Casting Quirks
War stories from the casting trenches of Hollywood.
      by Julie Ng

THE MOVIE: Back To the Future
THE PLAYERS: Eric Stoltz vs. Michael J. Fox, for the title of Marty McFly
CASTING QUIRK: Having To Replace the Lead Role Because He Sucked

Eric Stoltz

You sometimes hear of this happening to directors -- Kevin Reynolds was forced to relinquish control to Kevin Costner for Waterworld, Richard Stanley was replaced by John Frankenheimer to complete The Island of Dr. Moreau... and look how those movies turned out anyway. Switching an actor would be just as disastrous, if not worse. A new director just picks up where the old one left off. A new actor however, would take you back to square one. All existing footage would need to be re-shot with the new face on board, and loads of money would be lost in this process. This was the dilemma that director Robert Zemeckis had with Back to the Future, back in 1985. Approximately one-third of the film was shot with Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly when he was suddenly asked to make like a tree and get out of there, in mid-production. Apparently, it had something to do with Stoltz not acting enough like a teenager.

"Eric Stoltz was just the wrong guy for the part" is all that Zemeckis will say, giving no specific reason for firing him. The director claims that his original first choice had always been Michael J. Fox to begin with, but Fox was already committed to his TV sitcom, Family Ties. Zemeckis and writer/producer Bob Gale initially went to Family Ties creator Gary David Goldberg to ask if they could get Fox out of the show for their movie. Their timing was poor: the show's TV mom, Meredith Baxter-Birney, was pregnant in real life and couldn't do the whole season and Goldberg needed Fox to carry the show. "[Gary told me] 'This is a great script and it's perfect for Michael, but if we showed it to him, he'd hate me for the rest of his life for telling him he couldn't do it and he had to stay on Family Ties." explains Zemeckis. "...So then here we were many months later, knowing we had to replace Eric Stoltz." In this tight bind, he and Gale went back to Goldberg to ask him again. At this point, Baxter-Birney was back at work and Michael J. Fox had been given a script of the film. He was so eager to take on the role that a deal was struck to shoot Back To the Future (for a second time) during nights, around the Family Ties TV schedule.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Sadly, Fox recently announced that he has Parkinson's disease. Last month, he left his hit sitcom Spin City to spend more time with his family. With the Back to the Future trilogy, Family Ties and Spin City to his name, Michael J. Fox need not worry that his acting legacy will ever be remembered as Teen Wolf.

As for Eric Stoltz, I find it odd that he was not considered teenager-like enough, considering he spent much of his early career in teen comedies by Cameron Crowe and John Hughes. His next genre role would be in The Fly II, which is notable for all the wrong reasons. His career has taken a considerably less blockbuster route than Michael J. Fox's but he has established himself nicely as poster boy for independent cinema. "I try to throw my little nine bucks towards the underdogs," says Stoltz. "If enough of us do that, imagine how the lists that are reeled off on the morning news shows will change. I'd like to see that happen."

THE MOVIE: The Terminator
THE PLAYERS: Lance Henriksen vs. Arnold Schwarzenegger
CASTING QUIRK: Sometimes even Jim Cameron isn't allowed to get what he wants.

Lance Henriksen

When the then-unknown director, James Cameron finally got his break to pitch The Terminator to a movie studio back in 1983, he felt he needed to make it unique to be remembered. He called up a friend to help him out -- Lance Henriksen, whom he had planned on casting as the Terminator. Together, they devised a plan. Henriksen arrived to Hemdale Pictures a half-hour ahead of Cameron dressed in full Terminator costume. "I put gold foil from the Vantage cigarette package in my teeth and waxed my hair back," recalls Henriksen of the day, "Jim had put fake cuts on my head. I wore a ripped up punk rock t-shirt, a leather jacket and boots up to my knees... I kicked the door open when I got there and the poor secretary just about swallowed her typewriter. I headed in to see the producer. I sat in the room with him and I wouldn't talk to him [while Cameron pitched]. I just kept looking at him. After a few minutes of that he was ready to jump out the window."

Needless to say, Cameron got his green light, but he soon had to contend with studio executives. They pushed for Arnold Schwarzenegger be cast as leading man, Kyle Reese and football star O.J. Simpson for the role of the Terminator (yes, that O.J. Simpson) instead of Henriksen. Not exactly how Cameron envisioned his film. He wanted the Terminator "to be a guy with a scary face but not physically imposing." (A perfect definition of Henriksen if I've ever head one.) "I intended him to be a sort of lurking figure in the crowd, with the collar of his trenchcoat like a guy in film noir." It compromised the believability of the film. A small bad guy with a scary face would be no match for a gigantor like Ah-Nuld. Logically, it could only work the other way around. When all was said and done, Arnold Schwarzenegger became The Terminator. Henriksen was relegated to a small part as a cynical, bitter cop (who ends up getting killed rather unspectacularly by said villain).

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Looking back, Arnold Schwarzenegger seems like the perfect Terminator, what with his massive size, angular complexion, limited robotic dialogue and all. It made Arnold an international icon, while Henriksen went on to make a name for himself in forgettable B horror movies. What would The Terminator have been like if Henriksen been able to keep his role as the cyborg? A very, very different movie, he says: "It wouldn't have been such a physical character, it would have been a mental character." But he harbours no hard feelings about being passed over. "I never for one second felt that Jim Cameron shortchanged me," he says. "I've learned enough about this business over the years to realize that this is just the way it goes sometimes. I wanted Jim to get the movie as much as much as I wanted to be in it. So it really didn't hurt at all." Cameron paid Henriksen back two years later by casting him as Bishop (a more "mental" kind of futuristic robot) in Aliens.

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