MovieChat Forums > Back to the Future Part III (1990) Discussion > Why are Michael J. Fox and Lea Thompson ...

Why are Michael J. Fox and Lea Thompson playing the Irish couple?


First of all those Irish accents were horrible and secondly if you trace Marty's gene pool from 1885 to 1985 it makes absolutely no sense, why would his Great-Great Grandfather look exactly like him and why would his Great-Great Grandmother look exactly like his mother? The "Lea Thompson" genes shouldn't have been introduced into his family until George married Lorraine.

I realize that they wanted to have a reference to the same scene that happened in Parts I and II but this one just didn't make any sense.

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Think you answered your own question there

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In the context of the story it doesn't make any sense though.

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True
I always felt it didn't either

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But i loved seeing the old timey version of lorraine and marty.

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SITCOM STYLE...CHARACTERS HAVENT AGED(ACCORDING TO THE FLASHBACKS)...AND RELATIVES,BOTH ALIVE AND OF THE PAST LOOK JUST LIKE THEM...

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Bingo.

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The producers were saving money. Why hire two new actors when you already have them on contract and available.

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I mean what could have worked would be maybe if Marty stumbled along a large plantation and Lea Thompson was playing the owner's daughter that might work, or if they somehow got Crispin Glover to take Michael J. Fox's role that might work but Michael J Fox being married to Lea Thompson makes absolutely no sense at all, and I'm going to say it again those accents were horrible. Almost as bad as the accents in Forest Gump, Baggar Vance or Cold Mountain.

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"The producers were saving money"

Yeah this is basically it. They were already paying her a bunch, they needed to cast her as something, or else Lea wouldn´t have been in the third movie if she wasn´t one of the original McFly´s. From a story point of view, I agree, its stupid.

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To be honest, the lack of innovation with the casting the BTTF sequels always kind of irked me.

Having Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson, and Tom Wilson play their older and younger selves was fine in the first movie - but then the second movie we have Wilson play Biff of all ages and his grandson (feel free to disagree, but I always found Griff to be annoying, he's supposed to be a more intimating version of Biff but instead comes off as comical), have Michael J. Fox play not only his older self, but also his son AND daughter (they were REALLY pushing it there), and of course Thompson playing her elderly counterpart.

So I guess it's no surprise that casting would once again be recycled in the third movie, with Fox and Thompson playing the Irish McFlys, and Wilson coming back to play yet another Tannen relative, Buford (though to his credit, Buford Tannen does make for an intimidating antagonist and Tom Wilson played him well. Definitely making up for Griff's shortcomings and almost rivalling Biff).
But yeah, the trend does become tiresome by this point, not to mention distracting. Mary Steenburgen playing a love interest of Doc was a breath of fresh air.

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I think the re-use of cast members is meant to be running gag within the BTTF universe

I'm surprised they never considered the implications of Maggie McFly looking exactly like Lorraine Baines, but I suppose after two generations, her descendants could be far enough removed for George and Lorraine to legally marry.

I do agree with Furienna's post, below, that suggests it's just a result of the McFly men's taste in women. Lea Thompson, Claudia Wells and Elisabeth Shue all seem to be similar "types"

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Crispin Glover should've played Marty's great-great-grandfather (if their intent was to recycle actors), but because of the bad blood that he had with Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, that obviously wasn't going to happen. Another suggestion that I just read on here, is having Eric Stolz play Seamus McFly. Eric Stolz was of course, replaced midway into production of the first movie as Marty McFly by Michael J. Fox.

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I believe that the creators said that the McFly men all had the same taste in women.
So that is why Marty's great-grandfather and father had such similar-looking wives.
Also, it is probably not worth it to wonder about it too much.
It's simply a silly part of a movie.

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Cool it dude, it’s just a fun motif that runs through these awesome but ultimately silly movies.

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Let’s review

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