Two actresses played Jennifer Parker in the Back to the Future trilogy. Claudia Wells first took on the role in the original, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, and then Elisabeth Shue succeeded her in the next two movies. But as it turns out, an actress from The Office, one of the best sitcoms of all time, was originally going to play Jennifer in Back to the Future, though she was fired for a specific reason after Michael J. Fox came aboard.
As many Back to the Future fans know, Fox was tapped to take over playing Marty McFly from Eric Stoltz when it was determined after six weeks of filming that Stoltz wasn’t a good fit for the role after all. Unfortunately, Melora Hardin, who played Jan Levinson on The Office, ended up being collateral damage from this decision, as she was let go after having already shot multiple scenes with Stoltz. The actress recalled in an interview with EW:
