Devo Rock Star Mark Mothersbaugh Could've Played Doc In Back To The Future
There are loads of tantalizing Hollywood casting what-ifs. Tom Selleck would've played Indiana Jones had he not been previously committed to CBS' "Magnum P.I." Pierce Brosnan was set to succeed Roger Moore as James Bond after "A View to a Kill," but NBC, realizing the star of their just-canceled "Remington Steele," was a hot commodity, resurrected the show for a fifth season (after which it was canceled again). And there's always poor Dougray Scott, who had to give up the role of Wolverine in Bryan Singer's "X-Men" when "Mission: Impossible II" went over schedule.
These were franchise- and career-altering decisions. What would Harrison Ford have done after the conclusion of the "Star Wars" original trilogy in 1983? Would Brosnan have rejuvenated the flagging Bond series, thus averting the six-year retooling period between "License to Kill" and "GoldenEye?" Could Scott have connected with audiences as emphatically as Hugh Jackman did in the role of Logan?
Well, here's another corker of a what if, one that wasn't well known until recently: Mark Mothersbaugh, the lead singer of the pioneering New Wave band Devo, was offered the role of Doc Brown in Robert Zemeckis' "Back to the Future." And unlike the aforementioned near-castings, Mothersbaugh turned it down flat. Why? We'll let him explain.
Saying no to Steven Spielberg in the 1980s took some chutzpah
While attending the 2024 Sundance Film Festival to promote Chris Smith's new documentary "Devo," Mothersbaugh revealed to The Wrap that Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, while in pre-production on "Back to the Future," went to a Devo show and approached him after the concert about playing the shock-white-haired mad (but lovable) scientist.
According to Mothersbaugh, "I went into this meeting and they said, 'Well, we love what you do on stage. We love the way your band looks. We want you to be sort of a crazy mad scientist in this film we're doing." When Mothersbaugh pressed them for details, they replied, "There's a part in the film of a guy who runs around in a lab coat and he has a car that goes through time. We want you to play that part."
This was probably 1984, so consider the magnitude of this offer. Spielberg had established himself as Hollywood's preeminent dream weaver via "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," and the first two Indiana Jones films, while Zemeckis was a rising star on the strength of "Romancing the Stone." If Mothersbaugh wanted to be a movie star, this was a first-class ticket to the big time.
But the Devo frontman, who wasn't above playing the Hollywood game (Devo had written two songs for Dan Aykroyd's 1983 non-triumph "Doctor Detroit"), shut the duo down, telling them he had no interest in an acting career. When they countered that he was basically acting on stage and in the band's music videos (most famously "Whip It"), he countered, "Well, we make that stuff up ourselves."
Fair enough. But let's say Mothersbaugh was open to an acting career. How would that have altered the entertainment landscape as we know it today?
A world without Christopher Lloyd's Doc Brown? No thanks!
"Back to the Future" is notable for another casting what-if: Eric Stoltz shot 34 days in the role of Marty McFly before being replaced by Michael J. Fox. The major drawback with Stoltz was that he was a serious method actor giving a serious performance in a deeply unserious movie. Acting opposite a seasoned comedic actor like Christopher Lloyd (who'd won two Primetime Emmy awards as Reverend Jim on the sitcom "Taxi"), Stoltz's misguided approach must've been glaring. But how would a first-time film performer like Mothersbaugh have handled this? If he was thrown, Spielberg might've looked at dailies and wondered if the production should be killed altogether.
Then there's Mothersbaugh's career, which reached a turning point in 1984 with the critical and commercial failure of Devo's "Shout" LP. Though Devo wouldn't go on hiatus until 1991, Mothersbaugh was already branching out by composing the music for "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" and "Rugrats." Would he have had time to do this if "Back to the Future" took off with him in the Doc Brown role? If not, who would've composed those distinct scores for Wes Anderson's first four movies?
As for Christopher Lloyd, he would've kept working steadily. We just wouldn't have his Doc Brown, which, much as I adore Mothersbaugh, would be a massive bummer. So thanks for telling Spielberg to take a hike, sir!