His height was a major factor in the recasting of the girlfriend part, Fox writes in new memoir<\/p>\n
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Published Dec 02, 2025 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 3\u00a0hours ago \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 4 minute read<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n You can save this article by registering for free here<\/a>. Or sign-in<\/a> if you have an account.<\/p>\n Michael J. Fox has revealed that when he replaced Eric Stoltz in 1985\u2019s Back to the Future\u00a0another up-and-coming actress was fired.<\/p>\n Advertisement 2<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n REGISTER \/ SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.<\/p>\n THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authors<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n In an excerpt of his new memoir, Future Boy<\/a>, on the making of the film,\u00a0obtained by Entertainment Weekly<\/a>, Fox, now 64, says that after he stepped in weeks into production to play a time-travelling high school student, Melora Hardin, one of the future stars of The Office, lost her job as Marty McFly\u2019s girlfriend.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n The B.C.-born Fox writes his shortness \u201cworked in my favour when I was a teenage actor playing a younger kid, but it turned against me as an adult, when I went up for romantic leads opposite taller actresses.\u201d<\/p>\n He says that his goal as a young actor was \u201cself-\u00adpreservation\u201d and that he \u201csuffered the indignity of short jokes and prejudice against my smallness.<\/p>\n \u201cBullies often ridiculed my height, an easy target,\u201d Fox writes.<\/p>\n Your Midday Sun<\/p>\n Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Advertisement 3<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n But when he was cast in the Steven Spielberg-produced film, Hardin, who had been hired to play Marty\u2019s girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, was dropped in favour of actress Claudia Wells after director Robert Zemeckis axed Stolz once filming began.<\/p>\n \u201cI regret that this prejudice inadvertently affected another cast member in Back to the Future \u2013\u2013 Melora Hardin, the talented actress who had played Marty\u2019s girlfriend, Jennifer, opposite the perfectly tall Eric Stoltz,\u201d Fox explains.<\/p>\n \u201cMelora, several inches taller than me, was replaced in the movie after I took over as Marty,\u201d Fox adds. \u201cInitially, Bob Zemeckis thought perhaps the audience could look past our height difference, but when he quickly surveyed the female members of the crew, they assured him that the tall pretty girl in high school rarely picks the cute short guy.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement 4<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Fox, who had already started making waves in Hollywood playing Alex P. Keaton on the the NBC sitcom Family Ties, says he wasn\u2019t a big enough star to advocate on Hardin\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one asked for my opinion, but I would have risen to Melora\u2019s defence,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n How Fox and Stoltz became friends<\/p>\n In a recent interview with PEOPLE<\/a>, Fox praised Stoltz\u2019s work with director Quentin Tarantino on Pulp Fiction and said they met while he was working on the book.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was great. It was a great conversation. It was just two guys talking, which is what I thought it would be,\u201d Fox told the outlet. \u201cThere\u2019s all this mythology built up about this thing that happened. Was it backstabbing? Was there people conniving and being evil? No, it just was the thing that happened \u2026 We had different experiences with the same situation and you absorb it and you move on.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement 5<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n While speaking at Calgary Fan Expo in April, Fox called Stoltz a \u201cwonderful actor\u2026 who since has become a friend of mine and someone I\u2019ve had a good time with, talking about this turn in our lives and how we both ended up in different places.\u201d<\/p>\n In Future Boy, Fox reveals that the two crossed paths in the early 1980s when they were both up for the same part in a 1983 drama that starred David Keith, Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring our early struggles to find a foothold in the movie business, we had both auditioned for Franc Roddam\u2019s intensely dramatic, intensely dark, intensely intense movie The Lords of Discipline, about a military academy in the South,\u201d Fox writes, according to PEOPLE<\/a>. \u201cThe casting director asked us to read a scene together, and Eric took the \u2018intense\u2019 note to heart, forcefully grabbing my shirt and nearly tearing it in half. Neither of us got the part.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement 6<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n In another passage, Fox adds that their experience on Back to the Future \u201chad not made us enemies or fated rivals.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were just two dedicated actors who had poured equal amounts of energy into the same role. The rest had nothing to do with us. As it turned out, we had much more in common than our spin as Marty,\u201d he says, per Entertainment Weekly<\/a>. \u201cIn the months since meeting, Eric and I have maintained a friendly correspondence \u2013 volleys back and forth between like-minded actors and dads, offering up recent movies we\u2019ve loved, the latest adventures with our kids and an occasional detour into politics.\u201d<\/p>\n Hardin talks about the job loss<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Hardin reflected on losing the role of Jennifer during a stop on The Joe Vulpis Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement 7<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n \u201cI went and did some promotional pictures and stuff. And then (weeks) into filming, they fired Eric and brought in Michael J. Fox,\u201d she recalled. \u201cWhen they did that, it was apparently the two female executives at the time that thought that it was emasculating for their lead character male to be in scenes with a woman that was taller than him.\u201d<\/p>\n Hardin said losing the job was \u201ccrushing\u201d and \u201cvery, very upsetting\u201d but added that she may have very likely never gotten her role on The Office if she had played Jennifer.<\/p>\n Wells, who was the actress Zemeckis wanted in the first place, was replaced for subsequent Back to the Future sequels by Elisabeth Shue after she stepped away from the series to care for her dying mother.<\/p>\n mdaniell@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n Michael J. Fox makes surprise appearance at Coldplay’s Glastonbury performance<\/p>\n![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/tjlauyxeo0_36430011-e1764683664668.jpg\")
Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future. Photo by Universal PicturesArticle content<\/p>\n![\"Toronto](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/20.1.2\/websites\/images\/identity\/logo-identity-tsun.svg\"){kind=logo}
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Christopher Lloyd (as Dr. Emmett Brown), Michael J. Fox (as Marty McFly) in \u2018Back to the Future.\u2019 Photo by Universal Pictures<\/p>\n![\"Melora](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/melora-hardin-steve-carell_41755927-e1764683787940.jpg\")
Melora Hardin as Jan Levinson and Steve Carell as Michael Scott in \u2018The Office.\u2019 Photo by Paul Drinkwater \/NBC<\/p>\n![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/coldplay.jpg\")
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