UNSHAKEABLE PODCAST
Parkinson's Warrior Tim Lockard host Q&A sessions to bring awareness , hope and some laughs to the community until we can find a cure
UNSHAKEABLE PODCAST
Q & A with Jeffrey Weismann of Back to the Future
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Jeffrey gives us some incredible behind the scenes stories about Hollywood and what it was like to play Michael J Fox's dad in Back to the Future
Hey guys, what is shaking? I am Tim. I'm your host of the Unshakable Podcast. Here we like to talk about Parkitans, raising awareness, um, how to raise funding, how to find a cure, whatever we can do to help move the needle towards a cure. We like to talk to people that was or or caregivers or anybody affected by it or have a connection to it. We're passionate about it. Um, we like to just have a laugh or make you forget about your troubles for a little while. So you guys know I'm I'm extremely big on advocating. Um, you saw me post something the other day about Michael J. Fox, who's our beacon of light, trying to get us to the finish line of a cure, whatever we can do to help him. Um, I I posted something about shrinking in his debut on the on the TV show shrinking, and and it's up to seven million views. Like I said, you never know how making a reel or movie or an email is gonna affect somebody, who you're gonna get, how it's gonna be perceived, or what how you can help move the needle. So I'm looking at the people who are liking it and looking at it, and Michael J. Fox looked at it. Um this man looked at it and made the beautiful comment that warmed my heart. And I reached out for him because I knew exactly who he was. He played, listen, if we can't get to talk to Michael J. Fox yet, which I'm going to do one day, trust me. The best thing we could have is his dad, or at least his dad that played his dad in two of the three Back to the Future movies, played the role of George McFly. Um, this man also has an amazing career as far as the acting that he has done. Um, he has worked with some legendary actors. I mean, he was in Pale Rider with with Clint Eastwood, um, Twilight Zone with John Liftgow, Michael Keaton, Johnny Dangerously. He was in Saved by the Bell for all you young onset people out there. Um unbelievable. I mean, at cameos in Dallas, Max Headstrom, other major TV shows. Um, I am honored, absolutely honored to have Jeffrey Weisman join us today. Thank you. Ah, very cool. I love it. I got a lot to live up to now. Well, listen. Well, and I'm being honest with you, before we get into the Michael J. Fox stuff, I mean, you are a great actor. I mean, you've been such great stuff that I really I want to talk about some of the fun things that you've done. I mean, you have been in on screens in movies with Clint Eastwood, John Lifgow. Um it's it's unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00Um I've been very fortunate. Uh I recently posted uh I'm uh in Johnny Dangerously. I'm the vendor selling the I Love Johnny, iHeart Johnny t-shirts. And I posted on my social uh the the photo of me in the the shot where we're all repeating what what Johnny what Michael Keaton's telling us, and it was so much fun being on that set, and now seeing so many people say, Oh my god, that film, I didn't know you were in it. So it's it's been really uh rewarding for me, I guess. What is it?
SPEAKER_01So you have such a great story. I mean, listen, that that's one of my favorite movies of all time. I mean, listen, I'm 50, so I grew up on the Donny Dangerous Leaves of the World, and I also grew up on Saved by the Bell, which a lot of people may not know about you. You played the high geek, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's the character I uh underneath uh funky buck teeth and thick glasses and pocket protector and uh my hair standing straight up. Uh yeah, that that was uh something that uh was just such a kick to do, and then to find so many people who said, You were you were in that, you know, and and it really is fun being a character actor, um, and finding the the the joy, people reliving, you know, oh I love that, or so on and so forth. And then uh for me as an acting coach, it was really rewarding for me to see up close how Clenn Eastwood puts everything at the end of his nose and keeps it real small, and yet it's really big and truthful when it's on the 70 millimeter uh screen and or 70-foot screen, and then seeing Mike up close and his technique that he honed doing television comedy, or watching Keaton or John Lithgow, uh, you know, who was weaned on on stage, who's always being told to bring it in, bring it in, bring it in for for film. And yet on Twilight Zone movie with John George Miller, the director was saying, bigger, bigger, bigger. And he loved that. John John just was in heaven. I've never told to make it bigger.
SPEAKER_01Your your list of accomplishments. We could we could talk all day about that. I mean, you've made cameos and and guest spots in in Dallas. Um, Max Hedstrom. I mean, it's it's amazing. You but one of the coolest things that I think that I may have heard about you, and and correct me if I'm wrong, on Sergeant Pepper, which you were in. Somebody somebody told me that you may or may not have been partaking in some in some fun, and you may have been the first person to congratulate the the Bee Gees on their number one record. Is that true? Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I when I was growing up, I always wanted to be an actor, but my parents wouldn't let me act or pursue professional acting. I uh school work came first, which I totally understand. But at the time I still, you know, yearned for it. And then when I finally got out of high school and all through school, I did school shows and community theater and such. And then as soon as I was out of high school, I signed up to do uh waiver work. Uh, one of those projects was Sgt. Pepper's. And I am in four scenes. I think I'm in the crowd with Earth, Wind, and Fire. I play Strawberry Field's Brother when the band is going off in the hot air balloon. And then I'm one of those sort of Boy Scout Boy Scouts being brainwashed by Alice Cooper. And uh, you know, I'm 17. I'm really excited finally to be on a major studio lot and uh working on a sound stage. And I'm like, what's that smell? Is that pot at 7:30 in the morning? And you know, as a kid, I'm I'm following my nose, and it brought me to Barry Gibb. I said, You're smoking pot at 7:30 in the morning, wake and bake. And uh he goes, sure, you want some kid? You know, I was like, sure, you know, well, there's tobacco in that, you know, and gave us back, and he says, That's how we like it. And just a moment or two later, Robin Gibb came over and said, Hey Barry, uh, our new album, uh, I think it was new, is it called News of the World? Just reached number one on the Billboard charts. And I, yes, I was the first to congratulate them both.
SPEAKER_01How crazy is that? So, listen, take take me back before we get into some of the the Michael stuff. Take me back to to your start. Um, when did you give up on the dream of wanting to be an astronaut and and get the acting book? And it was there anybody specific you saw on screen that you said, like, listen, but music is Elvis or the Beatles, where you just say, I want to do that. Was there an actor that you were just like, I want to do this?
SPEAKER_00I had a lot of different things contribute to that. I think when I was my my folks said I was kind of a ham acting when I came out of the womb, uh, wanting to be the center of attention, at least. And I was four years old, I think, and when I got kind of kidnapped by Chico Marx's widow. My my dad managed a private club, card playing club, and she used to come and play cards. And uh, she thought it would be a kick when she saw me. She said, Oh, you're adorable. Get under the table and just hide there. We'll have a little joke on your parents. And I was under this table with the you know, ladies' legs and their garters and stockings for at least 20 minutes or a half an hour, maybe longer. And I would hear my mother coming. Have you seen Jeffrey? My dad coming through, where's the kid? You know, and they were starting to panic. I was like, This is this is not good. Anyway, I I knew that she was some sort of celebrity. I knew that that uh my dad was friends with uh Mike Frankovich and Benny Barnes, who was an actress and way back, uh, and he was partners for a while with Lauren Green in the club. And Don Adams used to come to the club and play, you know, from Get Smart and uh Omar Sharif. I I was probably about five or six when my babysitter brought me to my dad's club, and I saw her kind of flip out over meeting Omar Sharif. And then we went and saw the new movie he was premiering in that week, and she flipped out again. And and I was very fond of this babysitter, and I thought, you know, oh, that's how I'll get her attention. I'll be an actor. That'll work. So I I I had a lot of different experiences growing up where uh TV shows would be shooting in my neighborhood. I remember meeting Ephraim Zimbelis Jr. shooting the FBI, and Monty Markham liked it. He was a guest star on that episode, and I knew his show the second the second hundred years, I think it was called. And he he was tickled that I knew that show. And and I had just graduated, I want to say fifth or was it fifth or sixth grade? Fourth? Anyway, I had my report card, and another character actor guesting on the the uh show asked to see my report card. So you want to be an actor? I said, yes, I do. And uh he said, Well, that you got an A in English, that's good, and yeah, B in history, that's good. What's this D in math, kid? You got to do better in math. How are you gonna know if an agent's screwing you or not?
SPEAKER_01Unbelievable. Listen, that that's smart thinking, even back then. I mean, and you also, if I unless I heard this wrong, uh little running with Mel Brooks and Marty Feldman and like walking home one day from school, does that sound right? Oh, you did your research.
SPEAKER_00I I tried. I I uh yes, I uh blazing settles had come out, so it was 73, I guess, and uh just hilarious, lovely, even though it was scatological and and kooky um silliness. I was just I adored. I'd seen the producers, I knew of Mel Brooks, and I'd heard he was shooting his next project in my neighborhood. And instead of taking the bus home, I I uh walked through the uh Santa Monica promenade, and about the second or third block, I started seeing uh ladies and gentlemen moving about in Victorian evening wear. Oh, this it must be around here. You're close. And there was a gentleman whose mustache was flapping. Roy Wallach was his name. I said, Sir, your your mustache is flapping. And he looked down at me and said, Really? Oh, thank you. Oh, thank you very much. Who are you? I said, I'm an actor too. Oh, really? What have you been in? And so I said, Oh, Merchant of Venice, Dark of the Moon, uh Blythe Spirit, you know, all the shows I'd done and uh I had done in junior high and high school up to that point. Really, would you like to meet Mel? I said, Yes, he said, Come with me, little boy. And we went to the Mayfair music hall where they were shooting the putting on the Ritz number. Okay, and uh one of the first people I saw in street clothes was Marty Feldman, and I was like, I knew Marty Feldman from his TV series, I just loved his wacky fun. And he was in a beret and wore a man bag, and so kind of flash forward from 73 to about 2013, I think it was 20 somewhere in there. I got to play Igor in uh young Frankenstein, the musical, and I wear a man bag, so I'm kind of like full circle here. Yup, and then and then uh you know, Roy took me inside uh the theater and found Mel and said, Mel, Mel, you want to meet this kid? He's done this and this and this. And Mel said, I got no time for kids.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, Mel.
SPEAKER_00Well, I met Mel several times over the years. My Marks brothers team auditioned for him at Paramount when he was shooting or preparing to shoot uh Robin Hood Men and Tights. And many years later, we didn't get the role. But I remember after the the audition, we went to the Formosa Cafe uh bar afterwards, and there was Robert England who liked that we were all made up as the Marx Brothers and bought us a round of drinks, and we got to hear Robert England talk about his days as being a spear carrier with Tom Hanks. That was fun. Uh, but but the uh I had on Johnny Dangerously worked in that scene with Dom Deloise playing the Pope, and I became friendly. Yes, I thought and and uh Dom and I uh became friends and I tried to stay in touch. He thought that I'd be good for a role in Fatso. I think he told me to have my agent call and never panned out. But then when Dom was doing his candid camera series at Universal, where I was playing Stanley Laurel and Groucho Marks and and Charlie Chapman on the tour, Dom I'd run into him and he'd he'd request my Laurel and Hardy team to warm up his audiences. And then when uh the American Tales show opened, he was doing the voice of the big cat puppet. Uh we did uh the premiere of that, escorting celebrities, Jerry Lewis, uh Ed McMahon, and such. And and then when Dom did the live remotes around the country for the good morning shows, uh, we were there with him on that. So Dom uh became a fan of my comedy. So one night uh I went to the Buster Keaton Festival at the silent movie house, and Dom was there with his best friend and Bancroft and Mel Brooks, his her husband. And during the break, I went out just to say hi to Dom. And he was like, and uh Mel, you've got you got to see this kid when he's Charlie Chapmanist and like Laura Grashovsky, you think he's what? And then I reminded Mel that we had met on that audition for Robin Robin Williams, Robin Hood, Men in Tights. And uh he said, Oh, I remember you guys, I like you guys, but I had to uh cut the March Brothers from the banquet scene because the actor playing Don Corleone uh wanted too much money, and it was at that point that I realized it was Dom who played the mafia boss role, and so I just turned to Dom and started choking him, and it was a nice fun bit.
SPEAKER_01Honestly, you know, you talked about something I was gonna ask you. You you have done work, um, like you said, as Charlie Chapman, uh Larry Fine, I think. Um, you have studied, I heard you're you're a film book. You like exactly you like the way a film comes together, you like sitting and watching, you know all the ins and outs of it. Um but you have studied some of the the great, well, I'll say improv actors and and comedians of all time. I mean, I find that a little bit in you. I mean, how has that served you in movies?
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, I I I started to improvising uh very young. My sister and I would do role-playing stuff in our bedroom when we'd get in trouble and be confined to our bedroom, or or we'd act out rock and roll albums from Bowie to Jimi Hendrix, whatever Led Zeppelin, and and we would uh you know, do like uh every other kid and do role plays in our playhouse or garage, wherever our clubhouses were. And then uh in grade school, uh to get my hand bone out, my teacher would allow me to do uh newscast reports from whatever period of history we were studying, live from uh the pyramids, uh uh reporting on King Titan, you know, whatever. Yeah, uh, so I would do it in school, and then when I ran away with the circus, it was at the it was the Renaissance fair, and I would uh create characters, do history stuff or base characters from history, and then fill in the points that I didn't know about their history and use those characters in the streets and improvise for eight to ten hours. And then uh out of in out of college, I had a lot of friends who were in improvisation groups or stand-up groups, and then moving back to Los Angeles after I screen tested for the lead in war games. Uh, I started working out with a lot of great talent from Second City and Groundlings, and really honed a lot of really great tools for improv and then helped form my uh I had an improv group called the Flying Penguins, and we became the varsity players for Los Angeles Theater Sports. And you know, theater sports basically was taken by the producers of Whose Line Is It Anyway? And that's where the I guess origin story of that show, Whose Line in London. My my dear friend uh Michael McShane was in it, and uh Greg Proops, and then when it came to America, Brad Sherwood was a dear friend who was in theater sports with me and and Way Brady. Yeah, we we all you know kind of cut our teeth together. And I've uh had many different groups that I've been either artistic director of or a member of that I've you know, once you once you get the bug, you really can't stop. And I love that a lot of the folk that I used to do improv with, like Sherry Bilson became a producer and writer on Friends and Joey and other shows, and uh Ellen Nidelson uh created Boy Meets World, and uh you know, you know the names of Wayne and Brad, and then uh a lot of a lot of them, uh Amanda and Sherry that went on to be uh Amanda Plummer became uh writers because in improv you need to hone your narrative ear and also be ready for whatever is being offered and then build on that. And it's a great tool for for script writing, especially television comedy writing.
SPEAKER_01Now, as far as cutting your teeth, um, how is it that your first time that you had a cry on Q was in a Clint Eastwood movie? How did that work out?
SPEAKER_00Oh gosh, tell us about Clint Eastwood. I I have I think I cried on Q before that in in uh either shorts or grad student films, but yeah, I knew that when my agent called and said uh that uh Chris Penn had met Clint Eastwood at a party and said, I want to work with you, I want to do a Western. And and Clint offered Chris the role of Eddie Conway in Pale Rider, and Chris kind of threw the script back and said, No, I want to play a bad guy. So he moved him over to La Hood Jr. in Pale Rider, Richard Dyshardt's character's son. And then uh the actor who was cast as Teddy Conway, one of Spider's boys, was moved into Eddie. And so Teddy became available, and they were already in, I think they were in production or pre-production, just about to start shooting. So they really needed someone to come in their last minute. I've been in this situation where last minute I've stepped in, as we know for Back to the Future 2. Uh, and and uh I knew I had to cry on cue, and I'd studied many different techniques uh to see what was going to work for me as an actor. So I've I had studied uh subjective personalization of the method, the uh Meisner fantasy charging, uh sense memory, you know, all the other different things that I could use in exercises from exercises to be able to have the emotions at the tip of my fingers when I need them. And on this audition in particular, knowing that I was going to be put on camera and sent to Clint by Fritz Mans, the producer, I uh didn't want to leave anything to chance. I had my fantasy charging, imagining unfortunately the death of my own father. Luckily, it came many, many years later. Uh or uh some uh sense memory work with the death of my first cat. Um, and I also had a lock of my grandmother's hair in my pocket, who I adored, and she was one of the only ones in my family when I was young. Said, darling, don't don't worry about what what they want you to do. You do what your heart says. And if you want to be an actor, pursue it. And I was like, oh, and so I had a lock of her hair in my pocket, and as it turned out, I really didn't need any of that. It was the the emotions were in the script, and I was doing Eddie's lines and such on the audition, uh, and the the tears came no problem. And Fritz, the producer, really liked it. And sure enough, you know, Friday I was cast and on an airplane on Monday to to go on location for six weeks to shoot a western with Clint Eastwood.
SPEAKER_01What's it like watching Clint Eastwood do his do his job? I mean, what is what is that like watching the great Clint Eastwood just it it was it was really lovely.
SPEAKER_00He is a gentleman and and a class act in that things there were always setbacks. We had we were shooting on the top of a mountain mostly in a national park in Idaho outside of Ketchum, Sun Valley, and and we were exposed to the elements. So almost through all that set shooting on that set, we were uh dealing with wind chill of minus 10. And uh, you know, he did supply us with heat cannons that the actors never wanted to leave. Uh, and and we had a blizzard that shut us down for for three days. That scene where Spider does get shot and and the boys come out to his dead body. Uh I knew I had tears, but they were they were freezing in my eyes. No, it uh it was and if you look closely at that scene in particular, it took us three days just after being shut down for three days, you know, and and that cast went to town partying being shut down. So it was like sober up quick, you know. Here we go. The heaviest scene I'm in. Uh and the first day, if you look, uh there's snow on the ground. There's uh spider is in uh some snow flurries, but there's snow on the ground, and then doing the coverage, they go back to the deputies and and the hood, uh or I'm sorry, Stockburn, the great uh John Russell coming out uh with his men, they're in sunshine. And then when it cuts to uh brother and I, Eddie and Teddy coming out of the mercantile, if you look real quick, we're in a blizzard.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow, that was the second day.
SPEAKER_00We had another blizzard. Then the third day, all the snow had melted. And so when you cut back to us getting to daddy's dead body, they had to bring in the oil-based fake snow, and just to recreate that, yeah. And you know, Clint learned from John Ford. I'm sorry, from Don Siegel who learned from John Ford to shoot the rehearsals because the actors won't be so tense generally, and you might get it, and you'll save time and and film stock back when there was film. And Chuck, who played Eddie, he went to where we had agreed I was going to go when we blocked it. And so I, if you look real quick, I shift my weight and go to dead daddy's spider's head. Poor Doug McGrath. I almost kicked him in the head. I saw his hair actually do that. My boot. And uh, but I knew I had to keep it going, keep the emotions coming and everything because I slipped on that oil-based snow. And uh, and as soon as we cut, Clint called cut, he said, let's move on, which means we weren't gonna do a take. And I got into Clint's face. That was the only time I really kind of got into his face. I pushed his buttons a few times with inappropriate comments, I think, at the wrong time. But this is one where I said, Clint, Chuck didn't hit the he hit my mark. I had to go to his mark. I almost kicked Doug in the head and blah blah blah. He goes, No, no, uh, we're just gonna cut from your face, which meant I had the close-up. And if you see the film, sure enough, I get the close-up looking up at Stockburn in tears, going, What the have you done?
SPEAKER_01That's why he Clinton Eastwood.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I you know, I can't argue with the close-up.
SPEAKER_01So I'm gonna ask you this selfishly. Um, it may not be obviously I don't think it was one of your bigger roles, but listen, Johnny Danger Sleeve was one of my favorite, favorite movies. Um, uh, my mother hit me once, Johnny. Once give me your best. What is during that whole filming? What was what was the best time you had? Did tell me something that people might not know about the filming of Johnny Danger Sleeve or Michael Keane.
SPEAKER_00I I only worked, I think, that one day, but I got there early, super early, because I was excited to be on that set. And I remember I had just gotten out of costume and makeup and was ready to work, and it was only I think it was 7:30 in the morning. And walking towards me in her house coat with her newspaper and her coffee was Maureen Stapleton. And I was just, I knew the legend of her work on stage and other film and such. And my jaw, you know, hit the ground, and without looking at me, she just kept walking, but said out of the side of her mouth, it's in it's impolite to stare at an old lady first thing in the morning.
SPEAKER_01So I guess Marilou Henner wasn't there that day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Mary Lou, uh, and I didn't really I saw her, but I I didn't talk until actually many years later. I did a postal instant press commercial and I was under pretty heavy stress because I was challenged to get a bunch of dialogue into 15 seconds and then cut it down to 12 seconds. Oh, geez, oh geez, I'm sorry, Mr. Santucci, I'm sorry, but the company logo came in upside down. It looks like a little squirrel, though. You know, it's a how's Mrs. Santucci anyway. I uh and they had to have time for the voiceover, so I had to get it tighter and tighter. And the director happened to be dating Mary Lou Henner, and I was, you know, doing take after take, and no, it's got to be quicker, Jeffrey, quicker, Jeffrey. I was like, oh my god. And I had give me a moment, and I went and walked on the soundstage, and then all of a sudden behind me was Mary Lou Henner, and she said, Don't let the pressure get to you, you're doing great, and that's all I needed. I said, Thank you, you're you're great too. Yeah, absolutely. And uh and I I just loved that because she was so supportive and and charming, and she didn't have to be there, she was just there because her boyfriend was directing, right? Um, but back on on Johnny Dangerously, I remember I I didn't get to work with Joe Piscopo, but his trailer was right next to mine, so I I before leaving knocked and he said, Come in. I was like, Okay, because I was a fan of his work on Saturday Night Live at that time, and uh and I said, uh Mr. Piscopo, I'm I'm Jeffrey, I'm just a day player, but I wanted to introduce myself. He says, Come in, sit down, sit down. And for half an hour we just chatted away, and he just loved being on the movie set and working and uh was just tickled to death. And I I loved it too. I was now that was at 20th Century Fox on their New York street, which is legendary, you know, funny lady, all sorts of funny girl, all sorts of great movies shot there. And and for me, as a uh uh wannabe actor growing up, uh, to be on the sets of legendary shoots were were just it was just thrilling for me. And Amy Heckerling was she, you know, I I was born in LA and raised on the West Coast, and my New York accent, it was all all right, it was all right. I I had a uh step-grandfather from Brooklyn, and I get from him a little bit of an accent, but I, you know, I wasn't so consistent, and she didn't like my accent so much. She said, Come on, come on, get a look better, better. And I finally gave her something she liked. And I love Johnny. That's all I really had to say. I love Johnny.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. So listen, before we we we turn the page and get into the the next half of this podcast, um, and which is the back to the future stuff. I just want to ask we do something on here where we call it's the we're gonna shake things up with the lightning round. I'm gonna ask you five questions, just one or two words. Oh boy, nothing, nothing crazy. Um, and what's the prize? Uh you get to talk to me for another couple of minutes. So so and if I lose, that's it. It's over. So so you already won. So what what is the role that you wanted badly? You nailed in the audition, but you didn't get.
SPEAKER_00Oh, uh, there's so many of those. Of course, Martin Brest had told an agent that I was his favorite for the lead in war games.
SPEAKER_01The war war games, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh David, the lead in war games, and he had had open calls in five different cities: New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and LA. And as far as I know, I'm the only actor that came in from the open calls. And you know, in San Francisco, there were over 500 guys who came out. And the day I tested uh Eric Stoltz, Dana Carvey, uh John Stockwell, Brian Backer, Albert Macklin, there were there were uh I think six of us all testing with Ali Sheedy. And uh I really thought I had that one in the bag. I really I had to negotiate negotiate my contract. Uh I got a very hot agent because of that opportunity because Martin had said that I was his favorite. And little did I know at the time Ali Sheedy was dating or living with uh Eric Stoltz. And she kept she kept kind of looking through me and not connecting and looking around. And at one point I turned and and there was Eric Stoltz in the shadows on the sound stage. I was like, hmm, what's going on here? And I I don't think I let it throw me. I still did my work, um, but once again, I was an unknown, and this was a multi-million dollar film.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're you're still cutting your teeth, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And even though all the other guys came in through agents, none of us got it. It went to what is the progress.
SPEAKER_01What is the one scene that you're most proud of?
SPEAKER_00From war games? From no, from anything that you've done. Because there are a few scenes that they cut from that film that I thought were gonna be great, was gonna rock. Uh, one scene that I was proud of that was that was cut.
SPEAKER_01No, that that you that you're in. What's the what like if you could show somebody one scene of yours that you're the most proud of that you've done, what would that be?
SPEAKER_00Oh wow, oh wow, oh gosh, hmm, that's a very tough one. Can I get back to you on that? Absolutely. There's so many. Uh I I do sometimes these low budget or medium budget independents, and I've had some great scenes in those. Uh, there's one that's a cult film called Corked that I was hoping to get re-released for its 20th anniversary, and I've had it uh up upgraded. And and there's I play an OCD winemaker in that, and there's some great comedy I do in that, and even some moving stuff. Another one called Savior of None, where I play uh uh a man who's had an injury from a car wreck, has a metal plate in his head, and he's kind of uh physically uh enabled, disabled, and and he has some very emotional scenes in it where Benny has to become the avenging angel of a an adolescent girl who's been abused and raped uh in the foster care system and by the local gang and stuff. And I have some very moving stuff in that. Um gosh, that's a tough one. I have a a fun scene, Back to the Future 2, that was cut. Uh, well, it the whole scene isn't cut, but the bit where I get to rotate for pizza in 2015, old George McFly, and it's in the bonus material, and it's called pizza.
SPEAKER_02Great, thank you.
SPEAKER_00And in that, I actually do my tribute to Crispin Glover. I uh Lorraine says it's bad for you to eat upside down, bad for your digestion. Rotate your axis here, and she serves me, and I go, okay, for uh capitalizing on that George's back went out while he was playing golf that day, and I do my golf swing and I do the Crispin choking laugh. And and I think that's pretty funny, and but that was cut.
SPEAKER_01So since since we're talking about Back to the Future and we were just talking about Marilou Henner, here's a little bit of a segue. Uh, somebody that she was co-stars with that you were too. One of my favorite and I think the funniest scenes of all time. Um, what does a yellow light mean? Slow down. What does a yellow light mean? Tell me about the great Jimmy Nitowski, Christopher Lloyd. Chris is a uh Chris is a sweet man.
SPEAKER_00He is I was huge, huge fan of his work on Buckaroo Bonsai and on Who Fram Roger Rabbit, and of course, Taxi. And I asked my makeup lead, Mike Mills from Beetlejuice on uh Back to the Future to introduce me sometime. And he said, Well, come out next week. We're gonna do the exteriors Hill Valley 2015. You I'll introduce you, and you have to you know come out at three in the morning, whatever. And I did and waited a better part of an hour, and then Chris finally came in the makeup trailer. He said, Mike Mills said, uh, Chris, this is Jeffrey Weissman playing George McFly. Jeffrey, this is uh Chris Lloyd playing Doctor Brown. I was like, I'm so honored to meet you. And he goes, Thank you.
SPEAKER_01I love Chris. I mean, he's doing some work now, he's on the those nobody films, right? Um, I think he's in nobody and nobody nobody too. I mean, he's he's doing a lot of good stuff.
SPEAKER_00He's still great. I loved his his cameo and or his actually regular part in Wednesday. And uh, you know, he never he's like me, cannot not act. I'm in two other films with Chris, one called uh The Boat Builder, and another one uh called The Chateau Miraux, where we play rival attorneys, uh wine theme movie. So uh so Chris and I that night or morning at four in the morning just stared at each other and had silence for a few minutes before it got too awkward. And I said, Well, nice to meet you, you know. I got out of there. So it wasn't until gosh, so that was in '89 or '88. And it wasn't until 2009 or 2010 that Chris, Claudia Wells, and I were guests at the New Beverly Center, uh New Beverly Cinema Theater in Beverly Hills, who were showing the trilogy Back to the Future, and we were the guests. And Claudia had another show out in Santa Monica, so she didn't come until this after the second film or so, or the first film. And Chris and I were there early. So they put Chris and I up in the projectionist's booth. So for 40 minutes, I'm with Chris up in the booth, and that's when I he finally kind of opened up. If you Chris doesn't know you, he's very quiet and reserved. And and he opened up, we had a lot of nice chat, and that's where I learned he liked at that time to collect exotic plants. And I know that when uh he was coming to be fetted in my neighborhood a number of years back. My wife, who's a plant nerd, said, Don't leave until I get back. And she went to this uh place called California Carnivores and came home with a red Venus flytrap called a B-52 bomber. And I gave it to Chris at the theater, and he was being feted. He was showing his reel, and and we saw that, and it was like, Oh, oh, that's great.
SPEAKER_01That sounds a great thing.
SPEAKER_00A number of years later, when I ran into him at the Comic-Con in London, I said, Chris, how's that B-52 bomber? He says, I killed it. I'm never home to water it. Oh, it's a shame. So now, how does the picture of my my uh carnivorous plant?
SPEAKER_01I I I somehow know the story, but I want you to tell everybody how does Back to the Futures happen? I mean, you started, I want to say, as like a body double or a stand-in.
SPEAKER_00Uh I the call I got from a look-alike agent I had who who helped me get the Stanley Laurel gig I was doing at Universal, called me up and asked if I knew who Crispin was. And I was like, Yeah, we did a film together in '83 before he got George McFly. Uh and uh we exchanged phone numbers. I tried to stay in touch because he was a fascinating actor. And he said, Are you the same height, same weight? There's a film looking for a project looking for a uh a photo double for him. And I was like, The Back to the Future sequels. And he said, I can't say, I'm not at liberty. I said, Get me in there, I need the work, you know. I I uh my ex-wife was having our second child, and I needed to qualify for my medical. Yeah, and I went and met with the assistant directors, and then they sent me to casting and I auditioned with the uh clothing hanging in the backyard, George and Marty, and that went well. And then I got started being sent to prosthetic makeup mold fittings and a body cast for that special effect for spinning for pizza uh fitting. And then I did a screen test uh for Robert Semeckis, Bob Z and Dean Cundy in the young George makeup. And I remember waiting around and seeing the guys in the next sound stage shooting Dick Tracy, William Forsyth as flathead, and and I think it was Dustin Hoffman as prune face. And I was like, Whoa, what is this is incredible, your makeup? And they were looking at me, going, What are you supposed to be? It's like oh boy, and and it really was an odd-looking makeup that young George, even though it was based on Crispin's life mask, from the front, it kind of looks weird. Actually, it is off-putting as people on social networks that see the close-up shots that Ralph Nelson took, you know, are like, uh, but it the profile is most definitely Crispin and long shots. So that's why you only see me as young George recreating the enchantment under the sea dance kiss or the fighting with Biff in the parking lot in part two, uh, from a distance or out of focus or what have you. And uh, I remember at that screen test for the makeup, uh Bob Z saying, So, Dean, what do you think? And and Dean saying, I think we have Crispin without the trouble, which kind of was part of an equation of clues that I was getting during the shoot, before and during the shoot, that uh, you know, Crispin was holding out for a million dollars in script approval and had caused a lot of trouble on the first film. And I had even called Crispin saying, you know, say say a good word for me, I need the work. And then later on saying calling him up and saying, What's going on here? And and reading in variety in the Hollywood reporter that he may not be coming back because he had a scheduling conflict with a David Lynch or something. Yeah. Anyway, uh, and the and the first time meeting Mike Fox was when we were shooting the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. I'm I'm coming in for the first time, and and he's coming out the door for a smoker. That didn't go as you thought. No, he said, Whoa, Crispin ain't gonna like this, and I was like, Oh, great. But by the end of the first week, Mike and I were having a beer in his dressing room, and he was telling me all sorts of incredible stories, and uh, a very, very nice guy. And he he introduced me to his agent, his attorney, and and he knew, and I think everyone by the end of the first couple days knew that they were stuck without Crispin and that I was a pro doing my job, and it as uh uncomfortable as it was, it we had to do the work at hand, and and you know, Tom was fantastic working out the fight choreography. And I hung out in between takes with Billy Zane and his trailer. I I was a DJ, I've been a DJ for many years, and I had these great mixed tapes that I brought over, and we hung out and listened to those tapes. And Billy knew the lyrics to all the songs I had.
SPEAKER_01And I heard you actually had a little bit of an anxiety attack when you're hanging upside down, and you had to stop filming. Is that is that correct?
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, there was one moment it happened to be claustrophobic, I think. For that effect, for the effect of spinning, I was put in the the body cast, then the costume put on over the body cast, and then spun upside down. And before Don my uh handler from ILM cinched me in, I hadn't gotten a very deep breath. I always made it a rule to suck in as much air as possible. So, like a horse, you know, yeah, you're not you have some room to breathe, and I didn't do it, and I was turned upside down, and I I had no air in my lungs, and all my weight was collapsing on me. And Bob Z had said, All right, action, and I started flailing, trying to rip the costume off because I have claustrophobia as well, and and that triggered it. And and it was like, Jeff, wait, what's wrong? You know, and I got spun up and I said, I can't breathe, I can't breathe. And they got me out, and I said to Bob Z, I I've got to walk, I need to walk to collect myself because I was having an episode. And I I walked around this set, and of course, the only thing I could think of was how much that my little walk was going to cost production.
SPEAKER_01I can't even imagine.
SPEAKER_00Um 50,000 a minute, something like that.
SPEAKER_01I mean, breathing is important. Um, I know I do know that if I was in Michael J. Fox's trailer, I would not be breathing. Share with me what are one of the things you and Michael J. Fox talk about on your first first beer?
SPEAKER_00Uh I I hmm. A couple of them I can't. You can't publicly uh that would be no wants to. Uh, but I remember Mike putting on a video. Uh he had a uh his representative real estate agent, whatever, uh shooting a farm up in New England. And he was like narrating it. You can hear off from the video, here are the rare long-haired cows, and here's the barn from the 1700s, and here's this and that. And I said, What are we watching, Mike? And he said, Uh, well, my my guy up there is thinking that this might be a good investment, might be a uh home for my family. Uh and I said, Well, have you gone up there to see it? He goes, Yeah, what do you think of it? And I said, Well, what do you think of it? How and he goes, Well, I'd like when I went up there and I went in town to the general store, you know, I was treated like a regular person, but by like nobody special. I really like that. I said, Well, then you should probably get it.
SPEAKER_01Is there anything specific about his acting that was like, Wow, this guy's got it? Like, I mean, anything that just stood out as far as Michael J. Fox's acting, watching him.
SPEAKER_00It was just lovely, it was really rewarding to see how he honed his work, how he knows instinctively what is happening in comedic comedy wise. It is a muscle that you have to. Exercise and get into shape over the years. And he's the only actor I've ever seen who wasn't directing to call cut. He was doing a line while walking, and he said, Cut. No, I didn't even believe that myself. And and I saw I immediately looked at Zemachis, and you could see the steam coming out of Zemechis's ears. I can imagine. And Mike, you know, and Zebekis finally said, All right, back to one. You know, what are you gonna do? You know, uh, there's a famous story that Mike is the only actor to ever tell uh Pitka. There's a famous commercial director who just was very sadistic with everyone, and and Mike told him where to go. And Pitka got into Mike's face and said, You're the only actor I'll allow to do that. You know, because Mike's charming, he's he really is a nice guy. He embraced me right away. Uh so we could do the work at hand, and that's what you gotta do. You've got to have a team. Filmmaking is a team effort, it's a that's why you hear people refer to their movie cast as a family, especially at reunions. It's like getting together with your family because you you get to know everybody's ins and outs and secrets and on location, especially for long periods. And when you get back together, it's it quite often is the case that you've you've uh realized there was a lot of camaraderie and love that that uh was established during the filming. I was very lucky that uh Mathilde, the handler of uh uh Einstein, um Freddie, Freddie was his name, mushroom Freddie. Um, she was a friend of mine from the studio tour from the animal actors stage that I warmed up regularly as the Laurel and Hardy characters. And it was great to have that connection on the set. It was great when Flea came on set, yeah, because uh Anthony, his band lead singer's dad used to come to a club that I DJed at on the Sunset Strip. And and so I had something to break the ice with him with. Uh, I had I always look for hopefully a connection on Pale Rider Carrie Snodgrass's uh and I had a mutual friend, my my friend Buddha John Parker, who was a Trump Lloyd artist, and Cynthia McAdams, a feminist photographer. And that breaking the ice there allowed me to get very close to Carrie very quickly. And at the end of a shoot day, she would like let it all out about how she had it butting heads with Michael Moyarty and Clint Eastwood over how she wanted her character to be. And and she almost quit a couple of times. And I kind of talked her down, you know, with strawberry margaritas and letting her vent. And uh, and for me, also it I was kind of pinching myself because here I was getting very close very quickly to Carrie Snograss, who in her first feature film was nominated for an Academy Award for Diary of a Mad Housewife. You know, they it just having breakfast with John Russell, who is a legendary actor, was really thrilling with that booming voice of his, or being hanging out with Fran Ryan and hearing her stories or uh Richard Dyshart, and or you know, I got friendly with Richard Keel and I invited him just a few weeks before he passed, unfortunately, to be a part of a Pale Rider reunion that I got at a film crest uh festival. Anyway, it it for me it it's the mingling of great talent and and supporting each other and getting getting to know them. It's thrilling, and then I get to do that with the fan cons now.
SPEAKER_01This is great.
SPEAKER_00I've become good friends with with James Tolkien, who's told me James Tolkien Principal Strickland, who's told me wonderful stories, Top Gunn, uh uh Serpico with Sydney Lumet and other shoots.
SPEAKER_01Tom Cruise, Top Gunn.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, I got I got cast in a film to be Tom Cruise's character's best friend called All the Right Moves with Leah Thompson and Chris Penn. And just a week or two before shooting, they wrote the part out. I was like, damn. But I did see this an event with Tom once uh for scholastic. Uh I was Charlie Chapman, and he and Nicole came in to uh inspire the the kids to read. And Tom came over to me, it was 110 degrees inside the barn up at Universal for the Western Stun show. He goes, Aren't you hot in that? I said, Not not as hot as you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So listen, I I know we're we're running out of time, so I want to just put a couple more things in here. Shifting to the Parkinson side of it. Yeah. Now Michael came out in '98 and told the world about his Parkinson's diagnosis, but he was actually diagnosed in 90. You acted with him in around 88, 89. So my question to you is when looking back on it now, do you look at it and say, you know what, maybe he had a tremor here? Like, was there anything noticeable then that looking back on it now, you could say, Oh, you know what? Yeah, there was a little something there.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, what the things the behaviors I saw with Mike generally, especially when we were in public, was his gun shyness. Okay, I remember there was a loud noise. We were on uh we were at the studio grill, I think, doing some press thing or something at at Studio City across from Universal, and there was a loud noise, and he went like that. You know, I I remember he had had a stalker uh uh in his, I think in his bedroom at night or something, you know. Uh he he had uh that kind of paranoia going on. And but I my thought was because well while we were shooting it, if you see those scenes from 2015, because of the makeups, the old age makeups, and uh the costume changes, he's playing three different characters there Marlene, Marty Jr. and Marty Sr. Uh, we had uh I remember in one week over the two-week period we shot the 2015 interior. Uh, I had a 19-hour, a 21-hour, and a 26-hour long day. And I was like, Mike, when do you sleep? Because he was shooting the last series, last season of Family Ties over at Paramount and coming to Universal at night and on the weekends. And he goes, I sleep in the in the limousine in between the studios.
SPEAKER_01That is that is crazy.
SPEAKER_00So my thought was that Mike wow uh you know was overworked, and I think that brought the pipe the par Parkinson's on early.
SPEAKER_01What a great shot.
SPEAKER_00And uh this was in 2008 when we did the first uh back to the future cast reunion. We had uh about 20 of the the cast and and crew there, and uh Mike was unannounced, and he showed up because he was doing his first um what do you call it, uh uh book book tour. And he showed up on the on the Sunday unannounced, and he got mobbed by the crowd. Sure. Uh this is you know one of those long, long days where you have three characters. I I want to share with you uh a shot from that show in 2008 of who was there, uh of the the reunion show? Yeah, that that Hollywood show. We had even though there were two dozen of casting crew, you can see there there's uh Francis Lee McCain and and Mark McClure, Dave McLaughlin, and and Claudia, Jennifer, and uh Chris and Mike. And when Mike arrived, we had been brought that group that you see in that shot, uh, a few minutes alone with Mike just to get reacquainted since none of us had basically seen him since 89 or 88 and or 90 at the premiere and of part three. And uh it was the first time I think all of us had seen the effects of the Parkinson's on him because we'd be talking with him, shooting the shit, and all of a sudden he'd go up on his toes and have to walk away. And we looked at each other like, oh my god, he's in pain.
SPEAKER_01Knowing knowing Michael J. Fox that long amount of time, um, what does it mean to you to see him doing what he's doing now? I mean, he's basically turning person a personal disease into advocacy like we have never seen before. And I'm blessed to have somebody like that on my on my team, or uh on his team.
SPEAKER_00Well, are you surprised by that at all? He's over two billion dollars now he's raised for partners disease research. So last year being the 40th anniversary, I was included kind of as a placeholder for Crispin uh in some of the uh reunions at the fan expos. Uh and up in in Calgary, well, the first one was uh in New Orleans, and and Mike was coming off the stage, and it was the just like two weeks after he was awarded the Medal of Honor Freedom.
SPEAKER_01Medal of Freedom, that's right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and even though we were separated, uh Chris and Mike and Tom and Leah, whatever, have their own panel, and the rest of us get our own panel that segregation's gotta end. But anyway, uh I had to go congratulate Mike. So I waited in the wings for him to be coming wheeled out in his wheelchair, and he's got a group of people surrounding him, so I'm just like impenetrable. I finally went, Hey Mike, congratulations on the Medal of Freedom. And he cleared the people out of the way and grabbed me. And he said, I feel like a kid again. I I want to go out and the parking lot and dance naked and drink a beer.
SPEAKER_01Things like that warm my heart. Because listen, it is people like him that give people like me hope. That that there's always there's a fighting chance, and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00I mean, that appearance on on shrinking, even you know, he's gotta work. He's like Chris, he's like me. We it's in our blood, it's in our makeup, we've gotta work. And you know, Hollywood unfortunately uh gave me a bad bill with the whole Crispin stuff because I being friends with Crispin, I I helped him. I gave him my photos and my stories, and he got his three-quarter million dollar settlement or whatever. And when that came out, when the studio found out about that, I found proof of uh blacklisting and and then LA traffic became too much for me, too. So, as much as I tried to keep the wheels turning down there, I I had to lead. And I did some still still work in in indies and and and mostly charity charity projects and such.
SPEAKER_01Well, I was gonna say, just once charity goes, I want people to know that you actually are a big supporter of the Fox Foundation, team Fox, and uh and you helped you helped you do some work for him and and you put a cruise together, right?
SPEAKER_00You weren't you part of a cruise that I did uh in uh 2015, the 25th anniversary. I I my wife and I, my darling, and I produced the back to the future cruise to end Parkinson's. Wow, and uh yeah, where are we going? We didn't need need roads, we needed a boat. So I got uh Dean Cundy and uh Mark McClure, Don Full of Harry Waters Jr. And you can see in the picture uh Kevin Pike, FX Man, and Andrew Probert, part of the design team. Uh and and we combined photos. Um sorry, combined the cruise with the back of the Star Trek cruise, because Andrew Probert designed some of the starship enterprises for the first movie and and different series. And Kevin Pike also worked on Star Trek, so it was a win-win there. And uh then we helped produce uh first it was called Back to 1885, and then became uh Return to Hill Valley, and it celebrates Back to Future Part Three, and that's a fundraiser for uh the Parkinson's uh research foundation, and and wonderful. This the folk that come from around the world often are uh in this group called the citizens of Hill Valley. And we get to do things like you know, you see me here blowing the the train, uh the old number three that was in in Back to the Future Part Three, and and we get uh like like Marvin McIntyre, who played The Undertaker, and other celebs like Burton Gilliam from part three came up uh to be a part of the Return to Hill Valley and and uh back to 1885. This is uh a shot from a poker tournament for Parkinson's. The that you see uh Ricky Dean Logan and JJ Cohen, uh Gary Morgan, who was uh part of the hoverboard stunt team. Yeah, so so I I try to do as many uh fundraisers uh in just a over a week, just under two weeks, I'm headed to Central Florida uh to help raise money for the dignity bus that a ministry called the Source out of Vero Beach is is doing. And they they take these buses and put in beds and showers and take them to homeless uh urban centers that are uh stressing. Uh that's amazing. I've since I was a kid, I've I've tried to help, you know, with the Heart Association or the Jeffrey Foundation or the uh Mother's Touch, you know, it uh brain tumor society. Uh I whenever I can, I try to do fundraising, uh, or at least, you know, whenever I can, if it's a team fox thing, I'm part of Team Fox Argentina, Team Fox uh in France and Japan. I I have a uh a wonderful story from the pandemic where the Japanese Team Fox group did a Zoom, and in the 24 squares of these Japanese Back to the Future fans, every single square the Japanese fan is dressed in a different Back to the Future cosplay.
SPEAKER_01That's wild. Well, listen, I have taken up enough of your time, sir. Um, I want to thank you for a lot of things. I want to thank you obviously for joining us. I want to thank you for all the amazing work that you do on screen and obviously off. I want to thank you for following me and making a beautiful comment on my post regarding Michael, and that's how I saw your name. I knew I knew exactly who you are, and for taking the time to spend with me here.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's you know, it really is all about Mike. He has persevered and kept his sense of humor and his feistiness and his beautiful family support him, and and people like you who are doing what you do, it is all part of the equation. I uh keep saying, you know, that money's got to keep flowing to the Scripps Institute and to the Buck Institute and all these wonderful places doing the research that that have found markers and are getting towards a cure. And and it's a mutual blessing both ways. I'm very happy you asked me to come on, Tim.
SPEAKER_01I am so honored. Um, I want to let our fans know that they can certainly find you anywhere online at uh uh Jeffrey J. Weissman or Jeffreyweisman.com.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, on on Instagram it's at Jeffrey J. Weissman. On X, it's at Jeff1F Weissman, uh Jeffrey Weissmann.com. I have a shop if you would need a an autograph merchandise or or uh picture. And uh you know, I'm the prototype for my prototype for my action.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. Jeffrey, thank thank you so much. Um this meant the world to me. Um thank you for giving us a little insight into the the goat of of our our disease, Michael J. Fox. Um listen, until next time, remember Parkinson's may not, I'm sorry, until next time, remember Parkinson's may shake you, but it doesn't mean that you are shaken. It does not define you. So stay unshakable.
SPEAKER_00Nice. I'll see you hopefully in the future.
SPEAKER_01Thank thank you so much, Jeffrey. It's been an honor.