Actor Crispin Glover made quite a mark on the original “Back to the Future” movie as Marty McFly’s father, George. So why didn’t the actor return for the sequels?
For years, producer Bob Gale has said that it was because Glover’s salary demand was too high. (Gale says on the DVD extras for the trilogy that Glover asked for twice the salary of series star Michael J. Fox.)
Now, Glover is coming out with his side of the story.
“On the DVD to the ‘Back to the Future’ trilogy, Bob Gale has said something that’s totally fabricated,” Glover tells SciFi Wire. “He said I asked for twice the amount of money that Michael J. Fox asked for in the first film. In the negotiation for the second film, they offered me less than half of what any of the actors that were being asked to come back in the film—Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Tom Wilson. They had all done studio films, and they’d made a lot more money. I was being penalized.”
The actor adds that his notorious visit to the David Letterman show, in which he appeared in character as Rubin from the forthcoming film Rubin and Ed, may have added to the situation. “It was very apparent to me when we were doing the negotiations that I was not wanted,” said Glover. “If I was going to do it, it was essentially a punishment. I was going to have to take less than half of what anybody else was going to take to come back to the film. It was not a normal negotiation. It seemed to me that there was an aggressive quality toward the negotiations.”
When the actor didn’t return, he was replaced by a look-a-like and the character killed off halfway through “Part Two.” Several long shots and footage from the original was used of Glover in “Part 2,” leading to a lawsuit by the actor.
In the years since, Glover has made amends with ‘BTTF’ director Robert Zemeckis, returning to play Grendel in the director’s 2007 film “Beowulf”. But Bob Gale is another story. In addition to the DVD comments, Glover says that the writer/producer made similar comments in recent radio interviews. “I’ve talked about it very little, but I’m starting to talk about it,” Glover added. “I just feel like I can be totally quiet about it and people [can] think that I’ve done this kind of wrong thing or I can tell the truth of what has happened. [Gale] did not address that what they did was totally immoral and illegal and just wrong. [They] put another actor into false nose, chin and cheekbones in order to fool people into believing that I was in the film.”
While Glover says he is proud of the work he did on “BTTF”, for him it remains tainted in many ways. Besides the legal issues that arose from the sequels, the actor had to deal with the replacement of the film’s leading man after a majority of the film had already been shot. (Fox famously replaced Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly)
“People often ask me, ‘Oh, was that a fun film to make?'” Glover said with a laugh. “I’d shot most of my scenes with Eric Stoltz. It was not known [that Stoltz wasn’t working out], and it was surprising. I’d worked with Eric Stoltz before. We’d done a Bayer aspirin commercial. We played brothers. I’d known him a bit, and I liked him. I thought he was a good actor. You know, if you shoot a number of months, and then in the middle of the shooting there’s a large replacement like that, it’s unnerving.”
Glover added: “Working on ‘Back to the Future’ was, you know, I don’t like to get into too much detail, because I probably should write about it at some point and time. But I’m very glad I’m in the film. Ultimately, I had a good working experience with Robert Zemeckis working on that movie. Good things happened in it, and I’m glad I’m in the film.”
That reminds me, I always wondered why they replaced the original Marty’s girlfriend with Elizabeth Shue. That was pretty distracting to me back when I saw the sequels.
The IMBD bio for her says: Was unable to reprise the role of Jennifer Parker, Marty McFly’s girlfriend in the sequels to Back to the Future (1985) because her mother had been diagnosed with cancer.
I’ve listend to the audio commentaries a few times over the years for the entire BTTF trilogy and I don’t ever recall Bob Gale once giving any specifics on why Crispin Glover didn’t return for the sequels. Off the top of my head Bob Gale basically said that he (Crispin Glover) made demands that were out of line given his roll in the movie. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd were the headliners of the movie and obviously entitled to more of whatever Crispin Glover was getting so when he didn’t get what the two stars were getting and apparently more he was replaced.
So yeah Bob Gale to my knowledge has never said specifically on the DVD what led to his replacement. In fact Bob Gale said a few times he regretted not having Crispin Glover for the sequels but I suppose that depends on weather or not you believe him and I do. Finally, nothing has changed with actors being way too demanding, just ask Terrence Howard, lol.
Bob Gale claimed on the Back to the Future trilogy DVD that Crispin Glover asked for double what Michael J. Fox was getting. Crispin Glover when asked about why he was not in the sequels responded that the claim by Bob Gale is untrue and that he was offered less than half of what the Lea Thompson and Tom Wilson were getting. Crispin specifically he said the final amount was $125,000. That does seem low and unfair to Crispin Glover. Not the other way around. Especially seeing that the producers of the film made up another actor to look like Crispin Glover and inter-spliced a small about of footage of Crispin in order to fool audiences in to believing he was in the film. That’s totally illegal and immoral on the producers part. Because of Crispin Glover’s lawsuit there are now laws in the screen actors guild that make it so producers can not do this sort of thing again. Good for Crispin Glover for standing up against corrupt producers!
so, what happened to the lawsuit? Seems that SAG felt it fairly deceptive as evidenced by there new bargaining agreement eliminating such practices with replacements.