djust do some crazy thing with his eyes
on one line and one take...
...and then he'd do something else
in another take.
It was always a tough decision to say
which of these moments we would use.
He was always wonderful,
and it was good for the other actors.
It was especially good for Michael J. Fox...
...because Chris keptsurprising him.
So he was able to react
a little bit differently in each scene...
...in each take,
and that kept his performance fresh.
It kept him on his toes when he might have...
...preferred to go into his trailer to take a nap.
You've got to love Chris.
Somebody asked a question earlier about...
...what happens....
How does a performance get designed?
For example, I think Chris is 6'4"...
...6'2", and Michael is not that tall.
You've gotta love Chris,
because Chris does the whole movie...
...hunched over,
so I could keep them both in frame.
Chris did the whole performance
like this: "MartyI"
He did that for me, because otherwise...
...I couldn't keep these guys in frame.
Hejust kept himselfin frame for me...
...and made the characterlive that way.
The other thing I rememberis...
...Chris absolutely would neverletyou know
what he was going to do...
...until the camera was rolling.
He would only ever do a rehearsal...
...or a camera blocking, literally...
...at quarterspeed.
He would stumble through his lines,
and he would have the scriptpages with him...
...so then when we would say, "RollI"...
...he was nowhere where the camera operator
could find him in frame.
Basically, Ijuststarted rolling the camera...
...all the time, telling everybody:
"We don't know what's going to happen,
butit will be good. "
The only way to get a full-speed rehearsal...
...is to roll film.
It was a thing Chris had about that.
Did you always have a sequel in mind...
...because, of course,
at the end of Back to the Future...
...Doc Brown comes back in the car?
No. I've said in this other documentary...
...if we were planning for a sequel,
I wouldn't have put the girl in the car.
-The ending was ajoke.
-It was ajoke.
It was ajoke:
"Something's got to be done aboutyour kids. "
We had no idea
whether this movie would make a dime.
We would have been happy
ifit hadjust barely broke even...
...because our other movies lost money.
We didn't know that anybody would have
any interestin seeing this picture.
The characters go riding offinto the sunset.
That's the end of the movie.
What were you looking for
when you were casting the role of Biff?
Interestingly, there's a character
in the gang with a crewcut...
...who's credited as "Skinhead. "
His name is J.J. Cohen.
He was somebody
we were very seriously considering...
...to play Biff.
He came in andjust knocked us out.
He didn't have the physical presence.
Playing against Eric Stoltz...
...you would have never believed
that he could push Eric Stoltz around.
If Michael J. Fox had been in the movie
at that time...
...J.J. Cohen might have ended up being Biff,
because he would have been...
...four or five inches taller than him.
We wanted somebody that had...
...a real physical presence...
...and Tom Wilson is a big guy.
Absolutely nothing like the character of Biff.
Just the sweetest, most gentle guy in the world.
He says that when he was a kid,
he gotpicked on...
...and that's where he drew his inspiration
for what he did.
Can you make comments about Lea Thompson...
...and working with her on the film?
Lea wasjustso great and wonderful and sweet...
...and she did everything she was told
and never gave us any problems.
Like a dream. She wouldjust work
and do itperfect every take.
She wasjust absolutely fantastic.
We can't tell great Lea Thompson stories....
Because there are none.
She was a director's dream.
Always on time, always knew herlines.
Always did it right.
Actually, something we should talk about
is that...
...one of the important decisions
that we made in the movie...
.