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Wizard Philly 2016: Lea Thompson

’Back to Future’ star almost ended up a member of the Pennsylvania Ballet

WHEN I TOLD actress and Wizard World Philly 2016 headliner Lea Thompson that I had been a fan since she starred in All the Right Moves in 1984, the still-stunning actress chuckled.

"I've been around a long-ass time, huh? Hey, it's good. Better than the alternative."

Thompson - who was one of the biggest movie stars of the 1980s, with films like Red Dawn, Spacecamp, Some Kind of Wonderful, and, of course, Back to the Future, and the lead of NBC's Caroline in the City from 1995 to 1999 - said in a recent phone interview she was looking forward to returning to Philadelphia.

"I've spent a lot of time in Philly," she said. "But I didn't act very much at all back then. I was in these contests with the Pennsylvania Ballet. So a big part of those years was spent as a waitress and a struggling artist and hanging around. But I had great times there, so I'm really looking forward to coming back and seeing it again, and I hope to spend some time in the actual city.

"I remember the cheesesteaks and the weather being so hot. I would swim in the fountains at the Art Museum. That's pretty good, huh?"

Thompson also has fond memories of filming Back to the Future, the 1985 classic for which she is most famous and which is a big part of this year's Con. She is looking forward to a rare reunion with her co-stars Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, as well as Bob Gale, who wrote the screenplay with director Robert Zemeckis. All four will be at the Convention Center this weekend.

"Oh, it's so much fun when we all get together and have such a great time. It's so nice," she says. "I've seen Chris a lot, but I don't usually see Michael, and it's such a joy. He's so funny and inspiring. Chris . . . people love him so much, and everyone has such a great time. Our Q&A s are so well attended and well received.

"It's so heartwarming to me that Michael feels well enough to do one of these," Thompson said. "It takes a lot of energy. Back to the Future, I know it gives him a lot of energy. It gives all of us a lot of energy that people still find our work interesting. It feels great, [and] its a joy to see them. It's a blessing.

"I feel grateful that I still get to work and that so many people still love my work," Thompson said. "It motivates me to keep fighting the fight and just keep trying to make people laugh and cry, you know? It's the best."

Speaking of the best, Thompson says that this year's event is possibly the most impressive event she's attended.

"This Wizard World is incredible," she said. "It's like the super, duper, DUPER con of all time. I couldn't believe all the people that are going to be there. I'm going to be starstruck myself.

"Sometimes I just [space] out about people, and then all of a sudden, they're looking back at me the same way. I'm like, 'Wait, I'm turning my famous thing off. I'm just a normal person," she said, laughing. "It's bizarre in these situations because you never know which fabulous actors think you are cool. It's such an interesting experience that way."

Younger fans might know Thompson primarily from a memorable 2014 season on Dancing With the Stars, which had Thompson remembering how, despite being a talented enough dancer to win scholarships to the American Ballet Theatre, the San Francisco Ballet, and the Pennsylvania Ballet, she was crestfallen when Mikhail Baryshnikov said she did not have the right body type to succeed at ballet.

"He told me I was too stocky," Thompson said. "So I was super sad about that, and the same week, I was accepted to a ballet company in Cleveland, an off-Broadway play, and I got a big audition for a musical. So I had to decide what to do."

With Baryshnikov's criticism still stinging, Thompson chose the play, and her acting career was born. She said her DWTS stint was tough, but let her experience that love of dancing again.

"To do that 34 years after I quit dancing was tough. I had to work through it," she said. "It was weird, but it was very exciting to dance in front of all those people. After all those years, to get a chance to really express myself that way in front of 14 million people was a big gift. It was really fun."

When I mention that she went from playing Tom Cruise's girlfriend in All the Right Moves to playing the girlfriend of Howard the Duck three years later, she laughed.

"Even better, I went from doing a love scene with my son (in Back to the Future) to a love scene with a duck in only one year. It's been a heckuva ride."