Close Menu
    Subscribe
    Entertainment

    Christopher Lloyd Marks 88th B-Day With Perfect Post on “Serious S–t”

    soreceryBy No Comments8 Mins Read

    Watch: Christopher Lloyd Marks 88th Birthday With Message on “Serious S–t” He’s Been Through

    Christopher Lloyd has life down to a science.

    The sci-fi movie legend who starred in 1985’s Back to the Future didn’t need a flux capacitor or plutonium to solve the equation about what matters most to him on his 88th birthday.   

    “Today I turn 88…I’ve seen some serious s–t,” Lloyd mused on X on Oct. 22. “The most serious of it all is love.”

    Indeed, the Addams Family star couldn’t help but call back to his unforgettable role as Doc Emmet Brown in the time travel trilogy, in which he told Michael J. Fox‘s character Marty McFly, “If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you’re gonna see some serious sh–t.”

    And while he’s maintained an illustrious career from movie sets to Broadway stages for over 65 years thanks to his 1.21 gigawatts of star power, Lloyd has cherished his relationships above all else.

    “I love my family, my friends and my wonderful fans,” the Who Framed Roger Rabbit villain continued. “The power of love remains.”

    read

    Back To The Future Legend Christopher Lloyd Is Joining the Star Wars Universe

    Lloyd’s family includes real estate agent Lisa Loiacono, whom he married in 2016 after first meeting when she helped the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest alum sell his home.

    Of course, fans of the actor—who has starred in countless genre classics including Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, My Favorite Martian and Clue, alongside Tim Curry—showed heavy-duty admiration in response to his birthday post.

    Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

    “Tough to believe I can reply directly to Christopher Lloyd in this day and age to directly wish him a Happy Birthday and thank him,” one user replied on X, adding, “Happy Birthday, Doc. You made my childhood better.”

    Time travel to the Back to the Future set with these behind-the-scenes secrets of how the movie was made.

    Universal Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

    1. Writer and producer Bob Gale came up with the idea for Back to the Future while looking through his father’s high school yearbooks during a visit with family and discovering his dad was the president of his graduating class. As he put it to Esquire, “I wondered whether I would have been friends with my dad in high school.”

    Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

    2. For years, multiple studios passed on the script, more than 40 rejections in total. Among them: Disney, with Gale claiming they said, “Are you guys out of your minds? You can’t make a movie like this here. This is Disney, and you’re giving us a movie about incest!”

    The Legacy Collection/THA/Shutterstock

    3. Not a fan of the title, Universal Pictures head Sid Sheinberg suggested the name be changed to Spaceman From Pluto.

    Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

    4. John Cusack and Johnny Depp originally auditioned for the role of Marty McFly, but C. Thomas Howell was the finalist for the role, ultimately losing out to Eric Stoltz.

    Universal Pictures

    5. Five weeks into filming, the filmmakers realized Stoltz wasn’t the right fit for the role, with Gale explaining to The Guardian, “The humor just hadn’t been coming through with Eric. The studio weren’t happy exactly, but they’d seen the footage so they bit the bullet.”

    Pool DENIZE/PELLETIER/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

    6. Director Robert Zemeckis was the one to deliver the news to Stoltz, with the filmmaker recalling in the book Blockbuster that it was “the hardest meeting I’ve ever had in my life and it was all my fault. I broke his heart.”

    Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

    7. Reshooting all of the scenes Stoltz had already filmed added a reported $4 million to the movie’s budget.

    Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

    8. Because Michael J. Fox was the original first choice for Marty, the filmmakers worked with the team at his hit sitcom Family Ties to make sure they could have him as their leading man. “We would’ve danced naked on his desk to get Michael J. Fox, so of course we said, ‘Yeah, sure, we’ll adjust our shooting schedule,'” Gale told The Hundreds blog.

    Herb Ball/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

    9. Fox’s filming schedule was intense: He would shoot Family Ties during the day and then go right to the Back to the Future set from 6:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., averaging five hours of sleep a night. “It was my dream to be in the film and television business, although I didn’t know I’d be in them simultaneously,” Fox said during a TV special. “It was just this weird ride and I got on.”

    Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

    10. There is one scene with Stoltz still in the film. Though you can’t see his face, it’s Stoltz who punches Tom Wilson‘s Biff at the diner.

    Universal/Getty Images

    11. In the original script, Doc Brown was called Professor Brown, with a studio executive recommending the change. 

    Hartwig Valdmanis/United Archives via Getty Images

    12. Jeff Goldblum auditioned for the role of Doc Brown, according to Gale, who said, “The only other guy we really seriously considered for Doc Brown was Jeff Goldblum. Jeff came in, and…I’m certain we talked about John Lithgow, but I don’t remember if he ever actually came in, or if we met him. But I vividly remember meeting Jeff and liking him.”

    Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

    13. Christopher Lloyd almost passed on the iconic role, hoping to do a play in New York instead. But he credited his wife, Carol, who “reminded me that I always told myself never to turn anything down without at least checking it out.”

    Library of Congress/Getty Images; Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images

    14. In an interview with the Seattle Times, Lloyd revealed his two inspirations for Doc: Albert Einstein and Philadelphia orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski, who had white hair. 

    Universal Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

    15. One of the reasons for Doc’s hunched over stance? To help with the seven-inch height difference between the two leads. 

    Paul Mounce/Corbis via Getty Images

    16. The Office‘s Melora Hardin initially snagged the role of Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer, but was recast before she even began filming after Fox replaced Stoltz. The issue: At 5-foot-5, she was an inch taller than Fox.

    Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

    17. Though Claudia Wells originally played Jennifer in the first film, she retired from acting after her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Elisabeth Shue took over the role for the remaining installments. 

    Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

    18. Originally, the studio was hoping Doc’s car would be a Ford Mustang, with the company paying for the placement, but Gale refused, telling AdWeek, “I said, ‘No, no, no, Doc Brown doesn’t drive a f–king Mustang.’ It had to be a DeLorean.” 

    Moviestore/Shutterstock

    19. Huey Lewis, who wrote the hit songs “The Power of Love,” and “Back in Time” for the film, makes a cameo as one of the judges in the band audition. 

    Paul Natkin/Getty Images

    20. Lewis originally declined to work on music for the movie when he was approached by the director. 

    Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

    21. In an early draft, the time machine was set to be a refrigerator, but Zemeckis was worried children would accidentally lock themselves in refrigerators, so it was changed to a car.

    Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images

    22. Originally slated to open in August 1985, test audiences reacted so positively to the movie that the studio moved the release date up. Back to the Future hit theaters nine weeks after completing production.

    Universal Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

    23. Crispin Glover, who played Marty’s father George McFy, didn’t return for the sequels due to contract disputes. He later filed a lawsuit after filmmakers used footage from the first film and put a mold of his face on another actor “in order to fool audiences into thinking I was in the movie,” he said on The Opie and Anthony Show. Ultimately, a settlement was reached, with The Hollywood Reporter detailing that he received $760,000 at the behest of the company that insured Universal.

    Hulton Archive/Getty Images

    24. Lea Thompson credits her turn in 1984’s The Wild Life for landing her the role of Lorraine, Marty’s mother, because “they were looking at Eric Stoltz for Marty McFly, and they were, like, ‘Who’s that girl?'” she told The A.V. Club. “So that’s how I got the first audition for that.” 

    Moviestore/Shutterstock

    25. In the original script, Lorraine’s name was Meg.

    Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

    26. To achieve Lorraine’s 1985 look, Thompson’s prosthetic makeup took three and a half hours to apply. 

    Hulton Archive/Getty Images

    27. In 2015, footage of Stoltz as Marty was released for the first time in a documentary included on the 30th anniversary Blu-ray set. “We wanted to soft pedal that,” Gale said of the decision to release a small look at his performance. “We didn’t want to make Eric feel bad.”

    Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

    28. Back to the Future: The Animated series ran for two seasons, airing on CBS from 1991 until 1992.

    Dymond/Thames/Shutterstock

    29. In March 2020, the musical adaptation of Back to the Future made its debut in England, with Olly Dobson as Marty McFly and Tony winner Roger Bart as Dr. Emmett Brown. It eventually made its way to Broadway, ending an 18-month run in January 2025.

    Dave Benett/Getty Images for McFly Productions Ltd

    30. Zemeckis and Gale are firmly against the idea of a fourth film, with the director saying on a Zoom cast reunion that, “If I had an idea which I could have pitched to Bob [Gale] with a straight face, we would have made it.”

    For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App

     ​ 

    Share.
    Unknown's avatar

    Related Posts

    Add A Comment
    Leave A Reply

    Discover more from TheBullPost

    Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

    Continue reading