Crispin Glover makes awkwardness hard to ignore, sometimes at the risk of overplaying it. We value him most when the precise, peculiar behaviour lets us see a person underneath, as it does in Back to the Future.
Fi1m perspective
George McFly can seem almost too awkward to be believed in Back to the Future (1985). Crispin Glover’s comic habits threaten to take over, but the embarrassment behind them remains clear. We felt for George because that embarrassment is so recognisable, even when the behaviour is exaggerated. It is a performance we like with a reservation: sometimes we notice the effort to be peculiar before we notice the man.
In Robert Zemeckis’s film, a teenager meeting his parents in their awkward youth gives Glover’s exaggeration a comic purpose. Fox makes Marty’s discomfort funny without turning the encounter cruel. Lea Thompson gives Lorraine a life beyond being Marty’s mother, providing a useful contrast to Glover’s more conspicuous comic habits. We recommend the film warmly; our reservation concerns the insistence of Glover’s mannerisms, not the comedy built around him.
George was his breakthrough, and the next phase took him towards independent films such as River’s Edge (1986), where he played Layne, and work with David Lynch. His strongly physical acting and unusual vocal delivery suit characters who do not fit comfortably among other people. The risk is that being conspicuous becomes the whole performance, leaving us watching the technique rather than caring what happens. George gives us a reason to care, and we would ask the same of the other outsiders he plays.
By the 2000s, mainstream supporting parts were helping to finance his own experimental films. For the Thin Man in Charlie’s Angels (2000), he reworked the part as a silent character, an unusually direct way of putting the acting in the body. Willard (2003), with Glover as Willard Stiles, gave him his first studio lead; What Is It? (2005) followed as his directorial debut. His move into directing makes sense for an actor so particular about how a character is presented, though that independence is no guarantee of a satisfying film. Start with Back to the Future, where we can laugh at George and still feel for him.
Biography
Crispin Hellion Glover is an American actor, filmmaker, author and artist. Born on 20 April 1964 in New York City, he is the son of actors Bruce Glover and Betty Glover. He trained for the stage with Dan Mason and Peggy Feury.
Glover's breakout role was as George McFly in Back to the Future (1985). He has appeared in films including River's Edge (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), the Charlie's Angels films (2000 and 2003), Beowulf (2007), 9 (2009), Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Hot Tub Time Machine (2010). He also directed and produced What Is It? (2005) and It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine! (2007) through his company Volcanic Eruptions, and has written and published several books.
