Christopher Lloyd Almost Passed On Back to the Future

Christopher Lloyd reveals he almost turned down the iconic role of Doc Brown in the Back to the Future franchise. The first film was released in 1985 and became an immediate hit, with two sequels arriving in 1989 and 1990. Audiences fell in love with the charismatic Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, and Lloyd’s Doc Brown, a kooky scientist who turns a DeLorean into a time machine.

While both Fox and Lloyd have gone on to appear in many shows and movies since Back to the Future, the roles of McFly and Brown continue to stay with the actors. In a 2015 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Fox and Lloyd reprised their iconic roles to celebrate the date to which McFly and Lloyd traveled in Back to the Future 2. The actors made headlines again this past summer when they reunited, each posting photos to their Instagrams. While Back to the Future remains the most iconic role of Lloyd’s career, the actor has also appeared in films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Addams Family Values, and Clue.

Although Lloyd seems born to play the role of Doc Brown, he told TODAY that he very nearly passed on the part. In fact, Lloyd reveals he actually tossed the script in the garbage after reading it the first time. Thankfully, however, he eventually reconsidered. Check out Lloyd’s full comment below:

I went through it. I just wasn’t into it. I put it in the wastepaper basket. I put it away. [Then] I pulled it out, I looked at it, I still wasn’t sure of Doc, but went back and met [director] Bob Zemeckis, and that was that.

The movie Back to the Future famously went through several vastly different iterations of the script (including one where the DeLorean time machine was instead a refrigerator). It’s possible the version of the script first presented to Lloyd was not the one audiences are familiar with. Of course, maybe that’s not the case, and Doc Brown just didn’t jump off the page in the same way he does on the screen. It could be argued Doc Brown only works because it was Lloyd specifically who played him and brought his own sensibilities to the role.

Whatever the case may be, it’s a good thing Lloyd eventually reconsidered and that his meeting with Zemeckis ultimately alleviated his concerns. Certain actors are just impossible to separate from their iconic roles, and both Lloyd and Fox will remain forever linked to Brown and McFly. While Back to the Future could conceivably still have worked with a different actor playing Doc, it’s now nearly impossible to imagine anyone else saying, “Great Scott!” Clearly, the right performer was cast, even if he did take a little convincing.

Source: TODAY

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