Michael J. Fox Had No Idea That He Was Awesome In Back To The Future

Jumping gigawatts! Time-traveling "Back to the Future" frontman Michael J. Fox has revealed that he spent a lot of time after his initial ride in the DeLorean believing that he wasn't very good in it. It's a baffling perspective given that this is a film that not only defined his career but is also considered to be one of the greatest ever made.

While discussing the upcoming Apple TV+ documentary "Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie" with Empire, the star, having only seen the original sci-fi adventure twice after its release, admitted that he had only recently noticed just how great he was in it, thanks to a chance viewing over the holidays.

"It was Christmas. We were decorating the tree... I went to go get something from the kitchen and I was gone quite a while," he recalled. "Tracy [Pollan, Fox's wife] came and found me and I was watching TV. I said, 'Look, Back To The Future's on TV! You know what, I'm really good in this!' She said, 'Yeah, we know.' 'Well, why didn't you tell me?!'"

It's wild to think that Michael J. Fox didn't see what the rest of the world did from his performance as Marty McFly. The well-known slacker who stops himself from being erased from existence thanks to his mad scientist pal, Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), is central to the movie, which has become a staple in pop culture. How big of a staple? Marvel fans spotted a "Back to the Future" Easter egg in "Avengers: Endgame" — and that's in addition to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) mentioning it while trying to save the universe. That's how big.

And yet Fox expected his time as Marty McFly to be done and dusted after that legendary cliff-hanger that doesn't require roads. "I thought this would all soon be over," he explained. "I thought they'd see what I'd done, I'd go back to the back of the pack and start again." Thankfully, that wasn't the case, although it took another perspective to clarify just what kind of success he was a part of. "My agent said, 'You don't understand. This is the biggest thing in the world.' My first instinct was, 'I have to get back to America! There are girls to meet!'" The rest, as they say, is history.