Michael J. Fox (65) visited chat rooms for patients anonymously after publicly revealing his Parkinson's diagnosis. The actor reports this in a conversation with the US trade magazine "The Hollywood Reporter". He wanted to know how other patients evaluated his decision.
Fox had made his diagnosis public in 1998, seven years after it was made. Shortly afterward, he logged into online forums for Parkinson's patients without revealing his name and asked there what people thought of Michael J. Fox. The responses were consistently positive, he recalls. "Well, how about that! I have Parkinson's, and you guys are celebrating it", he thought jokingly.
Breaking a taboo
Only later did he realize what the people in the chat rooms were actually happy about. "I got it. Back then, nobody would ever have told anyone that they had Parkinson's", Fox says. A disease that hardly anyone talked about suddenly had a face that half the world knew from the movies.
But this step wasn't easy for him and his family. "For Tracy, it was hell, it was really hard for her, and it still is today because something is constantly changing", Fox reports about his wife Tracy Pollan (66), with whom he has four children. But he wanted to "go all the way" and use his opportunities and connections, "no half measures". Only this way could he contribute to normalizing the disease: "I said: I can't hide this. The heck with vanity."
Back in front of the camera at 65
Fox received his diagnosis in 1991 at age 29. At the time, doctors gave him about ten more years in front of the camera. But Fox launched the hit series "Chaos City", appeared in front of the camera in "Good Wife", or had his own "The Michael J. Fox Show". During the coronavirus pandemic, he finally announced his retirement from acting because he could no longer control his speech.
But now he's back in front of the camera: Since this year, he's been acting in the Apple TV comedy "Shrinking" by his "Chaos City" companion Bill Lawrence (57) and is even nominated for an Emmy for his appearance in the third season. A fourth season with him has already been confirmed.
"It has really extended my life and made it interesting in a way I wouldn't have thought possible", Fox says about his acting comeback. But he doesn't know how long he'll continue acting: "I haven't retired from acting, but if I stopped acting, there would be a very good reason. I'm letting Parkinson's make the decisions for me."
