In this excerpt, Bob talks about the casting process, followed by each of those actors telling how they ultimately got their roles. Tom Wilson’s story of his audition process is one of my favorites.
We had the pleasure of hosting a 20th Anniversary cast reunion for “Back To The Future,” that included writer/producer Bob Gale and cast members Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown), Lea Thompson (Lorraine) and Tom Wilson (Biff). That evening was especially fun for me because, in addition to being a huge fan of BTTF, it gave me an opportunity to reunite with Bob Gale after many years. Growing up in St, Louis, I had known the Gale family since I was in first grade with one of Bob’s younger brothers as not only a classmate, but later as my Bar Mitzvah partner. Bob was one of the first people I contacted when I initially moved to Los Angeles for college.
We were doing a fair number of DVD launch events for most of the studios at the time. Universal was getting ready to release the trilogy on DVD and asked us to host a 20th Anniversary celebration. While Michael J. Fox was unavailable to participate, unfortunately, with Bob’s help we had not only the cast members listed above, but also Claudia Wells (Marty’s girlfriend) and the film’s editor Harry Karamidas.
