Thomas F. Wilson may have played one of the most notorious thugs in cinema Back to future Biff Tannen, but that doesn’t mean he’s a fan of them.
In a YouTube video posted by the 64-year-old actor this week, Wilson detailed why he personally “didn’t want to play the bully.”
“‘I’m gonna kick your ass,'” Wilson recited as he channeled his character in the clip. “That had to be my approach. It had to be. I don’t even like to say ‘ass,’ I say ‘double scribble.’ The role was for a bully. I’ve never played a bully before. I didn’t want to play a bully. All my life I’ve been pushed around by bullies.”
Wilson, who appeared as a tough guy in 1985 Back to future and its two sequels, added that he was “skinny as a twig” as a child and explained that he had asthma that “everyone pushed him around” while growing up in Philadelphia.
Lea Thompson celebrated ‘Back to the Future’ Day with a few snaps of the cast over the years
He then described a specific encounter with his own bully, who punched him in the face when he refused to get off his bike.
“I watched Columbo and Starsky & Hutch, [I thought] when they hit you in the face, you faint. Turns out you’re just crying and having an asthma attack and you give the kid your bike,” he joked.
“I hate thugs,” Wilson added. “Jesus wants me to love everyone. Everyone is my brother, my sister. My parents, they taught me to approach everyone with compassion. Smile at your brother. Everyone come together, try to love each other right now. I hate bullies.”
Wilson’s latest YouTube video is “Humbly Super Famous,” which he wrote is “a movie about me and Back to future,” followed Wilson as he met fans during Fan Expo Philadelphia 2023. At the event, he reunited with his peers from the film, including stars Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox.
At one point in the footage, Wilson filmed 85-year-old Lloyd in the back seat of a car, as Lloyd asked him if he was “making a movie”.
“Yeah, I’m making a movie,” Wilson replied. “And since you’re in everything, I think I’ll put you in it.”
“OK,” Lloyd joked, “I’ll charge you for that too.”
Thomas F. Wilson appears in ‘Back to the Future’ with Billy Zane, JJ Cohen and Casey Siemaszka.
Universal/Courtesy of Everett Collection
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The film’s stars have regularly gathered at conventions over the years, and last July they gathered for a gala celebration Back to the Future: The Musical in New York.
For the event, Fox and Lloyd were joined by the film’s other cast members, including Lea Thompson, as they all celebrated the musical alongside the original film’s director, Robert Zemeckis.
Speaking to PEOPLE in October 2022, Fox described the musical adaptation as “pretty good quality.”
“I was really taken aback (by the fact) they’re not trying to fix us. They’re trying to do a new thing,” he said. “It’s an independent work based on the same set of ideas and characters.”
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Source: HIS Education