Christopher Lloyd says he and Michael J. Fox didn’t become friends until after“ Back to the Future” films

Christopher Lloyd shared that he and Michael J. Fox became friends after the Back to the Future films.

The two were "separated by a generation" and preoccupied with their work, especially during the first movie.

Lloyd wrote about stories from his days filming the Back to the Future trilogy in his memoir In My Own Time , out now.

Christopher Lloyd admitted that it took a while for his friendship with Michael J. Fox to bloom.

The 87-year-old reflected on his time working with Fox during the Back to the Future trilogy. Their introduction came under unusual and stressful circumstances, as the Family Ties alum had been brought in to replace Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly six weeks into shooting the first film.

"So as far as I can tell, our introduction happened in a parking lot on Back to the Future, as Doc Brown and Marty, at a time when we were re-shooting scenes that I had already done once before," Lloyd wrote in his memoir In My Own Time . "I was having a very self-involved reaction at first, and moment to moment I was feeling the challenge of it, knowing that I had to make Doc's scenes happen again and worrying about whether I could bring them back to the level I had brought them to the first time."

Needless to say, Lloyd was preoccupied with the retakes, so getting to know Fox wasn't the priority. Still, as the actors were "feeling each other out" during scenes, the Taxi alum said things "seemed to be clicking."

"I was extremely grateful that the other actor in this case was Michael, because he brought his own energy and that sparked me to get over my own anxieties," Lloyd continued.

But although they had great chemistry onscreen, the 88-year-old admitted that they largely kept to themselves during their downtime. He also noted that Fox had been keeping a hectic schedule, as he had been filming Back to the Future and Family Ties concurrently.

"We were separated by a generation in age, and he was busy doing essentially two jobs at once, one of which was a movie where everyone else had already done many more weeks' worth of work, and now he was expected to come in quickly and help save the day. It must have been a very heavy burden for him," Lloyd shared.

As a result, the two weren't very close. In fact, the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest actor said that it took filming the rest of the trilogy to establish a friendship.

"It would take two more Back to the Future movies before Michael and I truly got to know each other and become friends. But it would come," Lloyd shared.

In his memoir, Lloyd recounted several standout moments during his time filming the Back to the Future movies. He revealed that his favorite installment was Back to the Future Part III, although he also shared that he had one regret while working on the movie.

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While he was explicitly told not to do his own stunts, there was one in particular that Lloyd believed he could pull off. During the climactic scene where Doc and Marty ride up to a train on horseback in an attempt to make it back to 1985, Lloyd admitted that he wished he had hoisted himself onto the train himself, rather than let a stuntman do it for him.

"Who knows what would have happened next? But whenever I watch the movie and see that scene, I still feel that pang in my heart: I should have done it," he said.

In My Own Time is available now wherever books are sold.

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