Key Points
Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox recounted in his new memoir about the making of the film, Future Boy, how his replacing Eric Stoltz six weeks into production led to another recasting.
Melora Hardin, who’d already shot a number of scenes as protagonist Marty McFly’s girlfriend Jennifer Parker, was ultimately recast by Claudia Wells after being deemed too tall for Fox.
“Bob Zemeckis thought perhaps the audience could look past our height difference, but when he quickly surveyed the female members of the crew, they assured him that the tall pretty girl in high school rarely picks the cute short guy,” Fox wrote.
Hollywood can be brutal. Sometimes you lose a promising part in an upcoming film because you’re deemed the wrong fit, but you can even lose your part because your scene partner is deemed the wrong fit.
Melora Hardin, the future star of The Office, found herself on the wrong end of such a casting decision after she’d already shot weeks of footage for the 1985 sci-fi comedy classic Back to the Future. Franchise star Michael J. Fox recounted the series of dominoes that fell, eventually toppling Hardin’s chance at her first big break, in his new memoir of the making of the film, Future Boy.
“My goal as a child was self-preservation. Bullies often ridiculed my height, an easy target. I suffered the indignity of short jokes and prejudice against my smallness,” he wrote. Fox found that his diminutive stature “worked in my favor when I was a teenage actor playing a younger kid, but it turned against me as an adult, when I went up for romantic leads opposite taller actresses.”
That sword proved to be double-edged, however, when Fox replaced Eric Stoltz as the lead in Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg’s time-traveling romp six weeks into production. Suddenly, it wasn’t Fox who was too short, but Hardin, cast to play protagonist Marty McFly’s girlfriend Jennifer Parker, who was too tall.
Universal
Elisabeth Shue in ‘Back to the Future Part II’
“I regret that this prejudice inadvertently affected another cast member in Back to the Future – Melora Hardin, the talented actress who had played Marty’s girlfriend, Jennifer, opposite the perfectly tall Eric Stoltz,” Fox explained. “Melora, several inches taller than me, was replaced in the movie after I took over as Marty. Initially, Bob Zemeckis thought perhaps the audience could look past our height difference, but when he quickly surveyed the female members of the crew, they assured him that the tall pretty girl in high school rarely picks the cute short guy.”
Though he’d won one of the most coveted roles of the year among younger leading men, Fox, primarily known as the conservative wise guy Alex P. Keaton on the the NBC sitcom Family Ties, wasn’t yet regarded as a true star. “No one asked for my opinion, but I would have risen to Melora’s defense,” he lamented.
Hardin was ultimately replaced by Claudia Wells, Zemeckis’ first choice for the role, and Wells was replaced by Elisabeth Shue in Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III. So Hardin’s breakout was delayed — but not for long. A role in the core cast of the short-lived Dirty Dancing TV series eventually led to memorable parts in series like Cover Me, Monk, and the series that would provide her signature role, The Office.
The actress has revisited her Back to the Future sliding doors moment in the past. Earlier this year on The Joe Vulpis Podcast, Hardin explained that “everyone knew” her casting in the film was “a big deal,” as she had signed up for a two-picture deal, which guaranteed a spot in any subsequent sequel, depending on the film’s success.
“I went and did some promotional pictures and stuff. And then [weeks] into filming, they fired Eric and brought in Michael J. Fox,” she recalled. “When they did that, it was apparently the two female executives at the time that thought that it was emasculating for their lead character male to be in scenes with a woman that was taller than him.”
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Though Hardin has come to accept the executives’ decision due to the pressures of the era (“The ’80s was a really really hard time for women to be executives — I think they felt that they had to think in a masculine way because that was what was running Hollywood.”), it wasn’t easy to accept at the outset of her career. “At the time, at 17 years old, that was crushing for me, and very, very upsetting. Whatever! If I had done it, I’m sure it would have all gone in a different way. I wouldn’t have done The Office.”
Justin Lubin/NBCU Photo Bank Jenna Fischer, Melora Hardin, and Steve Carell on ‘The Office’
Wells too has reflected on the rounds of casting musical chairs that led to her finally stepping in as Back to the Future‘s Jennifer.
“When I had to let it go, I had no qualms. And normally, if I didn’t get a part that I wanted, I would have a lot of anxiety. But for some reason, I just felt a sense of peace,” Wells told PEOPLE in 2015. The actress was initially sought for the role, but turned it down due to a prior commitment to the 1984 series Off the Rack.
By the time Fox replaced Stoltz, and producers went looking for a new Jennifer, however, the series had wrapped, leaving Wells free to reconsider. “I’m 5’3½”, and Michael’s 5’4″, so I got my part back! How cool is that? It’s absolutely fate.”
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