10 Hilariously Obvious Stand-Ins Who Ruined Their Scenes

As many a movie buff will inform you, Michael J Fox wasn’t always going to be Marty McFly. When director Bob Zemeckis (later of Forrest Gump and, er, Welcome to Marwendale fame/ infamy) was trying to put the flick together, he had hoped that the then-star of Family Ties would want the part, but Fox’s involvement with the show tied up his schedule too much.

Producers auditioned Johnny Depp and considered John Cusack (what might have been…), before settling on casting Eric Stoltz. However, the chemistry wasn’t there, and crucially Stoltz was uncomfortable on Marty’s iconic skateboard, so the production was rearranged once more to accommodate Fox’s schedule and thus an all-time classic franchise was born.

With the pre-production chaos it’s easy to understand why stand-ins were utilised regularly throughout the shoot, but it is a bit galling to discover Fox was an adept skateboarder given the chase scene with Biff’s gang midway through the flick.

The diminutive Fox grows a foot taller and gains a mane of black hair, along with a new face, as he hops over the passengers of Biff’s car, and he really must be back from the future, because the stand-in for Marty McFly looks at least a decade Fox’s senior.