Lea Thompson Remembers Auditioning With Tom Cruise

Lea Thompson curls up on a chair inside her rustic Montana home, ready to talk about everything. But, perhaps inevitably, the conversation turns to one subject: Time.

This is not just because the actress co-starred in the Back to the Future movies, which remains one of the most iconic franchises in history. Thompson is also a youthful 62—which is 15 years older than the wrinkly, smoky-voiced version of her character, Lorraine Baines McFly, in the original 1985 film. She’s been married for 34 years to director Howard Deutch (Pretty in Pink) and they have two daughters, writer Madelyn, 32, and actress Zoey (yes, THAT Zoey Deutch), 28. Maddie just got married.

And, well, it all gets a person thinking.

“You know, when you get to be my age, there’s way more behind you than in front of you, and you definitely start to appreciate time in a way that is important,” she says. She then quotes one of her stepdad’s favorite sayings: “Since we don’t know when we’ll pass this way again, try to make each moment better, and each place you go better, and each time you’re in better.”

That’s heavy, but Thompson has been trying to adhere to the philosophy throughout her colorful life. A former ballet dancer who trained under Mikhail Baryshnikov, the Minnesota native transitioned to acting in the early 1980s with a Burger King commercial (that also featured a young Elisabeth Shue and Sarah Michelle Gellar). If you were alive in the ‘80s, there’s a 99 percent chance you saw her in a movie—whether it was All the Right Moves, Red Dawn, SpaceCamp, Some Kind of Wonderful (she met her husband on the set) or the Back to the Future trilogy. In the ‘90s, she transitioned to TV and starred in her own must-see TV comedy, Caroline in the City.

Related: 35 Quotes to Celebrate 'Back to the Future'

Since then? Name it, and she’s tried it. Thompson starred in the drama Switched at Birth for seven seasons. She played Sally Bowles in Cabaret on Broadway and in the national touring company. She made it to the quarterfinals on Dancing with the Stars (and has finally recovered from that nagging shoulder injury). And she’s directed the likes of The Goldbergs, Star Trek: Picard and Will Trent. “As an artist,” she says, “I’ve always been up for anything.”

Back in the present, Thompson is excited about starring in the CW series Spencer Sisters (originally called The Spencer Sisters, premiering Oct. 4). A frothy mystery which she describes as “Gilmore Girls meets Murder, She Wrote,” it chronicles the crime-solving adventures of a well-to-do famous author (Thompson) and her tomboy police-officer daughter (Stacey Farber, Degrassi: The Next Generation) in a small town. (The title references the fact that the two are often mistaken for sisters.) “We become private detectives even though we don’t get along very well,” she explains. “So, it’s fun comfort TV. Viewers can solve the mysteries along with us.”

After showing off her gorgeous tree-studded Montana scenery, Thompson shared her own views and stories with Parade.

Mara Reinstein: As a mom of two daughters, did Spencer Sisters hold a special appeal to you? 

Lea Thompson: Well, I think we all have problems with our mothers and our daughters always have problems with us. So, it’s an endless amount of drama and conflict and love together. I think that makes for interesting stories. And just by pure, beautiful luck, Stacey Farber [who plays my daughter] and I just really got along. We had so much fun making it and I hope that comes through. I’m proud of it.

After acting in the trenches for 40 years, were you looking for something on the lighter side? 

You know, I cried my eyes out at 11 o’clock every single night when I did Cabaret on Broadway. But I love making people laugh. I like doing light stuff. The world needs shows where you don’t have to worry and just kind of go with it. And there are very few parts for women my age and the really good ones go to people with Emmys and Academy Awards. So, for a role this good to come my way that was a starring part?! It was just like a little gift. A two-hander. And we got to film in Canada! That’s very close to Minnesota. My kids make fun of me because my accent is getting stronger.

Will you describe a bit of your Minnesota childhood? 

My mom [Barbara] was a regional actress. She did all the great plays, so I was intimidated when I got into acting because she was so amazing. My stepdad was a jazz drummer. And I’m the youngest of five—so I’ve always seen the future! I see where my wrinkles are going to be and I see the mistakes that people make and I try not to make them.

You started your career as a professional ballet dancer. You must have been excellent if you worked under Baryshnikov, no? 

I’m not sure I was talented. But I worked really, really hard. I just didn’t have the right body. But now when I watch dancers, the ballet is like a different realm. It’s amazing what the dancers can do! I never could keep up with those people.

Dancing also has a short shelf life. Is that why you transitioned to acting?

Yeah, and I wasn’t good enough! I had a weird moment when I got offered a job in the Ohio Ballet and I got a callback to do a musical on Broadway, and I got a little tiny off-Broadway play called The Trip Back Down. I had one week to decide which way my career would go and I picked the little play.

So how do you go from theater to a first role in Jaws 3-D? 

I didn’t know how to swim. I didn’t know how to water-ski. So they asked me to do an improv during the audition, and I came up with something crazy and they hired me. I also had to do this stunt where I climbed up a river of bodies in a pyramid. It didn’t hurt that I was a dancer and could do it!

You also worked with a very young Tom Cruise in All the Right Moves in 1983. What was he like back then? 

Very intense and kind and dedicated and polite, just as he is now. I remember our audition at Fox. I was trying to calm him down because we were both really nervous—he was not exactly right for the part because he was supposed to be a potential college football player and he’s only, what, 5-foot-7?

What do you make of his mega-success? Does it blow your mind?

It does blow my mind. It’s one of those things that makes it weird to be a woman because of all the women I grew up with, none of them…you know, it’s easier to be a man and a movie star.

Right. There’s Julia Roberts from back in the day and who else? 

And [even] Julia Roberts…what’s her last big movie? I know Tom Cruise is an anomaly and deserves it. Like, who would ride a motorcycle off a mountain [in Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One]? Not me. I’d just climb the pyramid of bodies.

People are still obsessed with Back to the Future all these years later. Why do you think that is? 

It’s a very powerful, well-crafted, deep, funny movie. It can tell you different things at different points in your life. Children can find things like “Oh God, the manure fell on him!” and then later as a parent you show it to your child and you go, “Hey look, I was a kid once too.” And the most beautiful message of the movie is that if you have the courage to stand up for yourself at the right moment, you can change the world and change your life. But we’re all amazed by its longevity.

Related: Back to The Future: Where Are the Stars 30 Years Later?

Has it been more of a blessing or a curse? 

Being so well-known for one part is both a blessing and a curse, even though I’ve had such a wonderful and varied and long career. But I like to think about the blessing part because it is a great movie. It’s really fun to see how much people love the movies. Whenever I look into a sea of people at the reunions and conventions, way more than half of them were born after the movie came out!

After Howard the Duck was a flop, did you think your career was in trouble? 

I’m not entirely sure. Everybody wanted to do [that film], and PS, it’s super-beloved now! I don’t know if that’s why my career suffered as a movie star, which it clearly did. I think it had more to do with being over 30.

You really noticed a big change after 30? 

At that point, I had a baby. And when you had a baby, you could watch most women movie stars go…well, hopefully it’s different now. But I’m not bitter at all. I feel extremely lucky and to not be ridiculously famous when you have a family is probably a blessing.

You starred in Caroline in the City during the height of NBC’s Must-See TV era in the ‘90s. Was that a lot of pressure for you? 

It was a massive amount. I had never even seen a sitcom being filmed. I didn’t know how hard it was to do it in front of an audience and just the pressure of telling jokes and literally having the best time slot in the history of television. We were in between Seinfeld and ER. It was insane. But it was an amazing learning experience. I wish it would have gone on longer because I was getting in the groove of it when we got canceled. We were getting, like, a 13 share [percentage of viewers]. Can you imagine? Now shows get a 1. And if we had done a fifth season, I would have started directing.

Now you’ve directed many projects. Was it your husband’s influence?

I didn’t actually work with my husband until Will Trent because he’s the producing director on it. So, he was kind of like my boss! But no, I was just super busy. But I got started doing the Jane Doe movies for Hallmark and then Switched at Birth. I recently did Picard, which was amazing because I’m the biggest Star Trek fan!

People may not realize that you’ve been married to your Some Kind of Wonderful director since 1989! 

Yes, I have a nice, stable existence. My kids couldn’t be cooler. Zoey is an amazing actress. Maddie is an amazing actress and writer. I was able to do a movie with them [in 2017] called The Year of Spectacular Men. It was the first thing I ever created from nothing so it was an incredible experience. I couldn’t be prouder of my children and my life.

>>> Sign up for Parade's Daily newsletter and get the scoop on the latest TV news and celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox <<<

Zoey is so accomplished for a 28-year-old actress! 

She’s great. She’s in Ireland now doing a movie. And she just did a movie with Clint Eastwood called Juror #2. I worked with him too, in J. Edgar. It was a small part but who says no to him? Nobody.

Related: When Stardom Is the Family Business: Famous Hollywood Families

Which of your roles should people queue right now? 

I did a TV movie on NBC with Farrah Fawcett called The Substitute Wife [in 1994]. I believe the only way you can watch it is on YouTube, which is a terrible way to see it. It’s set on a prairie in the 1800s and it’s really good and was huge. That was the movie that got me Caroline in the City because executives were like, “We want to be in the Lea Thompson business!” I’ve always thought there would be a weird renaissance for me when I was in my 60s and 70s. Like when I’m old, which I am now. Somehow, I’ll get a great part and people will be like “Oh yeah, she can really act. We forgot!”

Do you not feel appreciated even after all these years? 

I feel appreciated! And I’m so grateful. I’ve had such an incredible career and had so many different kinds of parts. It’s that people haven’t seen some of the crazier parts I’ve done. I would really love to do a really crazy part in one of these great streaming shows. But that’s why I loved doing Spencer Sisters. It’s a great part because there’s no scrunch on her. There’s no way you can extinguish her flame. I’ve always loved people like that.

Spencer Sisters debuts on The CW starting Oct. 4, 2023. 

*INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BEFORE THE SAG-AFTRA STRIKE

Next, Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd Delight Fans With Appearance at 'Back to the Future' Musical