Michael J. Fox Details 20-Hour Work Day on ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Family Ties’ Sets

Michael J. Fox had first-hand experience with burnout while filming Family Ties and Back to the Future simultaneously.

“During three long months, I was Alex, I was Marty, and I was Mike. That’s two too many. In order to complete my work, at least one of them had to go, and Mike was the odd man out,” Fox, 64, wrote in his new memoir, published on Tuesday, October 14. “This is the story of what happened during that fateful period, when I completed the third season of Family Ties while also filming Back to the Future. I was Alex P. Keaton during the day, and Marty McFly at night.”

In the book, titled Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum, Fox stated that he worked 20-hour workdays that “left little time to be me.” It has taken the actor “four decades to piece it all together,” he wrote.

While the book is a love letter to Back to the Future, Fox was also honest about what his jam-packed work weeks looked like.

Fox wrote that the “most rested” he would be was on Monday morning at 9:00 a.m., when he was picked up for Family Ties. By 5:00 p.m., the show wrapped and he was en route to the Back to the Future set.

“This will be my earliest release of the week. I grab something to eat in my dressing room, tuck my Back to the Future script under my arm, and by 5:15, I’m in the teamster-driven station wagon, headed to Universal,” he wrote. “I crack open my Back to the Future script to the scene we’re shooting that night, and I begin to memorize Marty’s lines. Somewhere over the Cahuenga Pass, I manage to push Alex’s voice out of my head and tune in Marty — his cadences, his incredulous crackle.”

Monday night turned into Tuesday morning and Fox would wrap on the film at 2:30 a.m. As for sleep? That didn’t come until well after 3:15 a.m., he wrote.

Once Fox woke up Tuesday morning at 7:00 a.m. there was “a revised Family Ties script waiting outside my apartment door,” he recalled, noting that the day was dedicated to rehearsals. Similar to the night before, by 6:00 p.m., he was on his way to Back to the Future, wrapping in the early hours of the next day.

“People often ask me how I memorize that much dialogue. My method has always been the same: I don’t memorize the lines; I absorb them,” Fox wrote. “I take pictures with my eyes and imprint them on my brain.”

Friday was the biggest difference in Fox’s week because of the Family Ties live taping.

“In the minutes leading up to the audience taping, I feel a burst of adrenaline,” Fox shared. It’s ironic, but for all the effort it took to get to this point, I feel more energized than enervated. I love to work, especially under the pressure of a live performance. It’s catalytic to me.”

The live taping ended his day at 11:00 p.m., and yes, he still had to go film Back to the Future.

“Fridays are definitely the most demanding days for cast and crew. Because of my late arrival, we are forced to shoot through the night,” he wrote. “We wrap at sunrise. I don’t even remember being driven home.”

Future Boy is out now.