Lea Thompson Reveals Which ‘Back to the Future’ Is Her Favorite (Exclusive)

For Lea Thompson, picking a favorite Back to the Future film is like picking a favorite child — but her choice is one you’d likely expect.

“For me, it’s Back to the Future 1 because it’s just a perfect screenplay. And as a director, I can appreciate the conciseness of it,” the star, 64, tells PEOPLE just ahead of the film’s 40th anniversary on July 3, 2025. “And the truth is that Back to the Future 2 and 3 were supposed to be kind of like one movie, and then they spread it out into two. So, it wasn’t constructed in the same way as Back to the Future was. So I just think it’s a perfect screenplay.”

Adding on to that, Thompson reflects that “when we made Back to the Future, we didn’t even think we were going to make a sequel. There was no sequel deal. There was no concept of that. I mean, that’s how long ago it was.”

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Though it was a toss-up between 1 and 2 for Thompson, she admits that script choices for the third film did somewhat remove it from the running for her favorite.

“I didn’t have a very good part in the third one, so that would naturally be out for me. But I know that Christopher Lloyd likes that one best,” she adds.

Funny enough, the actress, who played Lorraine Baines McFly in the franchise, also reveals that Lloyd may be partial to the third film for another reason: “Chris says it was, I think the only time he ever kissed a girl in a movie.”

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Picking favorites aside, Thompson knows “magic” when she sees it, and that’s exactly what she still considers her experiences making Back to the Future to be to this day.

“It’s really a joy when we look out in the audience when we’re doing one of those talkbacks and half the people weren’t even born when the movie came out. I mean, that’s exceptionally cool,” she shares. “So I feel so grateful that I’m known for this movie that has such longevity and is such a great part and such a great movie. It really is wonderful.”

Thompson relishes in the successes her role in the series brought about for her career, but jokes that there is one situation in which the Back to the Future films don’t get played anymore in her home: around her daughters.

“My daughters were so traumatized by me kissing guys,” she says while laughing. “I don’t even know if I was with them the first time they saw the movie. They used to cry because when they were kids, I was doing Caroline in the City, and I would kiss a new guy every week. It would be on the TV and they’d start crying. They just became traumatized by watching me, so I didn’t show them anything. I’m surprised to this day when they can kind of quote something from the movie. I don’t remember showing it to them.”