Interview: Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown Goes ‘Back to the Future’

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CHICAGO – The reunited cast of ‘Back to the Future’ included one of the key members of that 1985 classic. Christopher Lloyd, unforgettable as Doc Brown, took questions from fans in an appearance recently at the Hollywood Palms in Naperville, IL.

Christopher Lloyd has had a long and fruitful career in both TV and the movies. Breaking out as the befuddled Rev. Jim Ignatowski in the sitcom “Taxi,” Lloyd then made his mark in films such as the Back to the Future series, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and “The Addams Family.”

Holding on for the Ride: The Fabulous Christopher Lloyd Remembers ‘Back to the Future’ Photo Credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago sat down with Lloyd before his recent appearance celebrating the 25th anniversary of Back to the Future. He talked about his connection with the character of Doc Brown, his other notable film roles and his early career as an acting student under the great Stanford Meisner.

HollywoodChicago.com: Doc Brown is one of the great characters in film history. What did you love about him the most as you were interpreting him?

Christopher Lloyd: I guess I loved the excitement he had about everything. He was so excited to come up with an idea and make it work, even though they didn’t always work. I like that thing he wore on his head. [laughs]

HC: You worked with the first Marty McFly, Eric Stolz, before the producers made the switch to Michael J. Fox. Did you have any feedback in that decision or were you surprised that it all went down as it did?

CL: I was totally surprised when it occurred. With Eric, everything seemed to be working, but what I heard is when they were looking at the dailies they weren’t getting the sense of comedy that they needed, that Michael had.

HC: How much fun was it to make a post modern western in Back to the Future 3. Did you ever picture yourself to be the cowboy type? Were you emulating any cowboy icon in your portrayal?

CL: I wasn’t emulating anyone I don’t think, it just happened that Doc Brown was stuck in the West [laughs]. ‘Back to the Future 3’ was the most fun, because it was a western, their was the work on the train and Doc Brown had a romance. It was those three elements together.

HC: You did some work under the legendary acting instructor Stanford Meisner in your early career. Do you still use his technique and how did it help you develop characters?

CL: I had an interview with him to get into the Neighborhood Playhouse when I was nineteen years old. I had a problem where when I was on stage one night I’d be in the groove and I was the character, living out of the situation, and the next night I would be lost. I didn’t know how to be consistent. I ended up working with Meisner, and he just went so deeply into each student – finding what they were about and what obstacles we were putting up in being ourselves. He was extraordinary and turned my life around.

He taught in the Neighborhood Playhouse for 33 years, left for five years, and came back. He would sit there and have two 3 hour classes a day at the playhouse and then twice a week a three hour class at night. That was sometimes nine hours a day. But he would sit at that table with the same focus on each student every day. And then he would say the most incredible things. He lost his voice box in the last years of his life to cancer, but still taught with that electronic voice box. He was unfazed.

Patrick McDonald and Christopher Lloyd, February 25th, 2009 Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HC: What was the strangest physical action you had to do in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” to mime or interpret the cartoon action we eventually saw?

CL: For everybody who dealt with the ‘rabbit,’ particularly Bob Hoskins who had to do it every day, we would rehearse with this rubber Roger doll, which had the same presumed weight as the character, and we would have pantomimists who would show us how to use our muscles as if we were handling that weight. Then they would take that away and we’d shoot it. But also Charles Fleischer [voice of Roger Rabbit] made the day. He was dressed up in a kooky, crazy outfit and he did Roger Rabbit, we would focus on him.

HC: You seemed to have an adventurous life, beginning with your boyhood in Connecticut [Lloyd’s mother was part of the Texaco family, his uncle the former Mayor of San Francisco]. What kind of things did you see or people did you meet, as part of your family’s interaction with the American Dream?

CL: That’s a stunning question, I have to absorb that. My mother was sort of the ‘black sheep-ess’ of the family. But I did go to San Francisco in the 1950s for a big family reunion celebrating my uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary.

I went to a boarding school up near Boston and there would be guest speakers. I remember seeing Eleanor Roosevelt speak, on the subject of foreign affairs to 7th and 8th graders. [laughs] And then we all stood in line afterward to shake her hand.

HC: You’ve acted with some of the top individuals in the industry, you’ve been on a revered hit TV show, you’ve created legendary movie roles, but what accomplishment have you had that most people would be surprised about?

CL: I was channel surfing the other day, and ‘The Addams Family’ came on, where I was playing Uncle Fester. And there was a scene where I was jubilant and I’m running upstairs, running upstairs with such exuberance. And I was just blown away, because I could not possibly do that today! No way in the world. And I thought ‘Wow!’ I did that well. I was impressed with myself. [laughs]

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com