Actor who played George McFly in BTTF2 was blacklisted, provided testimony that awarded Crispin Glover $760,000 out-of-court settlement, confirmed Glover was bullied on-set of 'Back to the Future' (1985)

Turning George McFly Upside-Down: Actor Jeffrey Weissman Goes Back to the Future

J. Weissman:

When Crispin decided he wanted to sue Universal, the cast and the production team, he contacted me and was very whiny about how badly they treated him on the first film. The producers belittled him and made him cry in front of extras on the first shoot, cut his hair without his approval, and how much he had been "done wrong" because they were going to pay him twice scale for the use of the short clips they used of him from the first film, inserted into my work on the second.

I did see that he was being cheated, especially because they used his likeness (Universal's argument was that they were using "George's likeness" [ Weissman was literally credited for his portrayal of Universal's IP; akin to Hank Azaria taking over the role of Sulu from George Takei on the Simpsons, after Takei was dismissed, allegedly after a (pre-)MeToo incident] ), and after Crispin got his $760,000 out-of-court settlement (before it went to trial), using much of our conversation as fuel for his case, Universal blacklisted me and never used me on a TV show or film again, and Crispin has never taken my calls nor spoken to me since.

I took it very hard that production tried to keep my work a secret, kept me from promoting my work on the films publicly, and I had a nervous breakdown when I heard of the blacklisting by Universal. To top it all, hardcore Back to the Futureand Crispin fans have written "hate Jeffrey Weissman" postings in public forums, which are pretty painful. Ahh, showbiz.

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In an attempt to understand the Back to the Future ending better, Crispin Glover invited co-star Lea Thompson to his home. She was befuddled at first. “He invited me over to his all black apartment; black lacquer floors, ceilings, everything. The way he wanted to prepare for that scene is that we were going to paint a painting of a volcano together,” she told magazine The Hollywood Reporter in 2015. “I thought that was the most awesome preparation to play a character ever.” [pic: Weissman & Lorraine BTTF2]

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\"I heard from a crew member that Bob and Robert had purposely written George hanging upside-down because they wanted to torture Crispin during the shoot, as payback for the headaches he caused on the filming of the first installment\" -Weissman

I then met with make-up designer (from the first BTTF film) Ken Chase, and sat for make-up sessions in his backyard workshop, to fit prosthetics to play 17-year-old George for screen tests with Robert Zemeckis and Dean Cundey. The prosthetics made me look like Crispin, but not exactly. Robert asked Dean what he thought of my performance, and I heard Dean say, "I think we have Crispin without the trouble." This was the first time I had an inkling that I was possibly being more than just a stand-in or photo-double.

Recreating a classic scene from the 1985 set

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\"...Spielberg came up to me during the shoot and said sarcastically, 'So, Crispin, I see you got your million dollars after all.' Which is a rude thing to say to your actor whom you are paying a few thousand a week (at that moment, I saw that I was saving production about $975,000).\" --Weissman

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'...one ironic thing that happened in '85: I was cast as a 1950s \"greaser\" in a Cherry Coke commercial directed by film director Stan Dragoti, and it had a Back to the Future theme, with a Marty McFly lookalike taking the cherry flavor in his coke back to the '80s.'

Submitted March 18, 2019 at 06:28AM by BrundellFly https://ift.tt/2TJvK19