‘See You Yesterday‘ was released in early May of 2019 and is back in the news! The Netflix hit has been nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards in both the Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay categories. While the movie was a perfect blend of science fiction and social commentary, that isn’t what we’re talking about today. No, what we have in mind about this time travel drama is how Michael J. Fox was involved and delivered one of the most iconic lines from ‘Back to the Future.’
In an interview with Screen Rant, Stefon Bristol, who wrote and directed the film, was asked how he was able to get Michael J. Fox to utter the iconic ‘BTTF’ line “Great Scott!” The surprise here is that according to a highly amused Bristol, “I did not direct him to say that!”
As to how it all came together, the director explained:
“That day was a reshoot day. We initially wanted him to come during the regular shoot, but he broke his arm that way. He couldn’t come in. Yeah, it was bad. But it was a blessing in itself because Mr. Fox was very apologetic. I was like, there’s nothing to apologize for, it was an accident! We’re not upset about that! And then, you know, months later, Spike pushed me to ask him again, and I was worried. Like, I don’t want to disturb this legend. Regardless of his recovery, I don’t want to burden him. But Spike pushed me to do it, and so I asked him again, and he was grateful to come through for us. He came in fully prepared. In the script, it was a completely different line. We wanted to tickle with a nod. We didn’t want to go overboard. So I told him, once we have the take, once we have the scene, you can do whatever you want. As a director, you just let them do whatever they want once you’ve got the scene. So we do a couple more takes, and once he said “Great Scott,” the whole set went bananas! (Laughs) It was nuts. It was absolutely nuts. I’m grateful to him for doing this for a kid from Brooklyn, just trying to do a very ambitious film that you have no idea if it’s going to be good or not. It was a blessing. I’m grateful for him.”
Any fans of ‘Back to the Future’ are likely thrilled that this ended up happening. Not only that, but the fact that it was Fox’s idea shows how great of an actor Fox still is.
Have you seen ‘See You Yesterday’ and loved it as much as we did? Are you at all surprised that Michael J. Fox improvised this iconic line? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
You can still stream ‘See You Yesterday’ on Netflix!
