Michael J. Fox Reveals On ‘The View’ That Lea Thompson Was “Snobby” To Him During ‘Back to the Future’: “She Was Prepared To Not Give Me A Bit Of Slack”

Michael J. Fox‘s iconic turn as Marty McFly in Back to the Future almost got off to a rocky start, the actor recently revealed on The View.

While speaking to Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin, Fox said his co-star Lea Thompson was initially quite “snobby” towards him because he was more experienced working in television as opposed to film.

The actor said he is still “really good friends” with Thompson. However, she took some time to warm up to him.

“She tells the story about how when when I was brought in, she thought, ‘This guy’s a TV actor,'” he said. “She felt pretty good about her film career, she admittedly felt a little snobby about a TV actor.”

As Hostin explained it, Fox was their initial choice for Marty, however, he couldn’t commit to the film because he was filming Family Ties. When he was later allowed to do both projects and was hired to replace Eric Stoltz, he finally joined the cast six weeks after production had already started.

He added that Thompson wondered, “‘Who is this guy coming in replacing my friend?’ She knew Eric really well.”

Photo: ABC

Fox claimed Thompson “was prepared to not give me a bit of slack” when filming began.

However, his sitcom experience came in handy for the film.

“But we started doing the scene and I don’t know what I’m doing I m just doing the schtick that I do,” he said. Fox explained that he once improvised a joke for Thompson to use while they were filming. “I said, ‘There’s a joke here.’ […] She got a huge laugh. She went off really happy. This is what I do in my sitcoms.”

Fox was visiting The View to promote his new memoir Future Boy, which recounts how he brought his two most iconic roles – Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties and Marty McFly in Back to the Future – to life in the ’80s.

The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.