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NEED TO KNOW
Thomas F. Wilson decided to step back from his character's famous catchphrase
The actor, 66, joined Michael Rosenbaum on his podcast to talk about fan interactions
"After 25 years, I'm not gonna knock anyone on the head, and I'm not gonna call anyone 'Butthead' anymore,'" the actor said
Fans ofBack to the Futurewill be disappointed if they askThomas F. Wilsonto call them "butthead."
The 66-year-old actor joined Michael Rosenbaum on his podcastInside of Youto talk about his time portraying bully Biff Tannen in the time-travel trilogy and the fame that followed.
While he's appreciative of the love he still gets fromBack to the Futurefans, he revealed that around the movie's 25th anniversary in 2010, he decided to stop using his character's catchphrase.
"This year will be the 40th anniversary ... and for 25 years, I really tried to make everybody happy. Everybody who came up to me," Wilson said. "After 25 years, I said, 'You know, I think I've been generous with this, but after 25 years, I'm not gonna knock anyone on the head, and I'm not gonna call anyone 'Butthead' anymore.'"
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Wilson noted that he'd like to interact with people as himself, not the person he portrayed decades ago in the 1985 film.
"I'm gonna have a season of my life where I just, if you wanna take a picture of me, I'm not beating you up," theSpongeBob SquarePantsactor said. "We just both look nice and we smile. And those kinds of things. But yes, everyone wants me to call them a 'butthead,' everyone wants me to knock them on the head, everyone wants me to push their nephew around."
He then went on to say that being too closely associated with a character means that "you become not a person."
"You become the end of a treasure hunt. 'If only I have you sign this, say this, record this, videotape this, whatever, then I'll have another little diamond in my treasure chest.' And I would rather just meet people as a person," he shared with Rosenbaum.
However, as he has aged, he noted that fewer and fewer people approach him in public.
"I get recognized a lot, but I think less now than even 10 years ago," he said. "Now I'm sliding by. Because a lot of kids haven't seen [Back to the Future]. A lot of young people haven't seen it. So that's fine. I mean, now we're talking about a movie from a long, long time ago."
In theBack to the Futurefranchise, Wilson's Biff bullies the various McFly characters in the movie, frequently calling them "butthead."
In addition to Wilson, the sci-fi film featured Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson, Christopher Lloyd and Crispin Glover. The first film premiered in 1985 and was followed byBack to the Future Part II(1989) andBack to the Future Part III(1990).
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