‘The Office’ Alum Melora Hardin Reveals Why She Was Cut From ‘Back to the Future’: ‘I Burst Into Tears’

Melora Hardin is looking back on one of the most painful moments of her early career — being let go from Back to the Future after Michael J. Fox joined the cast.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Office alum, now 58, recalled being just 17 when she was fired from the 1985 sci-fi classic, where she had been cast as Marty McFly’s girlfriend, Jennifer Parker.

Hardin had already been filming opposite Eric Stoltz when the production made the dramatic decision to replace him with Fox.

That casting change, however, sealed Hardin’s fate. She was eight inches taller than Fox, and director Robert Zemeckis ultimately worried audiences wouldn’t buy the romantic pairing.

“Back to the Future was a huge disappointment. I was 17, you know. I burst into tears,” Hardin told EW, calling the experience “very tough.”

According to People, Fox later addressed the situation in his memoir Future Boy, writing that Hollywood’s “heightist” thinking inadvertently cost Hardin the role. He added that he regretted the prejudice and would have defended her casting.

While the setback was devastating at the time, Hardin says it helped shape her resilience as an actress. Losing Back to the Future, she reflected, ultimately led her down a different path, one that brought her to iconic roles, including Jan Levinson on The Office.