Michael J Fox has condemned Donald Trump’s presidency, comparing the US leader to Back to the Future villain Biff Tannen.
The actor spoke to The Guardian ahead of the US presidential election on 3 November. The ensuing interview, published over the weekend, naturally touches on politics.
“Every worst instinct in mankind has been played on [by Trump], and for me that’s just anathema,” Fox told the newspaper. “Biff is president!”
Biff is the main antagonist in the Back to the Future franchise. The character, portrayed by Thomas F Wilson, is a classic high school bully. He’s featured in all three installments of the trilogy.
Back to the Future creator Bob Gale has previously said that Biff was partly inspired by the real-life Trump. In 1985, when the first Back to the Future film came out, Trump was a well known real estate developer and tabloid celebrity.
“We thought about it when we made the movie! Are you kidding?” Gale told The Daily Beast in 2015. “You watch Part II again and there’s a scene where Marty confronts Biff in his office and there’s a huge portrait of Biff on the wall behind Biff, and there’s one moment where Biff kind of stands up and he takes exactly the same pose as the portrait? Yeah.”
In the same interview with The Guardian, Fox commented on Trump’s public mocking of a disabled reporter during his 2016 presidential campaign.
“When you see your particular group mocked, it’s such a gut punch,” Fox, who has Parkinson’s disease, said. “It’s so senseless and cheap.”
