Here’s a hot take as we enter the second half of this year’s Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo:
There’s only one trilogy.
Nope—not that one.
And not that one either.
Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reunited on the main theatre stage at the BMO Centre on Friday evening to reminisce about Back to the Future, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and its two sequels.
Both were initially hesitant, back then, to take on their respective roles of Marty McFly and Doc Brown.
But they did, and considering the characters continue to resonate with audiences four decades later, maybe it turned out OK.
Fox said Back to the Future, like all good stories, is about “who we are, who we want to be and who we need to be.”
But with time travel.
He and Lloyd both said they faced their own Biff Tannen, the bully or bully’s distant relative of the story, depending on which movie you’re watching, a time or many when they were school-aged.
“I was a small kid and a creative kid and a theatre nerd and (into music). I was a strange kid ... I was a bully magnet,” Fox said.
“I wasn’t great in school, but I was smart—smarter than most bullies.
“I’d try to diffuse the situation and make them laugh because if you make them laugh, they’re not as inclined to beat you up.”
If that didn’t work, Fox said, his second line of defence was to run away.
Third, if all else failed, he said, he’d try to get one shot in to “make him think about it.”
“If they beat me up ... then they beat up the little guy. If I beat them up ... then they’d be shamed for the rest of their lives,” he said.
Lloyd said he tried that third tactic once in elementary school.
“There was this guy. He looked like he’d be quarterback (one day). ... Something happened in the hallway—he did something—and I can’t believe I did what I did because I’ve never done it since, but I attacked him,” he said.
“He ended up on his back on the school floor, and I’m over him (swinging away) and he’s lying there laughing.
“And that’s that story.”
The first movie holds as Fox’s favourite of the franchise, but he said Lloyd was particularly brilliant in the third.
Lloyd didn’t deny the third is special to him, considering his character’s arc in it.
He also didn’t deny the prospect of doing another one would be tempting.
Asked the same, Fox said he’s tired, but in fairness, he’s “still tired from Teen Wolf.”
The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo runs through Sunday.
Information about the show can be found at https://fanexpohq.com/calgaryexpo/.
