Christopher Lloyd Reflects On His Celebrated Career And Life At 86

Christopher Lloyd attends the premiere of Universal Pictures’ “Nobody 2” at TCL Chinese Theatre on August 11, 2025 in Hollywood, California.

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“Retirement still is not in my vocabulary. I’ll just keep going.”

That is how longtime beloved actor Christopher Lloyd feels these days at the age of 86. Arguably still best known for playing Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown (or simply Doc Brown) in the 1985 film Back to the Future, Lloyd has had a whirlwind acting career that most could only dream of – and he does not seem to be done quite yet.

Returning as the character David Mansell in the Nobody 2 sequel this weekend in theaters and playing Professor Orloff in the new season of Wednesday on Netflix, Lloyd remains a leading figure in the entertainment industry – something not many veteran actors can often say.

I sat down for an elaborate conversation with Lloyd over Zoom earlier this month to discuss his beloved past, his active present and his still promising future.

Jeff Conway: Christopher, as you know, it’s the 40th anniversary of Back to the Future. I love Doc Brown. “Great Scott” is my term, but what are your thoughts as you look back, these 40 years later? What do you cherish most about that film and your experiences on that production?

Christopher Lloyd: Well, one thing that that stands out with the Back to the Future trilogy, more than any other movie I’ve done, is how deeply it has affected people. I mean, kids who have grown up on it – adults – it’s touched them in a way that’s quite profound and sort of joyous. I know that the writers, Bob Gale and Bob Zemeckis, really put together something. You know, everybody is all about time travel. I know when I was a kid before, thinking – What if I could be a hundred years beyond now? What would that be like a hundred years ago? Everybody has those kind of thoughts, I think in some fashion, and Back to the Future just tapped right into that. They love the connections, the relationships and the spirit of it. The writing of the very last scene on the train [in Part III]

– “The future is what you make it. Make it a good one.” – that just resonates all over the place in such a wonderful way.

There’s also a wonderful dichotomy between Doc Brown and Marty. I mean, here’s a kid – I know when I was a kid, every once in a while, I can remember certain people in my life that were like bigger-than-life because of the way they looked or what they did or their personalities or whatever. Doc kind of provides that sort of connection with Marty. Marty, you know, he’s a kid having fun – and there’s this weird guy up there. He’s got a lot of clocks, and this and that. It’s every kid’s kind of dream, maybe to meet somebody along the way as they’re growing up that is some kind of inspiration – that helps them keep moving forward. So, that’s kind of what I love the most.

I meet so many fans and they are just so connected with the film – not just the story, but the feeling of it. I’ve done some films that people love, but this goes beyond. And so, that’s always been a thrill to be a part of.

Conway: Yes – and you bring up the Marty and Doc dynamic. I know you go to fan conventions that people love to meet you at, Christopher – but you also get to see Michael J. Fox, sometimes – you get to see Lea Thompson. What does it mean to you to continue to see these friends of yours, these fellow actors, throughout the years?

Lloyd: Oh, it’s great. You know, I love Michael. Michael is this phenomenon – what he’s been through with Parkinson’s and his founding of a foundation to do research and come up with a cure – and his gusto, his excitement. We get together and do Comic-Con together. He has always got this energy and humor and outlook on life, that I don’t know if I could have come up with his resolve. It’s great.

Conway: Fans adore you, obviously, for Back to the Future, but I also love you, Christopher, for like Dennis the Menace. I love Clue – it’s also the 40th anniversary of Clue. When it comes to these fan interactions, what are some of the favorite things that you love to have with these face-to-face interactions with people that just admire your work and your craft?

Lloyd: Well, I don’t take it for granted. I’ve had an effect, an impact, and it’s not an ego trip. It’s just – I’ve done my work. I’ve worked on good scripts with people who made those scripts come alive, and I’m grateful for that. I love the lines form up at the Comic-Cons. I’m signing autographs, but sometimes, I’ll be spending 5-10 minutes with one person who just wants to talk about it and the line waits, but that’s the way it goes. So yeah, it’s a great thing.

Conway: I love that. This month, Christopher, you have Nobody 2. I love seeing you in another Nobody film. So exciting. At this stage of your career as an actor, Christopher, are you noticing your priorities in the characters and stories that matter to you, evolving as time has gone on?

Lloyd: I guess so. I don’t do much to channel myself for certain roles. Starting from the get-go, I was just happy to work. Give me a script – let’s go with it! Whether it was comedy or tragedy, or this or that – I love reading all the scripts and then putting it together in my mind. How am I going to look? What’s my hair going to be like? What do I wear? What kind of shoes does he wear, or boots or whatever? Does he shave his mustache? – and I start kind of putting all that stuff together. I love that process. Whether it’s a cameo or lead, whatever – I want to get my soul into another person. That’s my kick!

Conway: What are you enjoying most about the dynamic you get to have with people like Bob Odenkirk in these Nobody films? Can you speak to your professional relationship with him?

Lloyd: Oh, so good. It’s so easy. He’s so flexible to work with – he just wants good, supportive work to come in and help make the production, whatever it’s going to be. In Nobody, I get a little bit involved, but it’s not to the extent as number one [Bob, on the call sheet]. I’m more his dad and it takes me in sort of a different direction. It’s very pleasing and I love working with him. He’s great – he’s so experienced and he’s loose. He has a great imagination, vigor, and he just likes to get in and do it.

Conway: I also have to bring up one of my other favorite roles of yours – you in Addams Family Values as Uncle Fester with Joan Cusack. Your comedic exchange with Joan Cusack is some of the best comedy that I have ever seen in my entire life.

Lloyd: She is great to work with. I mean, our chemistry was really good for that. When I was a kid, my mom and dad subscribed to a magazine, The New Yorker, and I would pick it up and it had cartoons in it. I didn’t read the esoteric stuff in the magazine. I just wanted to look at the cartoons – Charles Addams was a contributor. Every once in a while, every couple of weeks, there would be an Addams Family cartoon and Fester would be in there. I got really involved with him. He was such a mischief maker, but not dangerous. I mean, he could be, but he had this attitude about things that just – I enjoyed him. I felt I would love to play with this guy, you know? This is fun. So, time went and then decades later, I get a call. How do you like to be Uncle Fester? And so, I got to do that – do that in a film. I loved it – I loved playing that character.

Conway: You have also joined Wednesday, the Netflix series with Tim Burton. So, how it is to join this dark comedy world, yet again, in a new facet as Professor Orloff?

Lloyd: Well, I love the character they created for me. I just love what they gave me to do and it’s kind of radical. It fits the scenario.

Conway: Christopher, you have played so many diverse roles throughout your career – are there still certain characters at this stage of your career that you would still like to play, that you feel you really have not taken on yet?

Lloyd: Well, I’ve always had a yearning, a real daydream of Don Quixote de La Mancha. I think that’s a fabulous character. I don’t think it’s ever going to be a reality – but yeah, he’s extraordinary. I’d love to play him.

Conway: Christopher, beyond your acting work and everything you do, professionally, what is a day in the life for Christopher Lloyd these days? What do you do to pass your time? Do you have certain hobbies?

Lloyd: I get up, I go grab a newspaper at breakfast and scan the paper. I get a lot of thoughts about whatever I read in there – how it’s affecting reality and such, as it is. I go to the gym every day, when it’s available. I like to read – and of course, study the script. That’s a big, big thing. I don’t know – just having a good time with my wife, Lisa, and her son, Jacob, who’s about 27 now. I’m not that energetic. I’ll be energetic on the set, but in my real life, I’m kind of just take it as it comes and thinking about stuff.

Conway: You have been within the Hollywood entertainment industry for so many decades now, sir. What are you seeing about today’s times in Hollywood that you are liking, and are there ways of yesteryear that you wish were still in place?

Lloyd: Well, I don’t keep up that closely. I don’t know what the latest films are. I mean, I know of them, but I don’t always see them. I’m not that acclaimed with a new talent, so to speak – actors and actresses. I think about myself because I’m getting on in years and what kind of roles I’m going to be playing. I can’t play a young, vigorous sportsman, you know? A little beyond that, but there’s a lot I’m looking forward to – there are a couple of ideas that have come my way and I’m excited.

Conway: I’m glad to hear that – but Christopher, I’m curious too, being an actor yourself, what advice might you have for other actors and just creative professionals: writers, producers, directors out there that want to be seen – want their work to be seen? You have had so many years to successfully continue on this road. What advice would you give to other creatives that are looking to be noticed with their talents?

Conway: I get that question asked usually specifically for young people who are aspiring actors, but when I started out, I think what I’ve done and how it’s been accepted, I never imagined that was going to happen. When I started, I just did everything. I came to New York in 1960. I went to an acting school, neighborhood playhouse. Before that, I apprenticed in the summer stock for about three summers. It was all professional actors there. I’m just 17, 18 years old, building sets and cleaning the toilets, etc. – all the stuff you do when you’re an apprentice. I did one workshop after another. Doing the off-Broadway production of Hamlet, if you can imagine. We’d rehearse that at 1:30am in the morning because it was the only time you get all the cast together when they weren’t working, but I think it’s just do it – whatever it is, do it. Any opportunity to get up and do something, it’s a learning experience, whether it goes well, whether it’s a production, whatever it is. Just keep doing it.

Conway: Today as an actor, Christopher, are there any aspects of your acting that you are enjoying now within the creative process in the business, than you did in years past?

Lloyd: I’ve learned how to use myself. I mean, if I see a character, what is it I feel about him? What does he feel? There are clues – the script will give you clues, and I feel I’m better at that than I was when I was 25. I now have a certain procedure that has worked for me consistently. I think so, because I have more confidence today than I had back then. I have more trust because I’ve done some work that has been successful and worked out. So, I have more confidence. I didn’t have confidence when I started out. Now, I’ve done it and I see what works. I enjoy the challenge because no two characters are ever the same. I mean, like people, they’re different.

Conway: So, correct me if I’m wrong – you’re 86 years young now.

Lloyd: If you’re 86, you think about things you didn’t think about much when you were 26. You know, it’s a different time. There’s a certain limit on the time. I’m healthy and all that, but it’s going to deteriorate some way or another, eventually. I hope I could just keep on going until I’m 105.

Conway: Yes, I hope so, too, sir. Beyond your popular roles, of course, as an actor – are there certain projects, whether it was TV, film, stage, whatever it was, that really still stands out to you, that you are the most proud of?

Lloyd: Well, I got to say Taxi. That was huge! Danny DeVito, Marilu Henner, Judd Hirsch, Andy Kaufman, Tony Danza – the whole thing. I’ve done a lot of productions – Taxi stands out. I mean, we keep getting together. Marilu Henner is like a den mother. She keeps us – whenever something is happening, if somebody is doing something, we are all involved. I’m probably more of a loner than any of the others, but yeah – we are cohesive and everybody is doing this and doing that. I often think possibly bringing Taxi back with the same group, because we’re all here still. Yeah, that’s been a big thing.

Conway: I love that. So I’m curious, a question I like to ask actors that have played a character that has been beloved for so long, Christopher – Doc Brown has been so beloved from Back to the Future for so many of us. If you, Christopher – you the person, the actor, could speak to Doc Brown after embodying him over those three movies and could speak to him and give him words of comfort from the outside in that you have seen of him, what would you say to your beloved Doc Brown character, if only you could?

Lloyd: I’d have to thank him for being such an inspiration – for giving me the life I’ve had – for opening my eyes to all the possibilities that Doc has, which are kind of limitless. Show me the way. Let me be Marty for a while with Doc, you know? He has such a vision, and his vision entails doing things like the flux capacitor and space-time travel and all of that, and he’s on the borderline of perhaps triggering a catastrophe. He’s so out there with what he does, but it’s scary, and that’s part of what propels him through the trilogy. He warns Marty with that letter he leaves him that if he doesn’t do this in time before that happens, the whole space-time continuum will collapse. We will all be gone – obliviated – and so, the pressure of correcting whatever mistakes he makes, and to come up with – he’s constantly driven in the best way. He has got this imagination. He has to keep up with it. Yes, there you go.