George McFly Was Different in ‘Back to the Future 2’ Because of This Controversy (2024)

The Back to the Future trilogy is a true pop culture phenomenon. Over the franchise's three movies, the iconic characters of Doctor Emmett “Doc” Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travel across time after the eccentric Doc creates a time machine built from a DeLorean. Aside from Doc and Marty, the series gave us other memorable characters who were first introduced in the original 1985 movie including the dim-witted bully Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), and Marty’s outlandish parents Lorraine (Lea Thompson) and George (Crispin Glover). After the unimaginable success of the first film, Part II and Part III were filmed back-to-back in 1989 and 1990 respectively. Most of the cast and crew returned for the sequel, with the notable exceptions of Glover andClaudia Wells, who played Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer. Why is that?

Claudia Wells turned down reprising her role and was replaced by Elisabeth Shue. As a result of this, the final scene of the first movie was re-shot with Shue, Fox, and Lloyd – minor differences in Fox and Lloyd’s performances are noticeable. Majorly though, George McFly was re-cast with Jeffrey Weissman taking over the role, and Crispin Glover has not held back from voicing his anger at the handling of this situation.

Back to the Future

PG

Adventure

Comedy

Family

Sci-Fi

Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.

Release Date

July 3, 1985

Director

Robert Zemeckis

Cast

Michael J. Fox , Christopher Lloyd , Lea Thompson , Crispin Glover , Thomas F. Wilson , Claudia Wells

Runtime

116

Writers

Robert Zemeckis , Bob Gale

See Also

Powrót do przyszłości | Film | 1985Back to the Future | Rotten TomatoesThe Entire Back To The Future Timeline Explained - LooperLegacy may be a dirty word in Queensland's back-to-the-future election campaign

Crispin Glover Was a Great George McFly in 'Back to the Future'

In Back to the Future, Crispin Glover portrayed Marty's father, George McFly, as a charming, hysterically funny, and sympathetic parent and teenager. Given the success of the first movie, it is hardly surprising that Glover was initially keen to reprise his role in the sequels. However, whilst filming the original movie, he was vocal about his disagreement with the movie’s ultimate message. In an interview with The AV Club, Glover stated that he did not like that the McFlys ended the movie wealthy, and he disagreed with the morals that came with this. The ending in the original script supposedly included other elements that were considered questionable — and Glover believes he was not the only cast member to bring this up — and ultimately, the direction was changed. But Glover has been firm on the fact that he does not like the monetary reward the McFlys get in the end, and he has even said this led to friction between him and director Robert Zemeckis. Glover was only twenty years old at the time of the first movie, and reluctantly shot the ending scenes despite his concerns.

Bob Gale, co-writer and co-producer of the Back to the Future trilogy, has long claimed that it was a salary dispute that led to Glover not reprising his role in Back to the Future Part II. Gale has claimed that because Glover was not a huge fan of the sequel’s script, he demanded he be paid $1 million to appear in the movie. As producers did not wish to meet this demand, Jeffrey Weissman was brought in to replace him. Glover has adamantly stated that this is a fabrication by Gale, and his resentment towards him continues to this day. Gale’s frequent claims and refusal to take responsibility have been hurtful to Glover, and he still refuses to attend any reunions with the cast and crew because of him. Upon being asked about the situation, Gale has refused to apologize and admit any wrongdoing, and he has questioned why Glover has taken it out on him personally when other producers — including Steven Spielberg and Zemeckis — were involved too.

Crispin Glover Sued the Producers of 'Back to the Future 2'

The most hurtful thing from Crispin Glover’s viewpoint was the way his image was used for Back to the Future Part II without his permission. Molds of his face from the first movie were used to create prosthetics for Jeffrey Weissman so that he resembled Glover as closely as possible. This left Glover utterly horrified. Before Weissman was cast, killing George off was considered, but it was decided that he was too significant of a character to be written out of the sequel. His role was lessened greatly though. The new footage shot of Weissman often had him in the background of scenes to make his Glover-like face less obvious, and in one prolonged scene, he is literally dangled upside down.

Some audiences were not initially aware of the re-casting, and Crispin Glover has said how people have come up to him wrongly believing that he is in the sequels plenty of times. This has been endlessly aggravating for him, and he has not shied away from criticizing Weissman’s performance in the sequel and taking great offense at people attributing a weaker performance to him. In 1990, Glover took legal action against the producers and walked away with a six-figure sum. While Glover remains bitter towards Gale, he has mended his relationship with Zemeckis and forgiven him for the part he played in the sequel. In 2007, Zemeckis cast Glover in the role of Grendel in the 2007 CGI action movie Beowulf, and Glover confirmed he had forgiven the director. In 2020, Jeffrey Weissman appeared on a panel for the New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival and spoke about the Back to the Future controversy, saying that he was stuck between a "rock and a hard place." The actor went on to say that he didn't originally know that he would be taking over the role from Glover, but that he needed the work at the time because his wife was pregnant.

Crispin Glover's Situation Wasn't 'Back to the Future's Only Casting Controversy

The Glover/Weissman situation was not the only controversy surrounding casting in a Back to the Future movie. In the original, many key scenes were shot with Eric Stoltz in the role of Marty McFly. Stoltz was better regarded for his dramatic performances at the time, and Zemeckis felt he was not bringing the right amount of comedic energy to the role. Stoltz’s unsuitably intense method acting was also causing tension on set, particularly between him and Thomas F. Wilson. Consequently, Zemeckis fired Stoltz and replaced him with Fox, who had originally been the producer’s first choice for the role. Stoltz was devastated to be fired from the movie.

While Crispin Glover was reluctant to talk about all the frustrations and unfair actions that were taken against him, he has been admirably vocal about it in the past few years. Fans of the series still get to enjoy his unforgettable performance in the first film though. In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, Glover said he was proud that he stood up for himself, and since he won the lawsuit, the Screen Actors Guild took action to ensure the same thing does not happen again.

Crispin Glover Was Fine With Being Recast — But Not With His Face Being Replicated

Crispin Glover's Back to the Future lawsuit set the stage for things to come in Hollywood. There have been many unfortunate cases of celebrities passing away in the middle of production, only to have their likeness recreated with CGI technology. After Brandon Lee was tragically shot dead in a stunt gone wrong on the set of The Crow, computer animation was used to put Lee in different backgrounds. In one shot, a computer image of him was seamlessly put on the face of his stunt double, Chad Stahelski, who would later go on to work with Keanu Reeves on The Matrixbefore directing every John Wick film. When Paul Walker died in a car accident during a Thanksgiving break from the filming of Fast 7, CGI was again used to put Walker's face on his brothers' bodies. These situations were different from Crispin Glovers, though, in that they were done with the family's permission, and in Walker's case, their participation, to complete a film that was nearly finished.

What happened to Crispin Glover was done totally without his permission. In a 2014 interview on The Sam Roberts Show, Glover spoke about what bothered him about being recast in Back to the Future Part II. He said, “Had they only hired another actor, which is kind of what I thought had happened, that would have been totally legal, and I would have been completely fine with it." Glover understood that parts get recast, and that he didn't own the character of George McFly. Where the trouble arose was using molds to recreate the actual likeness of Crispin Glover without his consent. Glover's lawyer, Doug Kari, even had what he considered proof of the crew trying not only to recreate George, but Cripsin, when Kari told The Hollywood Reporter, “Jeffrey (Weissman) told me a story that one day, [executive producer] Steven Spielberg walked on set and laughed and said, ‘Hey Crispin, I see you got your million. To me, those anecdotes showed they were trying to take Crispin’s persona.”

The 2023 SAG-AFTRA Strike Sought to Protect Performers' Rights to Their Likeness

Kari said a line needed to be drawn about how far a studio could go in terms of replicating a performer, because of things that could happen in the future. Universal and Glover settled, reportedly for $760,000, but that settlement meant that there was still a lot of uncertainty about what a studio could do with an actor's likeness. The Supreme Court had already touched on this in a case before, but years later, in 2011, there was also a case with singer Gwen Stefani suing Activision for using a much too realistic digital avatar of her. It all comes down to an entertainer performing without a contract over how their image could be used later.

This became a major fight during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists fighting for their rights against studios who would recreate an actor's physical likeness with AI. A deal was reached between SAG-AFTRA and studios that protected actors from having their performances recreated with artificial intelligence without their permission. As technology continues to change though, don't look for this to be the last fight actors have to take up to protect their performances. Say what you want about Crispin Glover leaving such a beloved movie franchise, but with his lawsuit, the actor (perhaps inadvertently) helped set a legal precedent that would help actors like him in the future.

Back to the Future is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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