.jpg)
Back to the Future star Casey Likes is in his ‘80s era.
“I've gone from seventies to eighties. Now I got to do something in the nineties,” the actor jokes with Teen Vogue in his dressing room in New York City’s Winter Garden Theater.
Likes, who stars as the original Marty McFly in the first-ever Broadway production of Back to the Future (based on the ‘80s movie), is 22 years old, but he already has TV shows, a few movies (Spinning Gold, Dark Harvest) and two original Broadway roles to his name: Marty McFly as well as William Miller in Almost Famous, another time capsule film-to-stage show that opened on Broadway in the fall of 2022. He even workshopped The Outsiders musical, which won a Tony Award in June (and is based in the 1960s).
But Likes is a 00s baby. He tells Teen Vogue he doesn’t identify with his sun sign (a Capricorn, born on Christmas Day in 2000), but it’s clear he embodies many qualities of the goat: hard-working and dedicated to his craft. Can’t give the zodiac all the credit, though. There are qualities that are uniquely Likes: incredible talent, gratitude, and a smile (and raspy, youthful voice) that can make a group of young people scream just by pointing at them (true story, Teen Vogue witnessed this during a casual Thursday night show).
And while he had big Nike Bruins to fill when he landed the role of McFly — a role originated in the 1985 film by actor Michael J. Fox, who wore the aforementioned Nike Bruins while traveling back and forth in time in the movie version of Back to the Future — Likes has done so comfortably, bringing the character of Marty back from the past for the longtime fans of the movie and introducing the story to younger audiences, too.
Raised in Chandler, Arizona by a single mother, Stephanie Likes, who is a former Broadway star herself, he learned at the ripe age of 3 that the stage is where he shines, so he never left. Luckily, he’s never had to. He transitioned from high school senior to Broadway star “very fast,” after being noticed while performing at a national high school theater event called The Jimmy Awards; he landed an audition for the Almost Famous role shortly after.
Likes sat down with Teen Vogue to talk about his big break as well as growing up as a theater kid, getting political on Instagram, and why he’s okay with being Broadway’s newest heartthrob — even if he isn’t a Jonas Brother.
Casey Likes: It was atypical because my mom was on Broadway and she was my theater teacher in high school. It's like imagining if you had your mom at your job and then she was teaching you how to do your job.
CL: No, I don't think most people can. It's all of the upsides and downsides that you would imagine that would come with that. But it was amazing though because she was just very smart, and so we kind of either butt heads or we agreed and we would make magic together.
TV: Oh, for sure. Thank you. That's nice of you. Yeah, I mean, I also think some of the people that I know that make it the farthest are not always the ones that are the most talented. They're the ones who are the people who will push themselves farther and will work on the craft enough to get where they need to go. So I know a lot of people are very, very more naturally talented than me, but I think it's the drive that I guess, kind of pushed me over, which I learned from my mom, and I naturally have a little bit of that from my dad as well.
CL: I'm one of the few stories where acting was always a possibility in my household, which is just not always a thing for people. I wasn't forced into it by my mom, but it was suggested and I was good at it and I liked it. So you kind of have to have all three of those things to work out. You have to be all right at it and also want to do it. I feel like a lot of people don't always get those things. But obviously to keep it going, you have to have discipline and a lot of drive. No one else will give you that. You have to learn it for yourself.
CL: One of 'em.
CL: I have a superstition about saying 'em out loud. I feel like if I say 'em out loud, then they won't happen. Most people manifest and they say, ‘If I have to say it out loud, then it'll happen.’ [Broadway] was one of the things where I was like, ‘oh man, wouldn't that be cool?’ But I never envisioned this. I remember saying I would mop up the spit on the stage from Dear Evan Hansen. I just wanted to be in that building. I also wanted to do what my mom did, which was being an understudy for multiple roles. So I always wanted to be here, but I think the route I've taken has not been exactly the goal, but I’ve been very thankful for it.
CL: I'd never thought about originating a lead role. I never thought about it, but it was like, it's happened twice in a row and I'm very thankful for that. But that's one of the things where you have to have trust in yourself, but then the other half of it, you have to have trust in the universe. The plan that that has for you. The plans you have for yourself are different from the plans that a creative team will have for you or a casting director or whatever.
CL: I've always felt very privileged because, I mean, the state of Broadway and entertainment is that it usually benefits people who look like me, not only white but male and can play straight-presenting and all these things. I've always felt very privileged in that, especially after Dear Evan Hansen. I felt like things kind of were a lot about the crying tenor boys for a while. So that's been great for sure. I don't try to ever ignore that side of things, but also, you also have to make sure that the industry knows you're not just a thing in a bubble. I've gone out of my way to play some roles that I don't think people expected me to play, which was Gene Simmons in this movie called Spinning Gold, which is a large departure for me. I've done some other stuff that hasn't come out yet. But yeah, I just really admire actors like Christian Bale that could stick in one lane and decide to go into others.
CL: It was about two weeks. Pretty much happened all very fast. I think that's the thing that I always try to explain to people so often when they ask about the Jimmy Awards is that my story… it’s very rare. I don't know anyone who's literally had the exact same story as me. And that is to speak to the timing of this industry and how important timing is and how important a little bit of luck is, and also the preparation to be ready for that timing and luck. But basically, long story short is I was performing in this show Les Mis that we did in high school, my mom was directing, which is ironic, that’s the show she did on Broadway. I was playing Valjean, and then it got me to the Jimmy Awards. And then the next couple days I received a lot of auditions, one of which was for The Outsiders and one of which was for Almost Famous. And I ended up getting both of those, and I ended up doing Almost Famous First, and that all happened within two weeks.
CL: I was a Pony Boy in The Outsiders for the workshops of it, and then I did Almost Famous on Broadway, so I had to leave the show that eventually went to Broadway.
CL: Also very fast. They saw me in Almost Famous, and they asked me to come in and I originally said no, because I thought I was going to be busy with Almost Famous and then Almost Famous prematurely closed, which was a shame, because it’s a beautiful show. But then they asked me to come into the show and I went in and I guess they liked me, which is nice.
CL: I'm in my ‘80s era right now. The Lost Boys too, that's another eighties movie, so yeah, that's pretty crazy. That's funny. I've gone from /70s to ‘80s now. I got to do something in the ‘90s.
CL: I thought it was very important to recognize what the property and what the role meant to other people. I remember when I got announced in the role, some kid commented on Facebook — why a kid had Facebook, I don't know.
CL: I love Facebook, but everyone makes fun of me for it. And I'm 22, so I don't know. But he commented under the post and he said, when does Casey Likes leave Back to the Future so I can play Marty McFly? And I realized, in that moment, I was like, oh, this is not just another recreation I've done before. I've done many recreations of things people know, but this is a culture. People want to be Marty McFly in their lives, not just play the role. So it definitely felt a responsibility of respecting that. Also a lot of what Marty is is because of Michael J. Fox. So I felt like it was important to remind people of Michael and tell them that I loved what they did, what Michael did, and then if they trust you within the first 20 minutes, then they're willing to go on the ride with your version.
CL: He did. He was walking away and after we took some pictures I said to him, ‘Do you have any advice?’ And he said, ‘Kick ass. And if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything,’ which is a line from the movie.
CL: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I remember asking Cameron Crowe who wrote Almost Famous and got an Oscar for it, who also is a great journalist, ‘why did you start writing movies? I mean, you were the biggest journalist of all time at the time, so why did you choose to start just making movies?’ He was like, ‘my first dream was to get a story in Rolling Stone. Then I got that, and then my next dream was to have a cover story, and my next dream was to have a cover story with my name on it on the cover. And then when I accomplished all that, I ran out of dreams. So I had to come up with a new one.’ So then he wrote Fast Times at Ridgemont High. And I took a lot of inspiration from that, and I felt like I understood him. It's like once you accomplish one dream, then come up with a new one.
CL: I mean, I think it's one of those things that you can't assign yourself. It takes a village to assign it for you. It takes a village to raise a heartthrob. Yeah, that's the title. That's the headline.
CL: Yeah, I don't know. I'm just thankful that people support me and have given me a platform. Again, I can't really assign that to myself, but it's not a bad one to be in, I guess. I love the edits, and I love the fanart, and I love the comments.
CL: Well, it was always funny because growing up, I remember thinking, oh my gosh, I want to be the Jonas Brothers so bad. They have screaming girls after them all the time. How amazing must that be? And then I did McFly, and then I realized that they're all children. I'm 22 years old. But I'm glad that someone's a fan of me. So it's very sweet. They're very sweet, and I love meeting them at the stage door. And I love when they go ask for my number and I go, I'm 22.
CL: Oh my God, they ask for my number. They say, I have a crush on you. And I go, oh my gosh, it's so sweet. And then I walk away. But it's very sweet. I remember growing up and just being in love with Vanessa Hudgens or all these people that were far too old for me at the time. I was a child. But it's nice to have a childhood crush. I feel some sort of a responsibility to be a good influence and to be a good inspiration for them and to not do all the bad things, all the drugs and all the anything. So if someone's going to choose me to be their heartthrob, then I hope I represent that well for them.
CL: It's important. I'm glad you asked. I feel like we live in this world where we are surviving off of memes and TikToks, and I feel like it's important to remind people that things are real. But really at the end of the day, it's important to talk about and remind young people specifically that they have to show up. They have to show up to vote, they have to show up and do the research….They have to.
CL: Second.
CL: No, I didn't care about it at all growing up. Things were pretty and growing up there was a sense of ‘you can have an agenda, but there's still civilness. You can still be civil.’ And now it's a detrimental time in our world, in our country. The decisions we make now are not just decisions that were going to maybe affect something in 2008. They're now decisions that will affect possibly the future of the world and how long the planet survives. I think it's very, very important now. And things are becoming drastically farther apart than they were in 2008 when I grew up. So fortunately and unfortunately when I was able to vote was right in I think some of the most important elections in history. And I have to keep stressing that this one is one of those.
CL: A lot. I mean, there's a lot of things that are important. I mean, there's climate change, there's reproductive rights, there's rights for people who are not rich white men. And those are all important. I am kind of “doing fine white man”, but most of my friends aren’t, and they never have been. So it would be stupid to ignore that side of the world.
CL: I didn't realize I had anxiety until I joined Broadway two years ago. And looking back on it, I wish I had figured it out sooner, but I'm sure someday I will write a coffee table book about all my experiences and all of my, if anyone would listen, advice. But it is very important to attack anything you think might be an issue for you head on ASAP. There's therapy, there's homoeopathic drugs, there's pharmaceutical drugs, there are support groups. There are even f*cking videos on TikTok and YouTube that are like, ‘this is what you need to do to focus on your mental health’ and relaxing videos you can watch. These are things that I think are necessary to just be a norm. They just need to be a norm.
