February 25, 2014

Crispin Glover talks about how they stole his face for the "Back to the Future" sequel.

On his "Ask Me Anything" stint on Reddit today:
There are certain things that happened since being in Back to the Future that makes it difficult for me to reflect on the film as having funny things happening. Specifically there was a lawsuit because of something the producers did that was illegal in the sequel to the film. What the producers did that was illegal was as follows. The producers used the molds that were taken from my face from the original film and had prosthetics made to resemble my face to be placed on another actor to make them look like me and then inter-spliced a small amount of footage of me from the original film with the actor in prosthetics to resemble me in order to fool audiences in to believing I was in the film.

There was an actress that was replaced with another actress in the film, but they simply cast another actor in that role with no prosthetics. Had they simply cast another actor to play the role of George McFly there would have been no criminal activity on the part of the producers and there would have been no lawsuit. Since they did not own my face nor make an financial agreement with me to use my facial features what they did was stealing something they did not own for personal again and therefor what they did was illegal and why there was a lawsuit and why there are rules in the Screen Actors Guild that make it so producers can never to this kind of thing again.

Probably the most negative aspect about it is that Bob Gale who was a co-producer and co-writer and one of the main architects of the illegal activity has decided that it serves him best to lie about what happened in order to justify partaking in something that led to the producer’s illegal activity. He has falsely stated that I asked the same amount of money that Michael J. Fox was getting. This statement by him is complete fabrication. He is doing this to take the focus off the fact that what he and his fellow producers did was illegal, by definition of the word. He does not want to face that fact. To skirt the issue Bob Gale has lied to millions of people on the Back to the Future DVD commentaries about how the negotiations were handled.

I would not normally discuss this sort of thing, but people believe what he has stated as true. What people have to realize is that Bob Gale was involved with something that he and his fellow producers turned in to illegal activity. People who wonder about if what Bob Gale has said is true or not, should understand even if they liked “Back to the Future” it still means that a creator like Bob Gale who was a contributor to the illegal activity has motivation to create lies to detract the attention from his wrong doing. I wonder if Bob Gale were asked if he would help produce a film with the same specific illegal activity if he would say he would do it again. For one thing the new laws in SAG that my lawsuit helped to create would not allow an actor to be hired to fool audiences in to believing they are another performer with the use of prosthetics or otherwise.

Still putting that specific questions to Bob Gale I wonder what he would answer. If he would answer that he would help to do something illegal again I hope people would understand the lack of integrity that would indicate on his part. I would hope he would answer that what he/they did was wrong, and illegal and if they had to make the film without me playing the role they would simply cast another actor in the role like they did with re-casting Claudia Wells with Elizabeth Shue as Jennifer character in the same film. In the very same film they re-cast an actress with a different actress, but they did not put prosthetics on Elizabeth Shue to make her look like Claudia Wells. For whatever what feels to me like being mean spirited, they decided it was good idea to put another actor in prosthetics and inter-splice a very small portion of me from the original film to fool audiences in to believing I was in it. There has not been another situation like this preceding it, and because of my lawsuit there has not been another time that another actor has been subjected to this particular sort of illegal activity.

Again I am proud of the lawsuit and standing up against illegal activity that caused proper precedents and bylaws in to be set in the Screen Actors Guild. It is unfortunate that the producers of the Back to the Future films decided it was a good idea to perform an illegal action, which led to a lawsuit. In 2005-2007 I had a very positive experience working with Robert Zemeckis again playing Grendel in his “Beowulf.” When working together the subject of the lawsuit was never brought up. I am enjoying my life, making my films, touring with them, publishing my books and acting in other people’s films. If I were put in the exact same situation today I would react in the exact same way. Thank you for asking about it in that detailed way. I am glad to help clarify. People can find out about my films and shows and where I will be with them on CrispinGlover.com

I have noticed however that Bob Gale who was the co-writer and one of the producers on the films and one of the chief architects of the concepts that led to the law suit has been stating false things about me to attempt to lessen his wrongdoing. I do not like his false statements would like to remind that what he did caused laws in the screen actors guild to be changed to protect actors from his kind of wrong doing. I ended up having an excellent working relationship with Robert Zemeckis on Beowulf which was released in 2007. Despite the negative aspects of Bob Gale I am glad that I played the character in the original film.

25 comments:

Kelly said...

He was good in the movie, to bad he was off his rocker. If I recall, he was difficult to work with, that's why he wasn't in the sequel. Also, wasn't he on a late night show, maybe Carson, where he made a fool of himself?

Laslo Spatula said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dYjdKbMT_c

Crispin on Letterman: karate kick. Crispin was almost the answer to my father Andy Kaufman. Almost. The torch didn't quite pass.

rcommal said...

Interesting.

Laslo Spatula said...

We just had the post a few days ago on males in female masks; what if the actor in the Crispin Glover mask was a woman? What if she slept with people who were thinking they were sleeping with Crispin Glover? Should all sexual activities now be proceeded with the statement: "I am not Crispin Glover?"

Laslo Spatula said...

I am Spartacus, not Crispin Glover.

Laslo Spatula said...

My favorite Glover moment is in Lynch's 'Wild at Heart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibw1kHMf4Bg

From wiki: Crispin Glover as Dell, Lula's mentally ill cousin who puts cockroaches in his underwear.

America, baby.

Michael K said...

Blah Blah Blah. "I wasn't in the movie and I should have been." I missed the actress who played Michael J Fox's girlfriend in the first movie, too.

It's hilarious that Alec Baldwin turned down "Patriot Games" and it was much better with Harrison Ford. Ford went on to make more of them.

SteveR said...

Something about this thread......

Gahrie said...

RE: Jack Ryan

I thought Alec did a good job in Hunt. But I thought Archer and Ford were the definitive Ryans....too bad they couldn't have done more of the books. The less said about Sum, the better. I've only seen the trailer for the new movie..but I didn't like what I saw.

Anonymous said...

Whiner.

Uncle Frank said...

There are certain aspects of sentence structure in the sentences that he writes that makes me believe that he has difficulty structuring sentences for people to read fluidly and without getting lost in the angry ramblings of an upset person.

cubanbob said...

Glover does have a point. It appears that he has or had either a copyright or trademark infringement case against the studio.

Nichevo said...

Is there anything exceptionable about his point? Apparently he won and good for him. Why criticize? Why even post this? Except to poke fun at Glover's personality? And because Althouse is doing the Beavis and Butt-head thing, "huh-huh, he said they stole his face, uhuh-huh," like a drooling mouthbreather.

This is what should be running the country instead of doctors or soldiers? Sometimes, Ann, you should keep the results of your free association to yourself.

Ann Althouse said...

His face is part of what he sells in his services as an actor. They wanted the same character in the sequel, but they failed to reach a bargain with him, and they took steps to make it look as though he was in fact in that sequel.

His presence in the movie meant a lot to some fans. I thought he was the most amusing character in the original movie.

They worked out a way to make him seem to be in the movie when he was not, and that cheated him out of something that he believed he owned — his facial image — and that one would have to buy exclusively from him to use.

He got ripped off and then subsequently (as he sees it) he was lied about.

What was the settlement? Did he agree to keep quiet and not accuse the other side of doing wrong? If so, he's violating that now. If not, why not?

Bradoplata said...

New Jack Ryan movie=Jack Ryan from the books as Reacher=Jack Reacher from the books.

Decent, action packed movie, but it wasn't the Ryan I know and love.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I have mixed feelings on this. It sounds like he got screwed, and if what they did was illegal then he deserved to win the lawsuit.

On the other hand, they didn't put the other actor in prosthetics to make him look like Crispin Glover. They put him in prosthetics to make him look like George McFly. It says something about the value of your acting ability if you can be easily replaced by another actor in prosthetics.

Stephen J. said...

I like Crispin Glover's acting very much, and it may well be true that Gale broke the rules if he used Glover's likeness without Glover's permission (although the fact that they had to change the rules to prevent it happening again strongly suggests it *wasn't* illegal the first time), but to claim it was to make people "believ[e he] was in the film" is ridiculous. Anybody who paid any attention to the sequels' pre-release publicity already knew he wasn't going to be, and the lack of Glover's name in the credits, available to anyone who bothered to read them, only confirms this.

Most of all, if Gale lied about the negotiations in a way that made Glover look bad or hard to work with and thus damaged his professional reputation as an actor, that's actionable libel or slander; why didn't Glover bring criminal charges, if that's really the case? As I said, I like Glover, but if we're talking about motivation to create lies, he has as much as anyone does.

MadisonMan said...

I generally take the word of actors over producers, and this case is no different.

madAsHell said...

Gee.....I thought he invented the character George McFly. Hell, he is George McFly.

The Crack Emcee said...

All I have to say about "Back to the Future" is whites didn't invent Rock N Roll.

That was the real "crime" of these pictures,...

MikeinAppalachia said...

Nor did Chuck Berry.

The Crack Emcee said...

MikeinAppalachia said...
Nor did Chuck Berry.


See, that's called a "straw man"...

Weisbrot said...

No straw man. CHuck Berry was on the other end of the phone listening to Marty's "radical" guitar licks; the implication being that he then based his sound off McFly/"invented" rock and roll. Anyway, everyone knows r&r comes from Scots Irish tradition, hillbilly music, and the call and response style of old time hill gospel music. Those like Blind Willie and Robert Johnson just appropriated from those traditions.

Unknown said...

This guy is so weird. He is right about the ethical issue: using another actor to pretend to be him was wrong, and he's right about the logic fail in not doing the same thing for Elizabeth Shue's character when she took over the girlfriend role. But he's leaving out crucial information. He actually lost his court case. The SAG rules changed, but he recovered no damages and the courts determined that it was perfectly legal for Bob Gale et. all to use his image and the molds in the second movie. Legally they owned his image for all subsequent films because he let then have it for the first film and they owned the character. This is the reason movies today can keep using photos of actors *in costume from the previous movies* as often as they wish without compensating the actor again at all. It was an important legal decision for Hollywood. So Glover seems to be bent on repeating the word "illegal" over and over again to drive his point home, but the truth is that the courts found nothing illegal in Gale's actions, whatsoever. And it's obvious that Glover decided to give Zemeckis a pass since they worked together again, but Zemeckis would have been just as guilty as Gale. He was a producer too. So Glover's guilty of the very same logic fail he points out -- what applies to one person should apply to another. Based on his omissions and lack of clear analysis, I'd say Gale's side of this is a lot more believable. And if not, at least his comments were clearly stated and easy to understand. This posting is just a mess.

Unknown said...

Well someone doesn't know what really happened. He didn't lose his court case, Universal settled out of court for $765,000. Over 6x what they offered to pay him and 265k more than Michael J. Fox made. (That alone says that they knew what they did was wrong. ) I know what you are thinking it went to lawyer's. Well guess again SAG paid for the lawyer and the legal fees. Universal knew that they would not win and wanted it to go away quietly. Like him or not this guy helped other actors from getting used by the studios and other shady people.