Quotes

[on the appeal of Biff in the Back to the Future (1985) movies] People love the character because ultimately Biff is a failure. Biff doesn't win in the end, which is why people like him. He's this horrible guy throughout the movie, but you can be pretty confident that he's going to get slugged in the head and be unconscious at the end.

[on his past decision to not sign Back to the Future memorabilia] I've decided to do what I want to do in life, and follow my own path as an artist, so I've decided not to participate in any sort of nostalgia in which I'm marginalized as a popular icon of yesteryear. I no longer support in any way an insurmountable archetype, and now exclusively pursue the things that interest me.

[on how Biff was a reflection of bullies who tormented him] A thin and sickly kid, I was pushed around and beaten up by bullies throughout my childhood, until I grew bigger than everybody and it stopped, I knew very well how they operate, and specifically the joy they take in scaring people. I'd stared them in the face so often that it wasn't particularly challenging to do an impression.

[on how he overcame his biggest bully: himself] The interchanges would have - of course, most of them were positive, and most people understand the movie, but there were plenty where the guys would want to put me in a headlock, or push me around a bit, or get into a little tussle with 'that tough guy from Back to the Future, because he's not that tough after all'. Well, I'm not that tough after all, because I'm an actor: because it's pretend! And I think that social media, the greater intimacy, maybe - I mean, part of it is false intimacy, but part of it's real intimacy; you can go see things as an actor, that's why I do the YouTube thing, to present 'this is me as a person', that the audience, now, the popular cultural audience, is a more sophisticated audience and a more multi-faceted audience.