.jpg?width=660)
Any fan or non-fan of the Back to the Future franchise would know that Marty McFly was not supposed to be Michael J. Fox's spotlight.
Initially, Pulp Fiction's Eric Stoltz was cast to play Marty, only to be replaced by Fox. But the 40-year-old alleged beef between them turned out to be a hoax.
What Really Happened to Eric Stoltz After Being Recast in Back to the Future?
In Fox's new memoir, called Future Boy, he wrote a letter to Eric Stoltz under a request to finally meet with him, 40 years after he replaced Stoltz's Marty McFly in the blockbuster.
According to the infamous story behind the recast, Stoltz was already in production for six weeks under Robert Zemeckis's direction. The replacement didn't happen out of the blue; it came from the director's decision himself.
Zemeckis, as detailed in the memoir, booted Stoltz out of production due to his commitment to the NBC sitcom, Family Ties. As Fox said in the memoir, "Eric was an immensely talented actor, but the creative team felt that he just wasn't the right fit for Marty McFly."
"Eric had maintained his silence on the subject for 40 years, so I was prepared for the likelihood that he'd prefer to keep it that way," Fox wrote in the memoir (via Entertainment Weekly), noting that they had never come face-to-face to discuss the recast. So, Fox wrote to him: "If your answer is 'pi** off and leave me alone'... That works, too."
Kidding aside, Fox was hopeful they would at least get the chance to clear things up between them, especially considering the decades that have passed. Wouldn't you know it? Stoltz responded in an unexpected way.
How Did Michael J. Fox and Eric Stoltz Meet After the Recast Thing, 40 Years Later?
.jpg?width=700&quality=10&blur=40)
There's a reason why Marty McFly came down between these two: they had the same humor.
With a jest, referencing Fox's last words, Stoltz responded: "Piss o** and leave me alone! I jest... Eric was thoughtful about my outreach, and although he respectfully declined to participate in the book, he seemed open to the idea of getting together."
Afterward, the two actors did meet each other in the same room. Almost in the same breath, they "immediately fell into an easy dialogue about our careers, families, and yes, our own trips through the space-time continuum," Fox wrote, noting that "neither of us had an issue with the other" and that Back to the Future had "not made us enemies or fated rivals."
Their little reunion can be summarized with this one line: "As it turned out, we had much more in common than our spin as Marty."
Keep it locked on Epicstream.com, the best source for film, TV, and celebrity coverage!