“I was 17, you know. I burst into tears.”

The Office star shares ‘huge disappointment’ of being fired from Back to the Future after Michael J. Fox was cast

"I was 17, you know. I burst into tears."

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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December 22, 2025 9:00 a.m. ET

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Michael J. Fox in 'Back to the Future'. Credit:

- In a new interview with **, Melora Hardin recalls the 'huge disappointment' of losing the part of Jennifer Parker in 1985's sci-fi comedy classic *Back to the Future.*

- "I was 17, you know. I burst into tears," she says. "It was very sad. There were quite a few of those that I remember, you know, things that never really got made. But that I remember being very tough."

- *Back to the Future* star Michael J. Fox detailed in his memoir, *Future Boy*, how taking over the lead role from the film's original star, Eric Stoltz, led to Hardin being replaced by Claudia Wells, because Hardin was considered too tall.

Melora Hardin has been acting since she was six years old, so she's used to rejection. But the sting of some disappointments is so great, it only dulls, and never fully goes away.

By the time Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis got ready to mount the future sci-fi comedy classic *Back to the Future *in 1985, Hardin had already led her own NBC Saturday morning kids series, appeared in both parts of *Little House on the Prairie*'s infamous "The Reincarnation of Nellie," and starred in several movies. But landing the role of protagonist Marty McFly's love interest, Jennifer Parker, was going to change everything.

Hardin had already shot several weeks opposite Eric Stoltz as Marty when the news came down that he was being recast with *Family Ties *breakout star Michael J. Fox. Soon, and for a surprising reason, Hardin was out too — a letdown she still vividly recalls in a new interview with **.

"*Back to the Future* was a huge disappointment. I was 17, you know. I burst into tears," she says. "It was very sad. There were quite a few of those that I remember, you know, things that never really got made. But that I remember being very tough."

Melora Hardin and Steve Carell on 'The Office'.

Byron Cohen/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Much has been made of Fox being hauled in to replace Stoltz a stunning six weeks into shooting *Back to the Future*.

"I didn't have time to think about it," Fox recently told EW in a conversation focused on his new memoir, *Future Boy*, which chronicles the making of the time-hopping romp. "I don't think the public was aware of it until we were doing it. I was rushed on it, six weeks in, and I had no kind of time to talk about it."

*Future Boy *details how Fox was in fact the original choice for the role, but *Family Ties *creator Gary David Goldberg took him off Spielberg and Zemeckis' list to concentrate his energy on the sitcom. "Unfortunately, the dailies were disappointing," Fox writes of the early days of the Stoltz version of *Back to the Future*. "Eric was an immensely talented actor, but the creative team felt that he just wasn’t the right fit for Marty McFly."

The producer and director thought back on Fox's jovial irreverence, and strove to impress upon Goldberg how perfect he'd be for the role. Unfortunately for Hardin, who had already built up creative chemistry with Stoltz, his eventual replacement was a good eight inches shorter. Too short, apparently, to appear opposite Hardin.**

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"It was apparently the two female executives at the time that thought that it was emasculating for their lead male character to be in scenes with a woman that was taller than him," Hardin recalled earlier this year. But then, as now, Hardin kept a positive spirit, noting, "If I had done it, I'm sure it would have all gone in a different way. I wouldn't have done *The Office*."

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.***

Hardin reflects to EW that "to be where I am, you have to have failed more than you've succeeded. I think people don't realize that when they look at it from the outside — you have to really be somebody who's comfortable with failure, and with putting yourself on the line all the time. That failure doesn't mean anything about you. You just have to fail better, and keep failing better ... to be able to really weather this career choice."****

Claudia Wells in 'Back to the Future'.

Universal Pictures

The role of Jennifer Parker eventually went to Claudia Wells, but even Wells was recast when *Back to the Future*'s blockbuster success merited a sequel, and then another sequel. Elisabeth Shue stepped into the role for 1989's *Back to the Future Part II *and 1990's *Back to the Future Part III*.

Hardin reminisces on even more roles nearly won and sorely lost, including the lead child role in 1982's *Shoot the Moon*, co-starring Diane Keaton, and a "beautiful Joan of Arc movie. I was going to play Joan of Arc. I don't think the movie ever got made, but I was really close to getting that part. I really was going to get that part, and I was really working on it, and I was just so into it. It was beautiful."

As Hardin notes, however, losing out on *Back to the Future *led to parts like the lead role on ABC's series adaptation of *Dirty Dancing*, and then to *Absolute Power*, and to *Monk*, and eventually, one of her most beloved roles, as the intense Jan Levinson on *The Office.*

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