One of the most endearing friendships ever to grace the silver screen is between Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown in the legendary trilogy of the Back to the Future movies. In real life, Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd have had a long-time bond, but according to Fox, it took until the third film in the franchise, Back to the Future Part III, for them to really click. Fox sat down with Variety during Sundance, where he was promoting his new documentary STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie (read our review) and explained:
“Chris is a great guy. He’s very enigmatic. It took me a few films to get to know him. On Back to the Future Part III, we connected in a way we hadn’t on the other films. I came to see how much he loved acting. I never got that before. To sit down and talk about acting and talk about Shakespeare and King Lear… This guy can play King Lear! People don’t expect that of him. He’s full of surprises.”
He adds, “He can tell a movie’s worth of story in two seconds, and you get it. Us regular actors have to lay out hours and hours to get the information out. Chris is brilliant at it. His love of film and his love of being an actor… He’s not just a crazy guy. He’s an artist.”
The director of Still, Davis Guggenheim, says that the new documentary isn’t attempting to be a blunt tear-jerker. As awful as Fox’s condition is, the star never wanted to make the viewers feel guilty watching it. “I didn’t want to make a Parkinson’s movie. I don’t want to make a sick movie. I want to make a movie about a life. The one thing he said to me was, ‘No violence.’ We hope the tone of the movie is no pitying. This is a movie about a wild life, an incredible ride of ups and downs, and a Hollywood 1980s movie star and what happens when life throws him a curveball.”
STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie is backed by Apple, but there is yet to be an announcement of the release.