Iconic Back to the Future guitar scene heaped pressure onto Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox ”put pressure” on himself during the iconic guitar scene in ‘Back to the Future’.

The 59-year-old actor famously plays the Chuck Berry song ‘Johnny B. Goode’ as Marty McFly in the 1985 film and admits that he needed to perform after telling director Robert Zemeckis that he knew how to play the instrument.

In an interview with Empire magazine, Michael said: ”When I did the Johnny B. Goode scene, I had a great guitar teacher who taught me how to play.

”I said to Bob (Zemeckis), ‘When I do this scene, I play guitar, so you can finger sync me. Feel free to cut my hands any time you want.’

”Having said that, it put pressure on me to get it f***ing right. So I had this guy named Paul Hanson, who was my guitar teacher.”

Michael revealed that that he added traits from all his favourite guitarists for the scene as beforehand he danced ”like a duck”.

He recalled: ”For about four weeks we worked this piece and at the same time I was working with this choreographer for Madonna.

”I said, ‘I dance like a duck. I can’t dance. But what I’d like to do is incorporate all the characteristics and mannerisms and quirks of my favourite guitarists, so a Pete Townshend windmill, and Jimi Hendrix behind the back, and a Chuck Berry duck walk.’

”And we worked all that in, and he made it flow. It was moments like that when you don’t think, I’m tired or I feel under pressure to do this. You just do it and have a blast.”

Michael played the role of Marty McFly in three ‘Back to the Future’ movies, although writer Bob Gale admits that he has no desire to revive the sci-fi franchise, despite being ”offered so much money” to do so.

He said: ”If it was about the money, we would be doing ‘Back to the Future Part IV’. They’ve offered us so much money to do that.

”But we’ve already made a lot of money. You know, we’re not selling our children into prostitution here. We’ve seen too many sequels made years later where you just go, ‘Oh God, leave it alone.”’

Article source: https://www.contactmusic.com/michael-j-fox/news/iconic-back-to-the-future-guitar-scene-heaped-pressure-onto-michael-j-fox_6314216