While Back to the Future romantic lead changed hands Part II And IIIanother actress almost played Jennifer Parker.
In his recent memoirs Future boy, Michael J. Fox explained that when he replaced the leading man Eric Stoltz as time-traveling teenager Marty McFly, co-star Melora Hardin suddenly found herself too tall to play the character's girlfriend in the first part in 1985.
“My goal as a child was self-preservation. Bullies often made fun of my height and it was an easy target. I endured the humiliation of short jokes and prejudice against my short stature,” he wrote, according to Entertainment Weeklynoting that his height “worked in my favor when I was a teenage actor playing a younger child, but it backfired on me as an adult when I began playing romantic roles opposite taller actresses.”
Fox continued: “I regret that this bias inadvertently affected another actor in the film. Back to the Future – Melora Hardintalented actress who plays Marty's girlfriend, Jennifer, opposite the perfectly tall Eric Stoltz.
“Melora, who was several inches taller than me, was replaced in the film after I took over the role of Marty,” he added. “At first, Bob Zemeckis thought that maybe the audience could ignore our height difference, but when he took a quick look at the female crew members, they assured him that it’s rare for a tall, pretty girl in high school to pick a cute, short guy.”
“No one asked my opinion, but I would come to Melora’s defense,” Fox added.
After Claudia Wells played Jennifer in Robert Zemeckis' 1985 time-travel comedy, Elisabeth Shue took on the role in the film. Back to the Future, Part 2. (1989) and Part III (1990).
