The Big Picture

• Crispin Glover was a charming and funny actor in the role of George McFly in Back to the Future but had disagreements with the movie's ultimate message.
• Glover's resentment towards Bob Gale, co-writer and co-producer of the trilogy, stems from a salary dispute and the unauthorized use of his image in the sequel.
• The controversy surrounding Glover's situation was not the only one in the Back to the Future series, as Eric Stoltz was initially cast as Marty McFly but was fired and replaced by Michael J. Fox.

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 sequels with the notable exceptions of Glover and Claudia 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.

Crispin Glover Was a Joy To Watch in 'Back to the Future'

In Back to the Future, Crispin Glover portrayed George McFly as a charming, hysterically funny, and sympathetic father 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 end the movie rich and 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 which 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, Weissman was brought in to replace him. Glover has adamantly stated that this is a fabrication from 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.

Was Crispin Glover in 'Back to the Future 2'?

The most hurtful thing from Crispin Glover’s viewpoint was the way his image was used for the sequel without his permission. Molds of his face from the first movie were used to create prosthetics for 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.

Crispin Glover's Situation Wasn't 'Back to the Future's Only 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 had been 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 Wilson. Consequently, Zemeckis fired him, 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.

Back to the Future is available to rent on Prime Video.

Rent on Prime Video