 30th Anniversary Universal just released a new Blu-Ray package that includes a Flux Capacitor. How great is that? It’s available right now.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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