via The Hollywood Reporter
It is widely known that Eric Stoltz was the original Marty McFly in Back to the Future, but until now we have never seen him in the role or knew the real reason why Michael J Fox replaced him. I had always heard the rumor that Eric quit the movie because he thought after Mask (I love love love that movie and thought Cher and him deserved Oscars for it) that he was going to be a big serious movie star and this movie was going to ruin that plan. Well that rumor is wrong because in the special features in the upcoming release of Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Trilogy DVD that is going to be released exactly 24 years after the movie came out on October 26, 1986, we learn the real reason why he was not in the movie. Robert Zemeckis said that after 5 weeks of filming he was not getting the laughs he had hoped for from Stoltz and made the difficult decision with Steven Spielberg to recast the role. I have often wondered how Back to the Future would have done with him the movie and I don’t think it would’ve done as well with him as the lead as compared to Fox.
I wonder if the red headed actor is going to make a statement about being let go from the movie now that the truth is out there? He has talked about not being in the movie in the past, but he has never really said much about how he felt about being fired from one of the biggest movie franchises of all time.
