Do You Have The Right People In The Right Places?

15 posted on October 15, 2010

POSTED IN: Blog Posts, Leadership, Videos

Back To The Future, one of everyone’s favorite movies from the 80s, is celebrating it’s 25th Anniversary this month. But did you know that Michael J. Fox was pulled in to play the main character of Marty McFly after the filming had already begun? Stick with me, this is more than just random movie trivia – there’s an important leadership lesson here.

Here is some archive footage showing Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly in Back to the Future, before being replaced by the director after 5 weeks of filming.

We all know now that Michael J. Fox was born to play the role of Marty McFly in those movies. But at the time, the Director didn’t know that. He was under the gun of a tight movie deadline and had already invested countless hours and dollars over five weeks filming with Eric Stoltz.

After reviewing the footage he had a gut feeling that Stoltz wasn’t right for the role. Most people would have just stuffed those concerns down and kept shooting in order to complete filming before deadline. But writer/director Robert Zemeckis made the tough call to cut Eric Stolz and ask the studio for more time. That decision led to casting Michael J. Fox for the role and the rest is history.

Here’s the takeaway…

Never underestimate the importance of having the right people in right places in your organization (or, as Jim Collins says, are the right people on the right seats in your bus?). And, perhaps even more importantly, don’t hesitate to make the call if someone needs to be replaced.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 15th, 2010 at 9:11 am and is filed under Blog Posts, Leadership, Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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October 15, 2010

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1 Erik Cooper said:

Saw this story on CNN. Fascinating. We just watched this movie with the kids two weeks ago. My daughter was floored with this clip. So weird to see those historic scenes with another actor!
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October 15, 2010

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2 Jason Cormier said:

It makes all the difference. Great post today.
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October 15, 2010

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3 D. Marie said:

I had no idea Eric Stoltz was up for that part, and PLAYED IT! Yikes. Good on Zemeckis for changing his mind. I cannot see anyone else in that role.

Point well driven home.
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October 15, 2010

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4 Blane Young said:

I heard someone talking about this recently…

But the parallels you draw to this are so true.

And they are so clear when looking at this movie, unfortunately, they seem less clear when it comes to church leadership. Maybe because emotions are involved?
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October 16, 2010

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5 Bill (cycleguy) said:

Being the BTTF fan I am I knew this but you brought out the importance of the decision Zemeckis made. I, for one, can’t see anyone else but MJF playing Marty. Even after watching the extras in the DVD and at the site, there is no one else. Good leadership point too Brad.
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October 30, 2011

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