This was in Florida in the 1990s. One of Hollywood’s great stars at the time, Michael J. Fox (Edmonton, 61 years old) A scorching sun shone through the curtains of the hotel. The actor had just woken up with a massive hangover. The day before he had been closing the bar with Woody Harrelson, but he could not remember whether the party had ended in an argument, as had happened many times. When he raised his hand to his nose to shield himself from the bright light, he saw a pesky insect fluttering in front of his face. He tried to push her away and then realized that it was his little finger that had lost control. It was the first symptom of Parkinson’s, the disease that changed his life forever.
Thus ‘The Life of Michael J. Fox’ begins, the spectacular documentary that Apple TV+ has just released and which revisits the career of one of the young prodigies in the Mecca of cinema in the eighties. Davis Guggenheim directs this feature film, which is structured around several hours of interviews with the ‘Back to the Future’ actor, who shows, in close-up, the difficulties of his daily life – using a mobile phone , brushing your teeth or taking a walk are all an odyssey – reminiscing his life, supported by an effective montage that skilfully blends scenes from his films with excellent entertainment to recount his life and work journey.
Born in 1961, Michael J. Fox has never been distinguished for student prowess. That “slippery shorty,” as he calls himself, ended up in the high school theater group to “take refuge” from the older guys who wanted to kill him and “be with the girls.” “She was a lovely elf,” he says. The son of a police officer, a member of the Canadian Forces, and an actress and accountant, young Fox’s poor grades and lack of discipline – he crashed several cars while intoxicated – began to take their toll. home, but a role in the series ‘Leo and Me’ changed everything. They were looking for a twelve-year-old boy and he was fifteen, but those blue eyes, his short stature, and his slightly boyish face were perfect.
When he turned 18, he was so clear that he moved to Los Angeles. He spent his days in a twenty-square-foot shanty in a poor part of Beverly Hills, munching hamburgers and chugging pots of shampoo. He landed a role here, another there, hundreds of auditions – he says that in ‘Ordinary People’, Robert Redford spent the entire audition brushing his teeth with dental floss – but he didn’t have a dime and ended up stealing Made you able to take something with you to the mouth.
The actor in a frame from the documentary, in an image with his wife, and in Jay Leno’s Late Night in the Nineties.
In the spring of 1982 Fox was ready to give up on his dream, but he tried one last time. Paramount was producing a sitcom called ‘Family Ties’ by Gary David Goldberg and they were looking for someone to play Alex P. Keaton. When Fox read his sentences, the team fell at his feet. They couldn’t stop laughing. “There is no wine, drug or woman that can equal that moment,” he says. His charisma and innate talent for comedy made him the star of the show, despite the fact that the series was originally going to be about the matriarch of the family. And he turned around to find the woman he’s still happily married to and has four children with, Tracy Pollan.
Then the trilogy would mark his life, ‘Back to the Future’. Released in the summer of 1985, the film came on a rebound after Eric Stolz shot a few sequences, despite the fact that he had been at the helm of the production from the beginning. The titanic effort – he combined the filming of ‘Family Ties’ with the film, which reached twenty-hour days – was well worth it. Overnight, Fox became a star who parodied clichés with his luxurious sports cars and his life at full speed. «It was three and a half months that completely absorbed me. I didn’t know what set I was on or what character I was playing”, who explains that with the weight of fame, he admitted that at some point he had to deal with “family ties” to his colleagues in a “torturous way”. Treated – the faces of Justin Bateman, who embodied his sister in fiction, testify.
“I overreacted”
Everything went downhill in 1991, when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Determined to keep working until the body was alive, Fox only shared it with his family. Among the symptoms, in addition to tremors, were reduced blinking and a stoic expression. “They said he reacted less,” Fox recalls, “but it wasn’t that he acted better, it was that the disease progressed.”
He learned to dose the pills with which he stopped the vibrations so that they would act exactly when the director shouted for action! Or when he had to go out on the set of a television show. Involuntary movements began when the affected limbs were relaxed, he kept his hands constantly busy with pens, balls, phones, watches… “My body ached as I twisted it in awkward positions to hide the tremors he says. He was giving the best performance of his life and the audience was not even aware of it. ‘Taylor-Made Janitor’ (1993), ‘The Greedy’ (1994), ‘Grab Those Ghosts’ (1996) or ‘Mars Attacks!’ (1996) shows the progression of this degenerative and incurable disease. “The worst thing was the limitation, feeling confined and having no escape,” Fox describes while the documentary shows scenes from the actor’s films in which he is seen running like a greyhound.
After spending two years in the successful ‘Spin City: Crazy City Hall’ in 1998 and coming out of the clutches of alcoholism, the actor revealed his illness. This, far from ending his career, gave him wings again. Finally he can be himself. Two years later, Fox launched a foundation to fight against Parkinson’s, which has raised over 1,840 million euros to date.
«I’m a tough bastard to peel, I’m a cockroach and everything has happened to me. It’s impossible to kill me,” he admits on camera in a tough documentary, but one that shows Fox is still a very funny guy. One button to show: One way he’d go on the road with his coach. A woman recognizes him and calls out to him. By the time the Fox turns around, he falls to the ground. “Equally, you have blinded me,” says the rogue as he wakes up.
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