Parkinson’s didn’t just kick me out of the house; it burned the house down
EXPECT HUMILITY, HUMOUR AND ZERO SELF-PITY AS ACTOR MICHAEL J. FOX INVITES VIEWERS TO SHARE IN HIS LIFE STORY. BY
DUBBED an intimate and honest portrayal, Still: A Michael J Fox Movie recounts the actor’s extraordinary story in his own words.
The upcoming film, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, tells the improbable tale of Michael, a “kid” from a Canadian army base who moved to LA at 17 and rose to stardom in 1980s Hollywood.
It is far from just nostalgic thrills – although there are rightfully flashbacks to Fox’s early years in Family Ties and his career-defining turn as Marty McFly in the Back To The Future franchise. Fans can also expect an unprecedented private journey too; one that includes the years after his 1991 diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease.
It explores what happens when an incurable optimist confronts an incurable disease, reads the synopsis.
And if there was ever a time to tell his truth about his decades-long battle, Michael, 61, believes it is now, having retired from acting in 2021 due to declining health.
“I think with all that I’ve experienced the last few years, the avenues I have with which to express my creativity, or just get my feelings out, have kind of diminished in a way,” he begins with candour.
“I can’t do certain things I used to do, but I can tell stories and the stories I know best are my own stories,” he muses, having written four New York Times bestselling books, the most recent being No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality in 2020.
“I found, as I told them to people, that they related to them and understood them, which in turn, informed me in ways that I wasn’t aware of.
“So it just became this communal storytelling cycle that involved people outside of my world. It was really exciting. That’s the definition of creativity – and that’s what I do.”
The film, then, comes after a chance meeting with Davis some years ago after which the 59-yearold said he was compelled to learn more about the actor’s life through his hit memoirs.
“I thought about how much fun it would be to make a documentary with that 80s vibe, a popcorn kind of movie, with music and big ups and big downs, and a hero careening through a crash course,” the filmmaker remembers.
The feature incorporates documentary, archival and scripted elements and Davis adds: “The key, it seemed to me, would be to stay true to Michael’s voice, to that tone that first grabbed me. To let Michael lay it all out with his innate humility and humour and utter lack of selfpity.”
In all the conversations that followed, Michael was “a totally open book”, he remembers. “The only thing he ever asked of me: no violins.”
On board with the concept, Michael and his wife Tracy Pollan star, as well as offering access to their family life (the couple have four children) to chronicle personal and professional triumphs and travails.
“It seemed like it would be pretty simple: I wouldn’t have to record much dialogue because it already existed in the form of the audiobooks,” says Michael, who adds that the piece is informed by his books but not bound by them. “Though it wasn’t actually that simple...”
“My original idea was that there would be no talking heads in the movie, no people speaking to camera,” recounts Davis. “But I decided to sit down with Michael, as an experiment. Mostly, I thought, for research. But we ended up meeting six or seven times.
“What you see in the film is just a conversation between two people.”
He recalls leaving Michael’s office after their first meeting: “I had just interviewed a guy who has an incurable disease, but as I walked away all I could think was, ‘I want what he has’. In this life journey that Michael’s taken, which often went in the wrong direction before it went in the right direction, he found some wisdom that speaks to me.”
“It is incurable. That’s the very definition of it. And it still doesn’t scare me,” Michael insists. “When I was younger, I fought the idea. I was diagnosed when I was 29. When the doctor first told me, I said, ‘That isn’t going to happen to me’. Good things happened to me. But then this bad thing did.
“The first 10 years or so, I got locked in that place, a good place, by not allowing anyone else to define my reaction to it,” he continues. “Parkinson’s didn’t just kick me out of the house; it burned the f ****** house down. It went after me really hard.”
How did he deal with it? “By not paying attention to it. In the last three years, I broke both femurs. I had one shoulder replaced. I broke my face. I broke my hand. I broke a lot of stuff. And I realised, I could die from this, which does freak me out. But I can deal with it if it comes up. My biggest fear is to become incurious.”
There seems little chance of that happening, with the Emmy and Golden Globe-winner’s optimism and energy as infectious as ever.
Will he struggle to watch any particular scenes on the big screen?
“When I saw [the Parkinson’s], it was shocking to me,” he confides. “I understand the idea of my face going blank or lack of expression, and I don’t think that bothers me, but it’s a shock when you see it.
“But Davis shot it so beautifully. It could have been confrontational, but it was cathartic, the close-up stuff,” he says. “In order for this to be the film that it is, I had to let Davis be the filmmaker that he is and get the stuff.
“The thing about the film that most affects me is not all the tragedy and struggles and all the conflict, it’s my family. They’re beautiful, funny people that keep me alive, keep me connected, and they’re so smart and so grounded. My wife is a miracle.”
As for a takeaway message, “I hope people feel emboldened by possibility and appreciative of the people around them”, Michael offers. “They might recognise that instead of living in these boxes, we can knock them over instead.
“If I had not gone to Los Angeles, I would not have had an opportunity for the Parkinson’s community to become part of my family. I wouldn’t have been able to help people to the extent that I could.”
In 2000, Michael launched the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, which has raised more than $1.5 billion.
Michael concludes: “I always say that Parkinson’s is a gift that keeps on taking. But it is a gift. There’s lots to learn from it.”
They’re beautiful, funny people that keep me alive... My wife is a miracle Michael on his family