Christopher Lloyd has efficiently maintained perfection while delivering his portrayals over the years, and his outstanding performances have landed him major awards as well. Renowned for his Back to the Future film series, he has never once hesitated to leave his audiences baffled with his star-studded talent. And yet, he isn’t one without regrets either.
As the actor admitted, he greatly regrets the attitude he had for the very role that launched him to extraordinary heights of success during the early stages of his career by landing him 2 brilliant Emmy wins. This project was his iconic sitcom Taxi from 1978, for which he was originally called for only one episode but went on to become a major part of the show later on.
Christopher Lloyd Isn’t Proud of His Attitude for His Taxi Role
Shortly after making his big screen debut in the Oscar-winning comedy-drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975, actor Christopher Lloyd found himself auditioning for the role of Reverend Jim “Iggy” Ignatowski in the sitcom Taxi. His character was an extremely spaced-out yet bumbling one, so it didn’t take long for everyone to fall in love with him easily.
But when it comes to the actor’s personal take on the snobbish attitude he originally had for the role, Lloyd is hardly that proud. Confiding with The Washington Post about his true feelings, he said:
In the theater, there was a kind of scorn, if I may say, for sitcoms. It was tantamount to selling your soul, so I came out with a little bit of an attitude. I’m not proud of that.
Since, before coming around to work on the big screens, Lloyd had starred in around 200 stage productions starting from when he was only 14, he didn’t have that realistic idea of playing a character in a sitcom, thus this reaction. However, Lloyd put his ego aside back then and gave such a tremendous audition that the producers couldn’t help but call him back for more.
Christopher Lloyd Was Supposed to Appear for Only 1 Episode in Taxi
Back when Christopher Lloyd initially walked through the doors of the audition room to audition for the part of Iggy, his character didn’t have much role in the series. For the bare minimum, the only thing Iggy had on his initial script was to perform the green card wedding of Latka in the Paper Marriage episode of season 1.
However, when the producers came across the Back to the Future star‘s sheerly outstanding performance, they realized they couldn’t just let him go. Thus, they instead decided to convince the legendary talent to hop on board for the second season as well, which eventually transformed into him becoming a regular on the sitcom.
As the show’s co-creator James Burrows revealed to The Washington Post about Lloyd’s performance:
I’ve never seen a room laugh harder. It was a slam dunk. We’d be idiots not to have him back. Don’t forget, to shine in a cast as good as ‘Taxi,’ you should be nervous going to play with that team. He pulled it off. He brings 99 percent to the dance.
Well, being so greatly impressed with him must have encouraged the actor to perform even better. This stands true when considering how Christopher Lloyd not only became massively renowned and received tremendous commendation for playing Iggy, but he also became the recipient of the first two star-studded and much-deserved Emmys of his life.
Taxi can currently be streamed on Paramount Plus.
