Actress Lea Thompson opened and shared her time capsule of film-career memories, spanning more than 30 years, during her question-and-answer session after the Back to the Future screening at the Enzian Theater.
Thompson portrayed Marty McFly’s (Michael J. Fox) mom Lorraine Baines in the classic, blockbuster film.
Back to the Future is a blast from the past, but has a meaningful message.
“The movie has a lesson, which is one moment can change your life,” said Thompson. “I think that’s one of the secrets of time travel. It’s not just the cool time machine, but it’s the idea of looking back and seeing the past and future at the same time.”
One fan asked Thompson if there was one Back to the Future memento that she regrets not snagging from the set and she said it was the DeLorean [Laughs]. However, she did get to keep the dreamy pink prom dress that she wore during the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance scenes.
I had an opportunity to ask Thompson if there were any funny moments she experienced with the cast while filming Back to the Future. She said the funniest scene is when she portrays vodka-drinking Lorraine and brings out her brother Joey’s jailbird cake. Thompson said Crispin Glover (George McFly) was cracking up the cast with his quirky laugh. She said she was trying not to laugh because the problem with plastic makeup is that it’s glued on and the seams can not be put back into place once they’re broken. Thompson said the scene is hilarious and the actors kept laughing their way through it for an hour-and-a-half.
She discussed how she got the part of Kelly Ann Bukowski in Jaws 3-D with little acting experience and not knowing how to water ski before filming scenes at SeaWorld Orlando.
Thompson remembered how nervous Tom Cruise was during his All the Right Moves screen test. She also had to go undercover at a high school in order to prepare for her role as Lisa. She recalled getting busted for skipping class because nobody knew she was an actress. Thompson said the movie was filmed before Cruise became a massive star.
She fondly recalled moments with Patrick Swayze while filming Red Dawn. Thompson said the cast had mock-up AK-47 rifles in their hotel rooms and would run around with the guns in Las Vegas and Mexico in the middle of the night.
Thompson and Swayze were both ballet dancers. She said they would perform acts from the ballet Giselle whenever they weren’t shooting scenes or guns.
The actress became teary eyed after a fan told her how SpaceCamp inspired her to become a NASA rocket scientist and that the Mars rover was one of her projects.
A Howard the Duck fan had Thompson sign his movie memorabilia at MegaCon. She was impressed that he had the original soundtrack on vinyl. He said if their paths crossed again and he found another soundtrack, then he would give it to her. As fate would have it, Thompson now owns the Howard the Duck soundtrack thanks to a fan named Tom.
Thompson portrayed Amanda Jones, the popular pretty girl who had a rough home life in John Hughes’ last 1980s teen movie Some Kind of Wonderful. She also met the love of her life, husband and director Howard Deutch while filming the movie.
After she had a baby, Thompson had a difficult time getting parts in movies until she landed the role of Caroline Duffy in the TV sitcom Caroline in the City. Her character was a successful cartoonist living in Manhattan whose comic strip “Caroline in the City” became a huge hit.
She said it was a great job, but filming a sitcom is hard. Thompson said there’s so much pressure because of the way the scripts are created. Plus, you’re telling jokes and you have to set up the scenes perfectly in front of a live audience.
The show also made converting old TVs into fish tanks popular during the mid-1990s.
Learn more about Thompson’s career on imdb.com.
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