This year marks the 40th anniversary of not only one of the best ’80s movies, but all-time great sci-fi films, Back To The Future. To commemorate the occasion, Michael J. Fox wrote a first-person account called Future Boy about his time making the popular movie when he was 23 years old. Amongst his many confessions, he made something notable clear: he did not like driving the DeLorean.
The DeLorean time machine in Back To The Future is one of those objects in movies that are as famous as the actors. When recalling his scenes with the now out-of-production vehicle, here’s what Fox wrote:
I get to drive the DeLorean. I know what you’re thinking… cool! I thought so too, at first, but soon I grew to hate driving the DeLorean. First of all, let’s face it – it’s a shit car. Slow to accelerate, with cheap appointments – and that’s before our special effects crew added their two cents (or several million dollars, all in).
The DMC DeLorean was quite the unique model of car. It had a rear engine, was a two-seater and only made by the DeLorean Motor Company for the American market between 1981 to 1983. It’s not only Fox who wasn’t impressed by how it runs – the DeLorean is widely thought to lack power and performance as a vehicle. As Fox continues in Future Boy:
Those jerry-rigged accoutrements – the flux capacitor and various time clocks and flourishes – tend to be rather rough-edged, metallic and sharp. After that first night in the driver’s seat and for the remainder of the movie, my hands are crisscrossed with lacerations, my knuckles bruised, and my elbows contused from slamming into the space-edged console. As they say in show business, pain is temporary, film is forever.
As Fox notes, it wasn’t just any DeLorean. Production decked out the cars used on set with all sorts of extra embellishments that made it even more difficult to drive. It sounds like the car was giving Fox bumps and bruises all the time, making it a particularly difficult part of filming for him. Of course, from the outside in, we might think it’s an absolute dream to drive what’s now such a memorable vehicle, but Fox had to withstand some discomfort in order for us, the audience, to believe he was driving a time machine.
Flatiron Books was kind enough to send us a copy of Future Boy in advance of the memoir officially hitting shelves this week, and my eyes darted what felt like 88 miles per hour to learn the true story of what it was like for the actor to take the role of a lifetime as Mary McFly. In Future Boy, the actor breaks down how he ended up getting to work on the film at the same time as he was in production on Family Ties Season 3 after the original Back To The Future star, Eric Stoltz, was fired due to his approach to the character just not working for director Robert Zemeckis.
I definitely gained new insight about the making of a movie that I’ve watched with my family countless times that makes me appreciate Michael J. Fox’s place in the legacy of the film. You can read Future Boy yourself for Fox’s whole story on the making of Back To The Future right now.