2. Michael J. Fox - Marty McFly (Back To The Future)
Back To The Future doesn't make sense without Michael J. Fox, in the same way that
Teen Wolf Too doesn't make sense without Jason Bateman. Uh, bad example, perhaps. Still, Robert Zemeckis' genre-bending comedy sci-fi romance adventure masterpiece is one of the most beloved movies of all time, and that's mostly down to the prescene of its charismatic, impossible-not-to-like lead. And yet the movie started shooting without Michael J. Fox in the central role, back at a time when people thought Eric Stoltz should play main characters in movies. A few weeks into filming, though, Zemeckis and his team (which included Spielberg) realised that they were making the wrong movie, and that was because they didn't have Michael J. Fox in the main role. Stoltz, according to Zemeckis, had "different comic sensibilities," which basically translates as: "You're not funny, Eric." You know who
is funny, though? Michael J. Fox! Stoltz, rather horribly, was fired, and the production waited for Fox to free up so he could come and make movie magic. Which he totally did. Awesomely.