Episode Highlights:
- How Jeffrey landed the role of George McFly in Back to the Future Parts 2 and 3
- Hilarious tales of working on Pale Rider with Clint Eastwood
- The challenges and triumphs of recreating iconic scenes in Back to the Future
- Jeffrey’s connection to the Twilight Zone movie and behind-the-scenes anecdotes
- Hollywood’s impact on his career, from personal triumphs to legal controversies
- Rare insights into his work with Crispin Glover and the evolution of actor rights in the industry
You’re going to love my conversation with Jeffrey Weissman
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Jeff Dwoskin 0:28
all right, Lorraine, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week, and this week was no exception. Welcome everybody to episode 356 of classic conversations as always, I am your host. Jeff Dwoskin, great to have you back for what sure to be the most Back to the Future ish episode of all time. My guest today is none other than Jeffrey Weissman, loved him. And Back to the Future two and three, as George McFly, we're talking about that all the controversies behind it, Pale Rider, Twilight Zone, the movie, and so much more coming up in just a few seconds. And in these few seconds, Bonnie Bartlett joined me last week, Little House on the Prairie, saying elsewhere, and so much more. Bonnie shared many amazing stories, and we discussed her memoir middle of the rainbow. Check that out. But first, check out my amazing conversation with fellow Jeff, Jeffrey Weissman. We're diving deep into a lot. You're gonna love it, and that's coming up right now. All right, everyone. I'm excited to introduce my next guest actor, teacher, director, producer, you've loved him and Pale Rider, Twilight Zone, the movie Back to the Future, part two and part three as George McFly, millionaire, things we're gonna dive into. Welcome to the show. Jeffrey Weissman, hello. Your video didn't pop up. You got a bit.
Jeffrey Weissman 2:00
I'm making sure that make them hungry, like, who's coming on, who's going
Jeff Dwoskin 2:06
Yeah, it's great to be talking to another Jeff. Our name is, is so rare these days. So the Jeff club, the Jeff club.
Jeffrey Weissman 2:14
Now, do you do your etymology or entomology anyway? Do you know what Jeffrey comes
Jeff Dwoskin 2:20
from? I think I did at one point. I think it said Anne Murray song. No, it's scary.
Jeffrey Weissman 2:26
Yeah, you're right, absolutely. And came up with the name Godfrey, which originally came from God fearing. That
Jeff Dwoskin 2:33
sounds about right. That sounds right. So let's, let's just, let's just rock this out. A lot of fun stuff to talk about. Definitely want to dive in the back of the feature two and three. But first I would like to talk about who I can only assume is your other your your arch nemesis, Matthew Broderick, so, oh,
Jeffrey Weissman 2:51
oh, Matthew, He, he's not my arch nemesis. It's just, uh, the timing on a couple things were a little off. I
Jeff Dwoskin 2:58
say arch nemesis with love. I know, I know. I mean, like you're in a thing, but I just, I know there's some earlier roles that were in your story that were
Jeffrey Weissman 3:08
Hindsight is a wonderful thing for those going, what are these guys talking about? Let us in on this. I fell into an opportunity to screen test for the lead in war games in 1981 I think it was, it was, it was kind of interesting that that I had a chance to screen test with Ali sheety. I don't know if you can see what I just put up on the screen. Is it big enough? Yeah, yeah. That's the call sheet for the day of my screen test. And you can see the other guys I'm going up against that day. We're all testing with Ali over at MGM, UA, there's Dana Carvey and Eric Stoltz and John Stockwell. A lot of lot of big, big names that we all all tested that day with. Ali, and none of us got it yet. I was, I was the only actor to come in, apparently, without having an agent. I came in through open calls. Martin breast, so many great films he directed. He was the original director on it, and he liked me enough to tell an agent that I was his favorite for the role of David. And she pursued me. She had just opened a new office, boutique agency theatrically in Beverly Hills, and she came to San Francisco, where I was studying at the American Conservatory Theater and State University there, and she kind of wooed me and represented me. You have to in the acting world. You have to negotiate your contract, your your rate of pay before the base screen test you otherwise you have the studio over a barrel. Instead, they want you over a barrel. And it's very interesting. During the screen test, I had this weird thing with with Ali sheety, where you can see I had big hair back then I'm getting my hair big again now, outside the war games, Martin breast and Lisa Weinstein office ally during the screen test, kept kind of looking through me and looking around me. I was like, why am I not getting eye contact with her? And let's kind of look around. And there was Eric Stoltz in the dark corner of the soundstage. Watching. It's like, hmm. So as we know, I didn't get the role. None of the the other guys got the role. I even talked with Sean Penn at one point, who was up for the role of David. And Sean said something was off on that whole production that I passed on. And I was like, anyway, I ran into Eric Stoltz, I don't know, 25 years later, and I asked him, I said, Didn't 8182 were you an ally and item? And he said, what year? I said, about 82 he goes, Yeah, we were living together out in Malibu and blah, blah. I was like, Aha, she was making google eyes at him instead of working with me. But anyway, I shouldn't have let that throw me in. I also, in hindsight, see that a major motion picture, you know, whatever the there were many millions, especially just for building those sets in war games that I don't know that they were going to really rest the success of that film on an unknown shoulders. So But nonetheless, I signed with the agent. I came back to Los Angeles and started working in Hollywood later that year, a year after the war games, I went with a buddy to keep him company to an open call for Lady Hawk, and after going through three hours of the line and casting director saying, we know you, you're not right for this, but your Clint wanted to use me, but he thought my I was, at the time, too angelic to be hit in the face with a gun and Honky Tonk Man, but I was big in their files, so the casting director told me. And then the next day, I get a call from my agent saying, What are you doing going on an open call? I said, Sorry, if I thought you were right for it, don't you think I would submit you? I said, Of course, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to step into your toes. And did you think what happened on war games might happen again, you know, getting a screen. I said, Yeah, I was in the back of my mind, but I really didn't got she said, Good, I got you the only script in town they want to read you tomorrow. I was like, Huh? So I went to the president of casting at Warner Brothers, who asked if I'd read the script. And I said, Sure, any scenes you like? And I said, yeah, they're about 19 scenes I love. I had in 73 four started working at renaissance fairs, and I had my mid English medieval Renaissance, my Shakespearean tongue fairly down, and I loved the script. The casting director said, Let's do all 19 scenes. So I rocked as I could her in her office, and she said, Great, I'm going to speak with Richard Donner tonight, who's in Italy scouting locations, and tell them about you, and we'll be in touch. And so then I forgot about it for a while. I even went to Mexico with my parents for a vacation, and when I got back, my agent was on the phone that was ringing. Where have you been? I said, I told you I was going to Mexico. She goes, Well, you remember that lady Hawk thing? They wanted to screen test you. Now they have an actor who's asking too much money, and they want to bring him down by screen testing an unknown. I was like, Great, okay. And it was like, when's the screen test this afternoon? I was like, oh, boy, it was interesting. I was actually going to Warner Brothers an hour early before my test, just to calm down from LA traffic and stuff. The phone was ringing as I locked my door, I went back in and answered it, and it was the agent saying, Oh, the screen test is off. The actor just came down in his price, and that would be Matthew Again,
Jeff Dwoskin 8:03
Matthew Broderick, right, exactly. That's why I jokingly called him your your arch nemesis, because he was always just squeezing his way into, you know, your potential future
Jeffrey Weissman 8:13
roles. My actor heart ego was, you know, crushed, of course, and I couldn't for many years even go see war games. I finally saw war games, probably about, I don't know, seven years ago. I think I finally, maybe five years ago, and he did a great job. I thought he was good. They cut out one of my favorite scenes. I don't know if you want to be bothered with what that scene was. It was kind of a nasty scene. I can see why they cut it out. But it was very funny how he originally escapes from the the agent who's he's handcuffed to. There was a whole bathroom scene where the sheriffs beat up the agent thinking that he's molesting young David. Anyway. Then, as I digress, the lady Hawk thing just reassured me that, you know, I had to keep at it to build the career. It wasn't going to be flung into Starlight without paying paying the dues. And I still haven't seen it. I still haven't watched lady Hawk, because I know that Matthew, I don't know if anyone else used an English accent, you know, medieval, at least spice. And I really adored Michelle Pfeiffer and respected Rutger Howard. I was really I was hopeful.
Jeff Dwoskin 9:16
Well, I've never seen lady hawk. And out of hey, let's watch it together. We could, we could do a we could do a first reaction. Out of respect to you, though, I'll never watch it until you give me the Go ahead. No,
Jeffrey Weissman 9:27
let's Yeah, let's do it. I think it's time. You know, it's time no more grudges. All
Jeff Dwoskin 9:31
right. We will do that. That'll be a follow up episode everyone can look forward to.
Jeffrey Weissman 9:37
And I'll pause it. Pause it. This is how I would have delivered that line. Oh, my lady. Oh, after moving back to LA, I finally started working, I think, yeah, my first co star role in a film was with John Lithgow on the George Miller episode of the remake of nightmare at 20,000 feet. I had a just a delight. Full interview and audition for George Miller. I personally was shocked that they were going to complete the film because of the Vic Morland children being slaughtered on on that Landis episode. But three months later, you know, Spielberg said they had that episode, enough of it in the can to finish the film. He had everything everyone else was in pre production, so he decided to complete it, which, you know, still, I was happy to have work, though, and to be a part of such a fantastic ensemble. I really immediately dove in to be a collaborator with George and Alan davio, the cinematographer and Garrett Brown, who, in fact, you know, the inventor of the steadicam. It was one of the first films that the Steadicam worked on. And back then, what it weigh? Steadicam, I think, weighed 65 pounds, and Garrett is a big guy. See, if you can see that Is that big enough. So Garrett's running up and down the aisles of the plane, working his tail off while the The grips are rocking the fuselage and things are flying. And it was really a crazy, wonderful film to be a part of. I got along very quickly with Donna Dixon and Abby lane and JD Johnson Charles Knapp. The cast was, I thought, really superlative in working together creating the vision that George Miller had. George was like a little kid in a candy shop. He was his first Hollywood film, and I was a big fan, sensing Mad Max. He was just delightful. And he said, you know, if there's a bit of business or a line that you think might go here or there, let's try it in rehearsal. And sure enough, I came up with about six different things, and I think three of them stayed in the film. That's great. That's awesome. Yeah, it happens also very quickly as because a lot of those shots, Garrett's got film tracking down the aisle, and so you see the wife and I fighting over a pillow, I came up with a couple lines. You know, we get this together here. My wife is panicking, you know, you see me in that one publicity shot standing next to Donna Dixon. Between Us is spas attack a guy with a mohawk who was famous from being bougie boy with Devo, Boogie boy with Devo and dancing with David Bowie on his tour. It was really quite fascinating for me, also to get on film sets early in my career, I just did whatever I could and signed up for a background supply house, where I worked on films like FM with Martin Mull, the late great Martin Mull, on FM, I want to hold your hand as a mechanism. I was a Ringo fan in the crowd. Got brainwashed ballot Alice Cooper and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. And anyway, I had a lot of experience just non acting. It was just being background or bit playing. And when Alan Davia wanted to get close ups of John. He would sometimes put the camera at my seat. I would go to the back of the plane and hang out with the extras. And there I learned these great stories from spaz attack, this guy with the Mohawk, Mohawk, who had just did this fight scene with Harrison Ford in this new film called Blade Runner. Unfortunately, spaz is fight with Harrison got kite. I remember professional extra Jack Burro Milton berle's brother was back there, and he told me the story of when his brother got kidnapped by Al Capone at gunpoint because Uncle Milton had been contracted to play a nightclub in Chicago. Al Capone knew he was coming to town. He wanted to play his club with all due respect, Uncle Milty said, Mr. Capone, I've got this other contract. No, you're gonna play my club. And when he landed at gunpoint, his goons kidnapped Uncle Milton and made him play Al Capone's club one night while we're shooting Twilight Zone, a kitten that my girlfriend's cat had just had kittens and woke me up at like, three in the morning, and hanging off my arm, I was like, Oh, get off. And went back to sleep. And the next day I felt a little weird, and I developed a lump in my elbow, and I was in the back of the aircraft, and Jack bro saw me rubbing it. He said, What? What's that? I said, Oh, I don't know. It's, I don't know, sister, something in my elbow. He said, Yeah, yeah, just rub that. That'll go away. Well, needless to say, it turned into two and then the next day, I had another one up in my armpit, and then I started getting these red lines down my arm, so I wasn't feeling so great. So at lunch, I was going to have lunch I remember with John Lithgow that day, and I had put it off and went to the Warner Brothers nurse, who sent me to a doctor nearby, who said, drop your drawers, and gave me two shots of penicillin. She said that those red lines going up your your arm, that was, that's blood poisoning. I had Cat Scratch Fever from the kitten, which added to the rest of my shoot. When I was on the set, you know, I was feeling kind of sick and out of easiness for the rest of the shoot, with the arc lamps doing the lightning and everyone screaming and everything. It was a little hair raising to shoot Twilight Zone movie with Cat Scratch Fever. But I I loved it. There was I met one of my heroes at the rap party, Scott man Crothers, going up the elevator to the party. I remember he was wearing these cool Ray Bans. I said, Jack, where'd you get those glasses? He said, Ah, my friend, Jack. Nick. And give me these. When I was up there in Canada shootings, shining far out, and I was just, I get starstruck. I love it. I have no problem saying when I met, you know, Donna on the set, she immediately started opening up to me, telling me about her problems. She had just broken up with the cat from kiss that she was dating. And anyway, so we got very close very quickly, and I was quite taken with her beauty. And I think it was at that rap party that she got together with Dan Aykroyd, and they're still together. Missed
Jeff Dwoskin 15:29
it by that much.
Jeffrey Weissman 15:32
Anyway, I met Dan I when he was shooting sneakers and I was playing characters at Universal's tour. I brought that photo I just showed of me and Donna, and I said, Would you give a copy of this to your wife, please, and tell her how nice it was to work with her and and he was kind of stunned, what are you doing with pictures of my wife? Was the look. I was like, oh god.
Jeff Dwoskin 15:49
Well, he's a big conspiracy theorist, so, yeah,
Jeffrey Weissman 15:51
I don't know, Say it Ain't So Dan,
Jeff Dwoskin 15:55
yeah, Google that later. That's a whole different rabbit hole. Uh, we'll do that as a third episode after the lady Hawk episode, but the Twilight Zone, like, I'm a huge fan, like, I grew up loving the Rod Serling Twilight Zone, like my half my shelf is Twilight Zone right now. And I have the guy from the wing from the original 20,000 you know, the that episode, and big teddy bear, yeah, it's funny. It's, I mean, Dan Aykroyd stole that movie, like, as great as everyone else was. His one line, oh, want to see something really scary that, I think, is, like, the one thing that like sticks out the most. Yeah, your segment was amazing. Scat man, I was going to mention scat man, the kick the can episode was great. I think that was Spielberg's segment, right? That
Jeffrey Weissman 16:38
was But Joe Dante's was superlative. I just loved, you know, the insanity cartoon. You know, I'm sending you to cartoon land and for what's her name, does Bart's voice.
Jeff Dwoskin 16:50
Oh, yeah, I know. I know who you're talking about. Yeah, that she was brilliant. Yeah. That segment scared me as a kid. That whole reimagining of the send me to the cornfield, and all that, the Billy mommy remake that was lift out. Was the perfect new person, though, to replace Shatner. I gotta say that, but it was well, what John
Jeffrey Weissman 17:08
loved and the I remember, I remember the next day my acting coach was going to come to Warner Brothers to have lunch with me. And I asked John, because we had to reschedule the lunch. I had to when I had to get the shots, if that would be all right. He said, Fine, fine. And then, sure enough, at lunch, John had been screening so much, he said, Jeff, I gotta pass. I shouldn't be talking. I'm saved my voice, and I was, I totally understood what John did or had was a gift on that with George's direction. He told me that usually he's told to bring it down. You know, he's a big man weaned on stage, and he always has to bring it down for film. And on this, George was doing the opposite. He was saying, no bigger, bigger. I love it. I love it. And George was beside himself, because it was one of the first times that, technically, they had adapted a tap or something on the lens of the camera so they could run a video monitor. It was one of the first times they had video playback, or at least to monitor, so he could see what Alan davio or Garret brown were seeing in their lens. And George was beside himself. He loved it. It was just a thrilling set for me to be on, and I cherish the long relationship Margaret Fitzgerald, who played my wife on that her now ex husband and I have remained friends, and it's been, you know, 40 plus years, 1983
Jeff Dwoskin 18:25
that came out in 83 Okay, anyway, anyway, I
Jeffrey Weissman 18:30
do that same thing. I'd put my foot in my mouth. I remember having lunch with Clint Eastwood during shooting a Pale Rider. He would talk tell old stories over lunch, and one who told the story of a director who had Parkinson's or something, had a shake, and the actors the director would say action, and his shake would get more intense, and the actors would actually see this out of the corner of their eye, and they'd stop and go, What? And he'd go, no, no, you're fine. Keep going. Keep going. And I said, Oh, was this like when you did rowdy Yates on rawhide? And he said, No, no, we didn't. That wasn't I didn't do rowdy eights until 58 I was like, 58 Gosh, that's when I was born, and everyone, everything went real quiet. I was like, Oh, God, don't talk about an actor's age. I should know better. Clint is still going strong with making movies. He's a phenomenon. I had a really great time, though, on that shoot, and it was a miracle that I got that role, because if you like stories, this is a truly long one, but it's good. Chris Penn, you know Sean's little brother, who's very talented. God rest him. He had met Clint at a party or somewhere, and and said, I want to do a film with you. So Clint sent him pale writer, which was a Western that I think the writers had been trying to get him to do for 10 years. Think one of the writers told me that Warner Brothers finally threw enough money in a bus at him and said, You can direct too. Chris was offered the role of Eddie Conway spiders, oldest son, or Yeah, we weren't twins. And Chris threw the script back and said, I want to play a good guy. I want to play bad guy. So then Clint moved Chris over to LA. Good son, and moved Chuck Lafon, who was playing Eddie Conway to or he was playing Teddy Conway to Eddie Conway. And then that left Teddy open. And my remember the agent I mentioned, who chased me down when I was up for war games. She would bug the casting director, directors of every studio weekly. She was a real pain in the ass casting directors told me, but it worked. Method worked because when she called Warner Brothers, think it was Lauren Lloyd or Marion dower Dougherty, she said, What do you got casting that I may not have been released in the back in the breakdowns, and the breakdowns is how the studios and casting let agents know what's available for their actors, their clients. The casting director said, Well, we've got this one role in this Clint Eastwood film that we haven't released because we think we'll cast it from our own files. And she said, Well, describe it. Maybe I have a client that's right for it. And she thought I fit the description. So she got me an interview, and when I got the script, I could see that I needed to cry on cue. I have studied over the years many different acting techniques. And I prepared three different techniques, a Meisner fantasy charging technique, where you imagine the death of your father, which the scene was about. Or I used exercises of the method is Strasburg, Lee Strasberg, loosely based on early Stanislavsky of emotional recall and sense memory. I had a lock of my grandmother's hair in my pocket, who was the only one in my family who encouraged me to pursue my acting. My parents would not let me act outside of school productions. Generally, growing up, I was going to leave anything to fate, and was going to be able to cry on on cue, as it turned out, because I, at the time, was also studying a very zen approach of acting, of just giving yourself over to the material and letting it resonate. That's what I did, and that's what worked. I didn't have to fall back on any of the other techniques, and the tears came fine when Fritz man put me on tape, because Clint was already in Idaho in pre production. I cried on cue. Clint saw that and hired me, and I was on a plane. This was, like on a Friday and on Monday or Tuesday, I was on a plane headed to Idaho to make a Western with Clint Eastwood for six weeks on on location. It was really a another pinch myself kind of situation where, where I had scenes with Clint, got to play cowboy. It's awesome. Here I am with daddy's dead body, telling him that the bad guys want him to come to town and take care of him. Now, little did they know there he was going to while we were shooting, the weather got really gnarly. We had with the wind chill many below 10 degree days. The practical set that they built was on the top of a mountain. So wherever Bruce Surtees put his camera, he had the sawtooth or the white cloud or the Salmon River Mountains, breathtaking shots background, so that that holds up in that film really well for that big scene that where you see me crying there over daddy's dead body, it took us three days to shoot that one scene where Doug, as spider gets shot, comes into town drunk after finding the big nugget of gold. And if you look closely, if you've watched that, here's another one we can watch together, and I'll point it out again when he's first calling out the hood and his guys, they're in sun, sunshine. I think the next day we're in a blizzard. Anyway, there was snow on the ground. Then all the snow melted, and then they had to bring in the oil based fake snow for the third day, the final when brother and I leave the mercantile and get to daddy's dead body. As you can see me crying over daddy's dead body here in this shot, Clint did something that a lot of directors now do that. I think he learned from Don Siegel, from the Dirty Harry movies, who learned from John Ford to shoot the rehearsals. And if you got the scene in rehearsal, you could just move on, not worry about getting a take. And that saves film, and it saves money, and it saves time. And you know, we had worked three days already on this one scene, and when we talked about the blocking, discussing where Chuck as Eddie was going to go, where I as Teddy was going to go over Doug his spider's dead body. When we got to roll on the rehearsal, Chuck went to my spot, so I shift gears real quick, and I go to his spot, and I'm at daddy's head crying, and I almost slip on this. I did slip on this oil based snow, because the snow had melted from the previous day, and I almost kicked poor Doug in the head and and I but I didn't break, you know, I kept the scene going, the the emotions going, although it was Tim below with a wind chill, and I could feel the tears freeze in my eyes. And when I heard that call cut, let's move on, I got into his face. I said, Clint, Chuck didn't hit his mark on was kick dug in the head. Let's do it again, please. You know, that way we can do it right? He, he thought about it, and he thought about, and he said, No, no, we're just going to cut from your face, which meant I had the close up, so I'm not going to argue with that. And that's what stayed in the film, which was very nice, and that's what that shot was from,
Jeff Dwoskin 24:50
excellent. There you go. So it all worked out for you.
Jeffrey Weissman 24:54
So look closely at those scenes. You'll see it's blizzarding when it cuts to brother and I at the mercantile. And. And then daddy, back to daddy or the deputies there in the sunshine. It's very great. Editing, wonderful editing.
Jeff Dwoskin 25:06
Sorry to interrupt. Have to take a quick break, but I do want to thank everyone for their support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors, you're supporting us here at Classic conversations, and that's how we keep the lights on. And now back to my conversation with Jeffrey Weiss, we're diving into a couple of Beatles movies he was part of, and we're back. You mentioned I want to hold your hand and Sergeant Pepper's only Hearts Club Band. Your early, uncredited extra roles were very Beatles focused, even FM all music. You came in strong on music.
Jeffrey Weissman 25:39
Yeah, I'm which number am I here? I think I'm the third one going in from the right in the second row. Basically the dark haired guy with his arm up. We're doing our chanting. Forget what the lyric was. But because I had a little dance move in that, they upgraded my contract from being a waiver extra to being a union extra, which meant or a dancer? No, I was now a dancer so I could join the union, which was $350 to join. Then I was dirt poor and had to pay my rent instead of joining the union. I didn't join until Twilight's own movie, you know, five years later. But nonetheless, it was really cool. I play Strawberry Fields brother in the balloon scene when Peter and the Bee Gees are headed off in or the band is headed off to pepperland in the hot air balloon. I'm in the Earth Wind and Fire crowd scene, and then being brainwashed. Alice Cooper, I really became fond of this one blonde dancer. I remember the second day we actually had lunch together off the live. She was just delightful. And on the third day, we had Alice there on video most of the time. I think Alice had been in rehab, and he just got out. Was coming on set on this third day, and I went up to this lovely dancer girl say, Good morning. And she said, Oh, Jeffrey, I want you to meet my my husband, Alice, how do you do
Jeff Dwoskin 26:55
that's your second example of having a little crush on the famous actor, guy's wife. He is
Jeffrey Weissman 27:00
wonderful, just a delightful person, that they're still together, and I can understand why. One morning, you know, I'm 7018, years old, and I'm on the set there at MGM, and my nose is trained. I can smell pot at 730 in the morning, I'm like, who's smoking pot on the sound stage, and I follow my nose, and it takes me to Barry Gibb looking at Dewey at 730 in the morning. He goes, Sure You want some Okay, and there's tobacco in that. He goes, Well, that's how we like it, you know? And I'm like, oh, no, you're ruining it. And it was very funny, and just really right then Robin Gibb comes running over and says, brother, Barry, we just made number one on the Billboard charts with their children of the world. Whatever album that was popular had just come out. I was the first to congratulate the Bee Gees on that. Anyway, lots of stories from that silly movie. If we do a screening, I'll I'll tell the stories as we
Jeff Dwoskin 27:53
go. Amazing. We this can be a whole podcast, Jeff and Jeff on film. I like it, so I want to hold your hand though they mentioned that was Roberts magus, written by him and Bob Gale who then went on to Back to the Future, but Mark McClure and Wendy Joe Sperber also in that movie. Yeah,
Jeffrey Weissman 28:08
and Mark is a very good friend, and Wendy Joe is a good friend. In fact, it was Wendy Joe who's kind of got an invite from Wendy Joe to come to one of her fundraiser golf tournaments in Santa Barbara. It really was the second time I'd, I'd met Claudia wells. Claudia and I drove up from LA together to go to that and Wendy, Joe was beloved by everyone, really. You can, you can tell if you ever go to the we spark website or look up any of the we spark fundraisers, you see, you know her old castmate, Tom Hanks, or any number of very big stars come out in support of her Cancer Support Center, we spark. And I remember at that celebrity golf tournament that she had fundraiser. I was in the in the bar because I wasn't going to golf that day, and I'm having a drink next to Jennifer Garner, and she just opened up and started talking with me, and then the press, the paparazzi found us and surrounded her, and I was like, okay, that's that's the end of my relationship with her. The things that Wendy Joe would do for people, she was incredibly funny, incredibly compassionate, and she was totally Beloved. And it just was heartbreaking that that she passed so early, but she did leave a wonderful legacy of her work and then this cancer support center that I from time to time try to get in to help raise funds for, I produced a Back to the Future Cruise 10 Parkinson's that we also had, we sparked represented on it. We do various charities. I probably have worked for hundreds of events and charities over the years, and try to always bring attention to to the cause for windy Joe. But I digress. So she was she was on, I want to hold your hand. I'm in the scene outside the Beatles New York hotel as a Ringo fan, and it's a typical Burbank back lot day. It's over 100 degrees, and we're all dressed, padded up for winter, deep. Winter in New York City, where it's, you know, lightly snowing. And Zemeckis, I don't know why he didn't feel competent directing the scene, so he brought in his buddy, Spielberg to direct the scene. And the extras were dropping like flies, because we're all bundled in coats, heavy coats, and wraps and stuff. And it was, it was a long, long day. It was pretty brutal, another hot day like that on Repo Man, my my bit was cut on Repo Man, it was one of the UFO enthusiasts in the bank where Emilio takes the role into the vault to make love. That was 105 degree day. And since I went to same high school as Emilio and Penn brothers at all, I was friendly. And I said, Emilio, we're dying here. Can we use your trailer when, when you're not using he said, help yourself. So I got some air conditioning, which was nice.
Jeff Dwoskin 30:45
Was Michael Nesmith around for repo man at all if
Jeffrey Weissman 30:48
he was I didn't recognize him. I was too busy sweating.
Jeff Dwoskin 30:53
That was a Michael Nesmith production. He was executive producer.
Jeffrey Weissman 30:56
How very cool is that. What a great songwriter he was. Loved him.
Jeff Dwoskin 31:00
Loved him, loved him. All right, so let's, let's transition. Let's talk about Back to the Future two and three. George McFly, yes, yes. Well,
Jeffrey Weissman 31:09
Hmm, how Where do I begin?
Jeff Dwoskin 31:12
Well, let's, let's see we have Back to the Future one, right?
Jeffrey Weissman 31:15
So I wanted to see pale riders competition for I've got so many things I in my my head to start talking about. I'm not sure where to begin. In that summer of 84 no summer of 85 I wanted to see what the competition was for pill rider. And sure enough, that was when Back to the Future was coming out as well. So I went to see Back to the Future. Just because I was so excited about Pale Rider coming out, I climbed the billboard over the Sunset Strip and had my girlfriend take the picture. That's a great thing. I know that's going to read on your small screens at home, but follow along with it. So I went to see the first Back to the Future. I was already a fan of Mike Fox from family ties and Chris Lloyd from taxi and Bucha Ruby, Banzai, etc. And I was really knocked out. What how much fun the movie was. And then, then, when George, when Crispin Glover came on, I was like, I know that guy. I had done a film with Crispin at the American Film Institute in 83 and I was fascinated by his work. It was a film also starring Daniel Herlihy and Crispin was being very cool. He wore these great Italian boots that I had a pair of as well. So we had things to talk about. We exchanged phone numbers. So when I got home, I called him up and got his answering machine and said, congratulated him on his role as George. He knocked it out of the park. He was really wonderful. So then flash forward, I started working for Universal Studios as Stan Laurel. I got in between television and film work. So I started playing Stanley Laurel up the tour in 87 that took me into amazing places where I would would I never have done had I not fallen into that type of work? I got along great with Stanley Laurel's family, Lois Laurel his daughter. And then when I worked on Diagnosis Murder, I got to talk with Dick Van Dyke all day about his relationship with Stanley Laurel. Here we're both doing our Stan Laurel impressions. And the agent who referred me to that job called me up one day in 88 and said, Do you know who Crispin Glover is? And I said, Of course, I do. We did a film together at AFI blah blah. He said, Are you the same height and weight? And I said, No, he's taller and probably heavier. He goes, Well, they're looking for a photo double for this film project. For him, I said, I need the work. Get me in there. Sure enough, it was for the back to the future sequels. Both two and three were called paradox at the time, and I had a good meeting with the ad's, and then went to casting and had a good audition, and then started getting fitted for body casts and facial molds and makeups. And I figured they needed George in two places at the same time, because they were making these makeups for me to be similar to what Crispin looked like. And I called Crispin, and once again, left him a message saying you remember me, your buddy Jeffrey, say good word. I need the work. You know, I'm up for being your your photo double and standing whatever they're going to use me for it. I probably need George in two places at the same time, like they did with Kevin Holloway and Michael J Fox and Crispin didn't call me back then. I screen tested in the young George makeup, which I should probably bring up for you. I've had people say, No, you weren't in those movies. I go well, but yes, I was. After four hours of makeup a day, I would play George age 17 and 77 and part two and age 47 and part three. Well,
Jeff Dwoskin 34:34
I mean, I tell you something i Yesterday, I said to a friend, oh, I'm talking tomorrow with Jeffrey Weissman. He was he took over the Crispin Glover role in Back to the Future, two and three. And his reaction was, Crispin Glover wasn't in two and three. A
Jeffrey Weissman 34:50
lot of people, you know, it's what Spielberg and Zemeckis and Bob Gale Neil Canton, that's what they wanted to do, is give you the idea that everything was seamless, that he was still there. Because he was so vital to the first story. The first story was George's story. Crispin apparently made too many demands on the first film, and Leah had painted a painting together of a volcano that he brought into the set, and then got very upset when Zemeckis refused his demand that the painting be in the McFly home, in the living room, on the wall. He would disappear during shooting. He would not let anyone trim his hair. He kind of pissed a lot of people off, but I understand his creative temperament, very eccentric. Nonetheless, they offered him the role. I wasn't part of the negotiations, but what I can discern is that they offered him, I think, 100,000 which I believe that was around what they were offering Leah and Tom for their role reprisals. And then Crispin wanted a million and script approval. I know about the million because while we were shooting, Spielberg came up to me while I'm in the body suit to do the spin for pizza, which was cut out of the film. You can see it in the bonus material called pizza, deleted scene. I'm in this body cast, and Spielberg comes up to me and says, So George, I see you got your million dollars after all. And I was like, at that point, I knew that I was saving them a great chunk of change. And then when part three came out, and Crispin called me and said, you know, it wasn't fair what they did to me. I said, Well, what did they do to get Crispin? He told me that they used his life mask in my makeups without his permission or payment. So they didn't cover licensing. They always covered licensing for the characters in the park and other usage. Apparently, they figured that Chrisman was going to be too difficult or what have you. So they didn't even pursue getting his permission. And so, of course, he sued. I was willing to talk with his attorney, and I shared my stories and photos, and I think that was kind of the leverage. I got deposed for nine hours once, and eight hours another time. So 17 hours of being deposed, I think universal saw that they weren't going to win, and the insurance company paid Crispin to go away for three quarters of million dollars, a little more. The Screen Actors Guild came up with a rule that producers cannot use another actor's likeness without their permission. So it's interesting, because I'm I learned, of course, from various sources, that I had been blacklisted because it came out that I had spoken with Crispin and his attorney, and then the trolls. Now, when anyone posts something like a picture of me with the cast in that makeup, I'm called terrible names by the trolls. It's, it's kind of scary and upsetting for me. I think I'm a little too sensitive, but at least I have been discovered by the fans. In 2008 we did the first cast reunion at the Hollywood show, I was really embraced by the fans. And since then, from time to time, I go to fan cons, you know, I get lots of fan mail and lots of requests for autographs. Or, you know, can you wish my family member, big back the future fan, a happy birthday, that sort of things. So it's a mixed blessing. I have the kind of legacy of being kind of the glue for the people who didn't know it was a different actor keeping the trilogy kind of together there in regards to George, and then I helped Crispin get his money and helped, you know, because of that case, the rule which has come, of course, to light again, because of AI and the advent of the ease with which someone can be replaced. Everyone think goes right back to, you know, my work in, in back future, Back to the Future two and three. It's a tenuous situation with the reunions now, because I tell the truth and various other parties don't have any desire to make amends. The bobs and Crispins, I don't know if they'll ever get along and do a reunion together or something for the fans, which I would love to see. I would love to see, you know, the 40th and I would love to see a fundraiser for Michael's charity, where everyone gets together and and gets along. We should, you know, it's all about Michael. Really, it's
Jeff Dwoskin 38:50
a great point. I you know, it's trolls. Be trolls, you know, it's one of those things you just kind of kind of block out, because people tend to, especially on the internet, only kind of want to take in the part of the story that they want to take in. And don't really understand all the facts. I did not understand why they had you upside down. And number two, I know they said you had a back injury with playing golf the character, I mean, but had you been a pain in the butt, with or without makeup during
Jeffrey Weissman 39:16
production? I heard that the hanging upside down in urban legend. That's because it was another actor, which is not true. It was that they had meant to always hang Crispin upside down in this ortho level of the future, because he was kind of a pain in the ass. And I think that's why they wanted to have him on this track that they could control his movements. He I believe the Bobs were frustrated because he would often over shoot his marks, or undershoot his marks, and this way, by hanging him upside down in that ortho level of the future that Edward diet designed, they could control his movements, and they'd always have him where they wanted him.
Jeff Dwoskin 39:55
Very interesting. So I'm here to here to get your urban legends. Yes, well, you know, I just you kind of covered a bunch of it, so they you were never in danger with the deposition. They were using you more against the Bobs, likely in favor of proving Crispin's point. Yeah,
Jeffrey Weissman 40:12
Crispin's attorney was being vague in the suit. It was suing John Doe from one to 100 so they could sue anyone they wanted because of discovery. Who would they find was at fault? I was represented by the universal attorneys, and I think that's why it came to bite me in the butt that it came out, when it came out that I was helping Crispin and his attorney, the profile of the young George makeup. It's the Polaroid that I had that probably won the the case for me, or for him, rather.
Jeff Dwoskin 40:43
So I take it you and Crispin are not taught you still don't talk, I would guess,
Jeffrey Weissman 40:48
you know, after he got his settlement, we had talked plenty during when he wanted to sue and wanted money. Then after he got a settlement, you know, I called and I said, Hey, you know, I left on his message machine. It's Jeffrey. You want to give me a call back and debrief. You know, he didn't call back and didn't call back. So finally, I called his machine on his answering device, his outgoing messages. Him saying hello, so I did that too after the beep, hello, and he picked up the phone laughing and he thought I was another friend of his. And it was obviously awkward timing. He was like, Oh, two, two. I said, Chrisman, you want to take me to dinner or buy me a drink as a thank you for helping you. And sure, sure, sure, let me call you back. That was the last conversation I had with him. And now, you know he's out there in the press saying that he didn't care for my, that actor's performance. And I was like, really what I was thrown in in the 11th hour, because you wouldn't come back make terms you had the choice of coming back and doing the performance you wanted anyway.
Jeff Dwoskin 41:47
That is unfortunate. That is unfortunate.
Jeffrey Weissman 41:49
Sour Grapes everywhere.
Jeff Dwoskin 41:53
Do you regret doing it? That's a good
Jeffrey Weissman 41:55
question. Do I regret not necessarily. I love having been a part of this incredible trilogy, which is now voted, you know, one of the top three, oh no, I'm sorry, one of the top 10 trilogies of all time, which is very cool. And then I have these fans, the this fan base around the world, that many I've become friends with from everywhere, from Japan and Russia and Brazil and Argentina and Italy, you know, just it's astounding, the reach of the trilogy, and they respect these fans that respect my, my participation in it, that, you know, go to bat against the trolls quite often. For me,
Jeff Dwoskin 42:35
that's good. There's, there's always the the lovers and the haters. So you, you know, anytime you're part of an interesting controversy. But I mean, with Back to the Future, you know, like it's, it's also historically known, you know, you know Eric Stoltz. I mean, they shot half the film with him and then replaced him. And you mentioned Claudia wells earlier. They replaced her in two and three with Elizabeth shoe. You never hear a thing about that, they
Jeffrey Weissman 43:01
kind of say, well, well, they replaced Claudia with Elizabeth. Why? They just let the actor, they replaced Crispin with use his own face? And it was like, Well, I think it was just they couldn't I think rushing to get that money that the studio was offering too quick to really work things out. I don't know. I could try to explain it. Do you think
Jeff Dwoskin 43:19
if Claudia Wells had stayed, they would have been able to let you be you. Do you think it was just the whole idea of two cast members being different that they just couldn't deal with or juggle or want people to have to internalize and accept?
Jeffrey Weissman 43:31
This is a question I really I can't answer. I can speculate. Yeah, of course,
Jeff Dwoskin 43:36
yeah, yeah. Speculate away. That's all. Wait. You don't know the actual answer
Jeffrey Weissman 43:42
I did. I had heard that Claudia didn't come back because she had some physical problems, that she had some weight, she couldn't drop in time. She had some other personal problems. And then, of course, her mother's illness. And Zemeckis had worked with Elizabeth on adventures and babysitting, and was probably very close, and got her to step in, and yes, she didn't look all that much like Jennifer, but the part was so small that they figured they could get away with it, whereas everyone's attention on the mcflys, especially, I know all the young guys who had a crush on Jennifer from the first film were probably going, Hey, that's not the same gal, But with George being such an integral part of of the scenes that they needed to recreate, for paradox, all the fights with Biff, the you know, the enchantment under the sea dance that had to be recreated, they needed to have Crispin. And if they didn't have Crispin, what other way did they have they were they're in a between a rock and a hard place. So when you see that kiss in going on again on the dance floor, or you see the fight from Strickland's office with Biff, those are all me, and then they the enchantment under the sea dance cut some close ups of Crispin from the first film, and that was one of the things. That Crispin used when he told me that they weren't going to pay him, but scale, I guess maybe a couple $1,000 for the reuse of those scenes from the first film intertwined with my work. That upset me, because he had no option to negotiate, that they didn't give him the option. And I thought that was terribly unfair, and as much as of an so and so that he was being on set and for everyone and towards people, he was not being treated fairly, I thought, and that's why I helped him. It also hurt that they kind of railroaded me. They lied when they said I was going to be a photo double or a stand in, and then at the last minute, switched me into the role. It was my makeup artist, Ken Chase, who told me I was going to be George? Oh, wow. It wasn't casting. Casting called, like, at 6pm on a Friday, just as my agency, my agents were closing, my agents called and said, hey, they want you as George. We got to negotiate. I was like, Oh my God, and they wanted me to go into production. You know, the next Monday, they didn't even negotiate my billing. And here was major role that I've had shared title cards on Pale Rider and other films, and they wanted it at producers discretion. One of the first days of shooting, went to Zemeckis, and I said, Do you mind, Bob, give me a title card or a shared title card, and because it'd be a step backwards in my career. And he said, Yeah, I got no problem with the shared title card. And then on part two, you see me and James Tolkien as the fifth and sixth title card credits, because that's how you build your career as an actor. And shortly after that conversation with Bob Z he obviously had told Bob Gale and Neil Canton, they came running over yelling at me, you're never talking about building with the director. I said, Well, my agent screwed up, or, you know, neglected it, and it would be and I told them, be a step backwards for me to take anything less. And they were fuming. And then after production, I just wrote a letter asking some mecus to initial it and send it back to me that we had that agreement. So I had it in writing. I had a publicist who wanted to promote me, but she wouldn't do that until I had in writing, that verbal agreement I had with Bob z and that apparently pissed Bob Z off, because when I went to visit him during the production of death becomes her, he was standoffish. And I said, Bob, what's the matter? And he said, well, that whole letter thing. And I said, Well, that was because I needed it for a publicist request, because she wouldn't work with me unless I had in writing. And he said, No, you shouldn't have done that. I was like, okay, so he never calls. At least he
Jeff Dwoskin 47:23
got to do the role. Could have been worse. They could have been, you know what? Jeffrey, we just, we just got another actor came available. We got Matthew Broderick. Boom, call back. All right, Jeffrey, this has been amazing. I loved all these stories. Thanks for hanging out with me. Are
Jeffrey Weissman 47:39
you kidding? It's been a pleasure for me, and I have, once again, all these wonderful experiences at the fan cons. I had a photo of me as Sam Laurel with Ed Asner, where I put a fright wig on his bald head. You know, you've had a lot of really great people. And I've, I've known off and on, met Johnny Whitaker over the years, because when I was a little kid, I was friends with Anissa, Anissa Jones, who played Buffy on family affair. You know I was looking at I was like, oh, you know Steve Bluestein and Wendy lieben and you know her husband, Jeff Sherman of the Jeff club. Yep, Jeff Sherman, my step grandfather was, was cousins with his father and uncle the Sherman Brothers. That's amazing.
Jeff Dwoskin 48:15
I'm just connecting all the dots. I know I love it. I love it. So we should. We can get Jeff Sherman on our Jeff and Jeff and Jeff talk movies only have guests on guess how it said our name? Jeff
Jeffrey Weissman 48:29
and I did a film with his ex wife, with Lisa, called Road girls. It was the first thing Catherine Hardwick directed out of college with Catherine from Twilight fame and 13 fame. And anyway, so I'm just connecting all the dots. When you have more time, we'll connect more dots a lovely,
Jeff Dwoskin 48:45
small world we live in. Thank you so much. You're awesome. Jeffrey, thank you so much. Keep the faith, Jeff. You too, Jeff. To Jeffs, all right. Well, I'll see you at the next official Jeff meeting that in San Antonio next year.
Jeffrey Weissman 49:00
Oh, is it San Antonio this year? Yeah, excellent, great. I love the river walk.
Jeff Dwoskin 49:06
Hey, Jeff, where can people keep up with you on the socials? Well,
Jeffrey Weissman 49:09
I can be reached pretty much many places. I have my website. Jeffreywiseman.com, people have the need for an autograph, merchandise, a photo, or aluminum pizza, foil pizza FUT or action figure on X I'm at Jeff j, e, f Weisman on Instagram, I'm at Jeffrey J Weissman Facebook, my fan page is Jeffrey Weissman actor, all right,
Jeff Dwoskin 49:37
I'll put all that in the show notes, all that good all that good stuff. We'll talk again. I feel like we're best pals now, and we'll go from there. Thank you so much, Jeff, thank you. I'll see you in the future. In the future, all right, how amazing was Jeffrey Weissman, those are some good stories, huh? On the Crispin Glover, Back to the Future, two and three, legal drama and a bunch of other great stories as well. Now check out Jeff's website. I'll put all the links in the show notes. Wow, that just flew by, huh? I know there's a lot of cool pictures in the YouTube video version of this as well. By the way, if you want to check that out and subscribe on YouTube, that's awesome. Another huge thank you to Jeffrey Weissman, and, of course, a huge thank you to all of you once again for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.
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