Michael J. Fox says Back to the Future made him keep acting

If Michael J. Fox hadn’t gone back in time in that Delorean, his present-day might have been totally different.

The Back to the Future star, marking the film’s 30th anniversary at a cast reunion held during London Comic-Con, remarked that he might not have stayed an actor had he not landed his star-making role as Marty McFly.

“I was thinking of working on the fish dock or joining the military like my dad,” he said, according to PEOPLE. “Then suddenly I found myself on a set with Steven Spielberg.”

The rest, as they say, is history — BTTF became the highest-grossing film of 1985 and spawned two more sequels.

Fox told the crowd he had been “very overwhelmed by the whole experience.”

“The nadir and the peak of my career happened at the same time,” he said.

Head to PEOPLE for more details from Fox and the Back to the Future 30th anniversary event.