On the
press tour for his new show, The Michael J. Fox Show, the actor talked about
how much of the shows comes from his real life, keeping up with the schedule,
Family Ties, Teen Wolf and Back to the Future 4.
“Question: In terms of the reason for your character
going back to work, is it drawn from your real life? Do your kids and wife really want you out of
the house?
MICHAEL
J. FOX: It’s a little bit of both. I think that with my kids are happy that I’m
going back to work, from just from a pure sense of being happy for me. But, there’s a scrutiny of their stuff that
won’t exist, if I’m occupied doing something else.
…
There
is a lot of reference to Parkinson’s, in a humorous way, on this show. Did you vet the script with people in the
Parkinson’s community, as you were establishing the character?
FOX: No, I didn’t.
I don’t vet creative instinct. I
just go with it. I feel that this is a
reflection of my experience and, certainly in the pilot, it was more prevalent
than it is in the following scripts. The
way I look at life, and the way I look at the reality of Parkinson’s, is that
sometimes it’s frustrating and sometimes it’s funny. I need to look at it that way, and I think other
people will look at it that way. But
beyond that, I think we all get our own bag of hammers. We all get our own Parkinson’s. We all have our own thing. I think that we’ll look at it through the
filter of that experience, and we’ll say, “Yeah, I need to laugh at my stuff,
too.” If someone wants to be outraged,
they can be outraged. I don’t think it’s
that outrageous.
When
people are dealing with a disability, as individuals, there is a tendency to
delve into gallows humor and make jokes about things that people on the outside
of the situation are horrified by. How
do you find that fine line between dealing with the humor of a bad situation
and not going too far into the realm of shock?
FOX: Well, I don’t think we’ve run into
shock. When this show deals with
Parkinson’s, it becomes absorbed as the normal course of the family’s life, as
it has with mine. But, it’s about
perception. A lot of times, when you
have a disability, one of the things you deal with is other people’s
projections of what your experience is and their fear about it, and not seeing
the experience you’re having. There’s
nothing horrifying about it to me. It is
what I deal with. It is my reality and
my life, but it’s not horrible. I don’t
think it’s Gothic nastiness. There’s
nothing on the surface that’s horrible about someone with a shaky hand. There’s
nothing horrible about someone in their life saying, “God, I’m really tired of
this shaky hand thing” and me saying, “Me, too.” That’s our reality. We have no control over it.
What
changed in your health that made you feel like you could take on a series like
this, and did the guest spots help you feel like maybe it was something that
you could do, more long-term?
FOX: The guest spots were great, and it really
brought me to a place of, “This is what I was built and programmed to do.” I wanted to do it. It’s what I love to do, and what I’ve
enjoyed, throughout my life. I just
thought, “Why can’t I?” There was no
reason not to do it. And in terms of
what happened over that hiatus that I took, I just rested. I spent that time with my family, during
their really formative years, and enjoyed that, and I messed with pills and new
medications that help me to deal with dyskinesia and some other things I was
struggling with, that I don’t have as much now because of medication to counter
the side effects. So, it just seemed
like the right time to do it.
Do
you also feel like you could be up for going back into the movie realm,
especially to do Back to the Future 4?
FOX: I would have to play Doc Brown. To answer your question, I don’t know. I’m going to knock this off, first. In doing this show – and we’ve done six
episodes now – I knew that one of two things was going to happen. I was either going to atrophy, as I went on
through the year, or rebuild the muscles, and I’m planning on rebuilding the
muscles. I’m getting more comfortable
with this schedule, every day and every week, and I’m really happy with how it
feels to be back at work. As far as
movies, I don’t know. I’d have to take
it as it comes. But, I can’t imagine
doing 22 episodes of this, and then spending my summer doing movies, like I did
in ‘87, with Light of Day and The Secret of My Success. That’s crazy, and that’s how I got into this
mess.
Can
you believe that there’s a TV version of Teen Wolf on the air, and have you
ever seen it?
FOX: No, I haven’t seen it. I hear it’s really serious and scary, so I
don’t know if I would.
…
Will
Tracy or any of your Family Ties co-stars make any appearances on this show?
FOX: Hopefully.
That would be great. Tracy
actually did an episode of the show, and she was great. It was really funny. She had a lot of scenes with Wendell
[Pierce]. As characters come up, we’ll
certainly mine old friendships and old working partners, and get them
involved.”
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