Michael J. Fox Gushes Over Friendship With Christopher Lloyd: ‘He’s Full Of Surprises’

Feb 01, 2023 by apost team

Michael J. Fox is a retired actor who first rose to fame playing Alex Keaton on the TV series “Family Ties.” Fox starred on the show from 1982 to 1989 and became a household name during that time. In 1985, at the same time he was filming “Family Ties,” Fox filmed the hit movie “Back to the Future” at night while acting on the show during the day. 

In 1998, Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He continued to make movies and starred in TV shows until 2014 when his series “The Michael J. Fox Show” ended. He officially retired from acting in 2020 due to his health issues. 

Over the course of his career, Fox won numerous awards, including Primetime Emmy Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s, Fox has become an advocate for research and the development of a cure for the disease. In 2000, he founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which funds research and therapies for people diagnosed with Parkinson’s. For his work, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Karolinska Institute in 2010.  

Working twice as much in a day was exhausting, and Fox said at that time he was just trying to make it through the day. In December 2021, Fox shared that he had rewatched “Back to the Future,” and his performance during that hectic time in his life was surprising to him.

In the cult classic film, Fox starred as Marty McFly and shared the screen with Christopher Lloyd, who played the character ​​Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown, Marty’s eccentric scientist friend. 

Almost four decades later, Fox still retains that solid bond with Lloyd and gushed over their friendship in an interview with Variety. 

Read on to find out more about the pair's incredible friendship.

Lloyd, much like his co-star Fox, has become a pop culture icon for the character he portrayed in "Back To The Future." While he has taken on other remarkable roles in the past, nothing will ever come close to the one he did for the sci-fi trilogy where he played the character of Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown.

Apart from the “Back to the Future” trilogy, Lloyd has also played other roles. He was Jim Ignatowski in the series “Taxi,” which brought him two Emmy Awards. He also earned a Drama Desk and an Obie Award for his theater work. Lloyd was also Uncle Fester in “The Addams Family” and "Addams Family Values" and Commander Kruge in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” 

In October 2022, Lloyd had an emotional reunion with Fox at the "Back To The Future" panel at the New York Comic-Con.

"The chemistry was there from the first scene we had," Lloyd said, recalling what it was like working with Fox in the film. “It remained that way for three movies and it hasn't gone away, by the way,” he added.

Fox had the same to say about Lloyd, whom he described as a “genius.”

“The best part of this movie was working with Chris," Fox recalled, and added it was fun "because he's just genius."

It was an emotional moment not just for both actors, but for fans of the films they did together as well.

Fox, 61, has elaborated more on how his friendship with Lloyd, 84, came about during the production of the iconic film franchise. He also went on to reveal that he did not understand him until after the third film. 

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After their touching meeting at Comic-Con in 2022, avid fans of “Back to the Future,” have wondered if Fox and Lloyd would ever work together again on a project of a similar nature. 

While Lloyd, despite his old age, seemed to not be slowing down on his acting career, Fox released his documentary film, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” which bravely explored his personal triumphs and tribulations, especially, his incurable optimism against his incurable disease. 

In a panel interview by Variety Studio during the 2023 Sundance Festival, Fox explained how his friendship with Lloyd blossomed throughout the film. 

“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,” he recalled. “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.”

Lloyd starred in three films in 2022, “The Adam Project,” “Tankhouse” and “Spirit Halloween: The Movie.” He is also set to play six more characters in six different films in 2023, including “Man in the Long Black Coat,” “Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose” and “Super Athlete,” among many others. 

“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,” Fox furthered. 

Have you watched any “Back to the Future” films? Isn’t Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd’s friendship incredible? Would you be interested in watching a reunion movie of them in the future? Let us know, and pass this on to your family, friends and other “Back to the Future” fans!