MovieChat Forums > Back to the Future Part II (1989) Discussion > Were there any better options to replace...

Were there any better options to replace Claudia Wells than Elisabeth Shue?


The main criticism that I've heard about Shue is that she's quite hammy and annoying as Jennifer, which was completely inconsistent with the way that Claudia Wells portrayed her in the first movie. Plus (and maybe this isn't entirely fair), Shue looked a tad bit too old to be plausible as a teenager. In fairness, she's only about two years younger than Michael J. Fox is in real life. And it wasn't that long ago that she played a teenage girl in Adventures in Babysitting, despite already being in her early 20s.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BacktotheFuture/comments/gtopx2/who_wouldve_been_a_better_replacement_jennifer/

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[deleted]

They should deepfake Shue replacing her with Wells.

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I think it's difficult for a second actor/actress to replace an established part.

In the second film, they tried to make the new Jennifer look like the original actress who played her. And she ended up with a look/style of clothing that didn't really suit the actress. Not really Elisabeth Shue's fault, of course.

Then again, it was years before I realised that it was a different actress, so she can't have done a bad job.

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They plopped this wig on Elisabeth Shue (who normally has blonde hair) that was meant to resemble Claudia Wells' hairstyle in the first BTTF, but there was something very "off" about it. I don't know how to fully explain it other than that Elisabeth's hair was much flatter looking and not as vibrant as Claudia's. You can kind of easily tell that Elisabeth's wearing a wig based on the hairline.

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I think it's difficult for a second actor/actress to replace an established part.


Yep. Virtually impossible really. Their only shot would have been to pore through the tens of thousands of head shot pics in the unknown actress bible and pick someone who at least resembled Wells. Face it, the role required zero acting skills.

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Yeah I never noticed for years either.

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Total miscast.

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I just thought about it the other day, but combined with this and The Karate Kid, Elisabeth Shue back in the '80s, sort of became typecast as the girlfriend/love interest of a baby-faced young man (Michael J. Fox and Ralph Macchio respectively) with an eccentric old man as a mentor (Doc Brown and Mr. Miyagi respectively).

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There is something to be said about the many similarities which exist between The Karate Kid and BTTF, as you can gather from this article: https://popcultmaster.com/2017/11/12/danny-and-marty/

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[deleted]

The 2nd Saavik from Star Trek III would've worked out better.

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[deleted]

I think I watched the first one all the way through, just once. Doesn't that girl only have like 3 lines?

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