Reflecting on 1955/1985
Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum
by Michael J. Fox and Nelle Fortenberry
New York: Flatiron Books (a division of MacMillan), 2025
$26.99 / 9781250866783
Reviewed by Trevor Marc Hughes
*
Emerging from the Pen Mar movie theatre in Penticton into an Okanagan sunset in August of 1985, I was quite spellbound. The orange glow on the low-lying hills was lovely, but the real buzz was coming from the final bars of Alan Silvestri’s orchestral arrangement of the Back to the Future Overture in Dolby Stereo. I had been visiting family at their peach orchard and it was decided to see the blockbuster movie of the summer. The momentum of the film had carried me along the rest of school vacation, as had the impact of the energetic performance by its star, Michael J. Fox. I soon learned that he had grown up in Canada, and spent his teen years in Burnaby. This was something of an awakening to my twelve-year-old self, not only because I had made an assumption that movie stars came from an actor factory in Los Angeles, but also that a short-of-stature, working class kid from BC could be that successful as an actor in Hollywood. His influence carried me through high school, turning me in to a drama kid in Victoria who starred in several plays before landing a series regular in the drama series Northwood, shot in North Vancouver, which lasted four seasons on CBC. I guess you could call Michael J. Fox, before the days of social media, an influencer.
But what influenced Mike Fox from Burnaby to pen a behind-the-scenes memoir of the heady days spent balancing the filming of the successful NBC-TV series Family Ties by day, and the demanding night shoot of Back to the Future? Perhaps it has something to do with time. Time having passed had Fox revisiting his own performance in the summer movie of 1985 with some reflection. In a thoughtful passage, Fox writes:
It wasn’t until Christmas Eve, a few decades after I made the movie, that I viewed my performance in Back to the Future through a different lens. My family had just started decorating the tree, and I stepped out of the room to grab some popcorn. To their surprise, I never came back. As I passed the den en route to the kitchen, the flicker of the TV caught my eye, along with a familiar opening sequence. An hour later my wife, Tracy, called out, “What are you doing in there?”
“I’m watching Back to the Future,” I shouted. “And you know what? I’m really good in it.” I don’t know why I never fully embraced it before, but at that moment, I permitted myself a better sense of my contribution to this wonderful film.”
Of course, for fans of the film, no convincing is required for them to think highly of the movie. And there is plenty in this heartfelt and revealing memoir, which he co-writes with television producer and Michael J. Fox Foundation board member Nelle Fortenberry, to tempt them to read it. But for those who are interested in Fox’s BC roots, there is also much to mull over. His family life in Burnaby provided the young actor’s own foundation as he was transitioning to life in Los Angeles, where, he writes, many young actors get lost without guidance. He also credits his high school drama teacher Ross Jones with much of the creative professionalism that he took with him south of the 49th as the 1970s were winding down, and the materialistic ‘80s were kicking in. Tough times were ahead for Fox before he got the part that would lead to TV stardom, of Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties, and several seasons of buildup would make him a familiar face on TV screens in the US and Canada. But it was the time required for producing the situation comedy that would actually impede him initially from being able to star in Back to the Future, a script that was intended for him. The role of Marty McFly, as a result, went to Eric Stoltz, who, it was deemed, after much of the film had already been shot, was not right for the role after all. To get Fox to do the job, he’d have to moonlight on Back to the Future after working hard all day at Paramount Studios on Family Ties. This is the crux of the book, and makes for fascinating reading. It would be a schedule that only a hungry twenty-three-year-old actor could manage, in a time which did not allow for much reflection. This book allows him to take a step back and take stock of that time.
I spent the final days of 1984 with my family in Vancouver while my agent negotiated my contract for Back to the Future. I tried to bank sleep during the holiday, instinctively aware that it would be a scarce commodity during the following months.
This was the calm before the storm; everything was about to change in the new year.
In reading the memoir, it’s interesting to note how Mike Fox in Burnaby, Michael J. Fox in Hollywood, on the cusp of such a life transition, was taking in what his family in Burnaby offered. This family connection has been a strength in Fox’s life, something that has buoyed him up.
My family – not typically demonstrative with overt praise – instead offered words of wisdom and support. My mother worried that I was taking on too much. Even for a family of hard workers like ours, she thought I was overdoing it. My brother, Steve, whom I had always looked up to (and still do), found himself in a big brother/ little brother role reversal, which no doubt felt jarring. My younger sister, Kelli (soon to be a celebrated actor and director in the Canadian theatre), was completely nonplussed. And my no-nonsense dad still thought the police were going to show up someday and haul me away.
That Christmas holiday was my last brush with the old world, the life I’d had in Burnaby, where my friends and family still knew me as a serial screwup. I was on the verge of something big. I was about to work with Steven goddamn Spielberg.
The pains Fox takes in expressing his status anxiety also draw the reader in. “All I have to do is make these people in this room not feel like fools for hiring me,” he admits sheepishly, when it came to impressing executive producers Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall. This was high-stakes movie making. But throughout Fox maintains something of himself: the signature Nikes with red swoosh Marty McFly sports in the film were his own, the pair he wore to the wardrobe fitting, and with his movie pay he’d buy his folks a house in Burnaby.
Even though Mike Fox was a veritable movie star, his dad wasn’t taking any crap from him in the house his son had bought for him. Vancouver’s mayor Mike Harcourt asked Fox to emcee a fundraising gala for the new symphony hall, and Mike Fox from Burnaby decided to wear, along with his tuxedo, a black pair of Converse sneakers with a skull and crossbones stitched in.
My dad appraised my look with a frown. “You can’t wear those shoes,” he insisted. “They are disrespectful for the event. Go put on something more appropriate.”
Here I was, standing in a house that I bought, with my dad telling me to go back to my room and change my shoes. “Dad, what’s important here is that they want me to be me. I’m just not a patent leather shoes guy. In the process of raising me, you probably noticed that I sometimes make my own rules, and even though you don’t see it, the skull and crossbones affirm who I am.”
The point I was trying to make to my dad was that I didn’t want to lost my identity within my newfound fame and success. Every time I looked down at my shoes that night, I was reminded of my true self, and I pledged not to pretend to be someone that I’m not.
Fox is a writer whose sense of humour translates well to the page, and who draws the reader in with his authenticity, a genuine approach that is satisfying to note given how much Hollywood glamour and publicity that has surrounded him in his adult life. His humour can also have a sardonic and even self-deprecating twist to it, and it’s clear that some of his rebellious nature came from his upbringing in British Columbia, the company he kept while playing guitar in his band Halex, and hanging with good friends Andy Hill and Chris Coady. His family and friends in Burnaby kept him rooted, no matter what the future had in store.
My acting career may have morphed into writing and broadcasting, but I’ve never forgotten that feeling I had when in 1985 I emerged from the Pen Mar theatre in Penticton. I also remember the hardworking nature of Mike Fox that propelled Back to the Future on the big screen. It would seem, in the fullness of time, Fox further appreciates the extent to which he worked while making the film.
*
Trevor Marc Hughes moved to Vancouver from Victoria in 1990 after landing the role of Peter Andersson on the TV series Northwood, which aired on CBC in the 1990s. He was much influenced by the example set by, and the acting work of, Michael J. Fox. His latest book is The Final Spire: ‘Mystery Mountain’ Mania in the 1930s. He is the author of an account of the first ascent of Canada’s tallest peak, Capturing the Summit: Hamilton Mack Laing and the Mount Logan Expedition of 1925. He is currently the non-fiction editor for The British Columbia Review and recently reviewed books by John Firth, Richard Butler, Wade Davis, David Bird (ed.), Ian Kennedy, and John Vaillant.
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The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster