Back to the Future's Michael J Fox reveals his casting for classic film may have cost one actor a key role

Michael J Fox has revealed how stepping in for Eric Stoltz on Back to the Future had a domino effect that led to another recasting.

Fox took over from Stoltz as Marty McFly in the '80s movie classic after the actor was fired six weeks into production.

Speaking in his recent memoir Future Boy, Fox explained that him taking over as the leading man led to co-star Melora Hardin being deemed "too tall" to play the character’s girlfriend.

“My goal as a child was self-­preservation. Bullies often ridiculed my height, an easy target. I suffered the indignity of short jokes and prejudice against my smallness,” he wrote (via Entertainment Weekly), noting that his height “worked in my favour when I was a teenage actor playing a younger kid, but it turned against me as an adult, when I went up for romantic leads opposite taller actresses".

He continued: “I regret that this prejudice inadvertently affected another cast member in Back to the Future – Melora Hardin, the talented actress who had played Marty’s girlfriend, Jennifer, opposite the perfectly tall Eric Stoltz.

“Melora, several inches taller than me, was replaced in the movie after I took over as Marty,” he added.

Fox went on to explain that Robert Zemeckis tried to make it work with Hardin, and even got a real-world take from some of the women on the crew, but that "they assured him that the tall pretty girl in high school rarely picks the cute short guy".

“No one asked for my opinion, but I would have risen to Melora’s defence,” added Fox.

But in the end, the decision was stuck to and Hardin was replaced. Claudia Wells, Zemeckis's original pick for Jennifer, stepped back into the role.

Hardin previously spoke out about how she credits her firing from Back to the Future with her later success as Jan Levinson on The Office.

“Whatever! If I had done it, I'm sure it would have all gone in a different way. I wouldn't have done The Office," she said during an appearance on The Joe Vulpis Podcast back in March.

However, at the time, the then-teen star struggled with the decision.

“At the time, at 17 years old, that was crushing for me, and very, very upsetting,” she said, adding that her two-film contract was "a big deal".

She recalled: "I went and did some promotional pictures and stuff. And then into filming, they fired Eric and brought in Michael J Fox."

Speaking about her recasting, she added: "When they did that, it was apparently the two female executives at the time that thought that it was emasculating for their lead character male to be in scenes with a woman that was taller than him.”

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