\n\t\t\t\t\tEric Stoltz spent roughly six weeks filming Back to the Future as Marty McFly before Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg pulled him from the role and brought in Michael J. Fox, finalizing the switch on January 10, 1985. Zemeckis later called firing Stoltz “the worst experience of my career.” Full footage of his performance has never surfaced publicly, though a handful of silent clips made it onto the film’s 25th-anniversary Blu-ray release.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
For six weeks, Marty McFly had a different face<\/a>. Eric Stoltz spent that stretch on set playing the time traveling teenager, footage that still exists but has almost never been shown to the public. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale watched the dailies, felt the comedic timing simply wasn\u2019t landing, and made a call that Zemeckis later described as the hardest of his career. What followed became one of Hollywood\u2019s most brutal recastings, with Steven Spielberg pushing for the switch and Michael J. Fox<\/a> stepping in to finish the film everyone now remembers.<\/p>\n A promising start for Eric Stoltz<\/p>\n In late 1984, Eric Stoltz was Marty McFly. Universal executive Sid Sheinberg had pushed for him after Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale\u2019s first choice, Michael J. Fox, proved unavailable because of his commitment to the sitcom Family Ties. Stoltz threw himself into the part with a method approach, reportedly insisting on being addressed only as Marty on set, a habit that created friction with cast and crew from the start.<\/p>\n Performance clashed with the tone<\/p>\n After roughly six weeks of footage, Zemeckis and Gale reviewed the dailies with their producers and reached an uncomfortable conclusion: Stoltz\u2019s performance leaned too dramatic for a script built on comedic timing. Steven Spielberg, producing the film, went further and warned that the production risked cancellation<\/a> if they stayed the course. Sheinberg had already assured Zemeckis that the movie could be reshot with someone else if Stoltz didn\u2019t work out, and that safety net made the unthinkable possible.<\/p>\n The decision to recast with Michael J. Fox<\/p>\n