← Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist
Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist
Michael J. Fox on ‘Back to the Future’ 40 Years Later and the Power of Perseverance
00:35:43
Michael J. Fox is an award-winning actor, author, and philanthropist whose talent, humor, and heart have inspired generations. Four decades after Back to the Future made him a global star, Michael J. Fox sits down with Willie Geist to reflect on the film that defined a generation and the resilience that’s defined his life since. He opens up about the whirlwind of becoming Marty McFly at 23, the joy of rediscovering the movie as a fan, and the impact of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which has raised more than $2.5 billion for Parkinson’s research. Plus, through decades of challenges and triumphs, Fox shares why he still believes “everything is possible.”
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- [00:00]
Michael J. Fox
911, what is your emergency? Get off the pier.
- [00:05]
911 Show Promo Announcer
911 has faced nearly every emergency on earth. ABC Thursdays. They will go where no first responders have gone before.
- [00:14]
Public Service Announcer
Five everyday heroes were launched into space.
- [00:17]
Michael J. Fox
All contact with the spacecraft was lost due to a sudden geomagnetic storm. Mission control dude, you copy?
- [00:25]
911 Show Promo Announcer
91 1, all new Thursdays, 8, 7 Central on ABC and stream on Hulu.
- [00:30]
Goldbelly Advertiser
Hey guys. Finding the perfect gift for the food lover in your life is easy thanks to Goldbelly. Goldbelly ships America's most iconic foods straight from world famous restaurants right to your door. So if you want to treat someone to Joe's Stone Crab from Miami, Franklin BBQ from Texas, or desserts from famous foodies like Ina Garten or Martha Stewart, Goldbelly has you covered. Just go to goldbelly.com and for a limited time get 20% off your first order with promo code gift. That's promo code gift.
- [01:04]
Willie Geist
Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday sit down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Got a really special one for you this week with the great Michael J. Fox special because I know how all of you feel about Michael J. Fox and special because of the way I personally feel about Michael. My father has had Parkinson's disease for more than 30 years. 30, 33 years, something like that. He was diagnosed in his late 40s and diagnosed a couple of years only after Michael himself was diagnosed with Parkinson's. Michael's diagnosis came in 1991. He was 29 years old. This came at the height of his popularity after all the Back to the Future movies, Teen Wolf, Family Ties. He actually was filming the movie Doc Hollywood when he felt a little tremor in his pinky, went to get it looked at and eventually doctors determined that he had Parkinson's disease. Reveal it publicly for seven more years after that. And then in the year 2000, he established the Michael J. Fox foundation, which has been a just bastion of hope and inspiration and research and fundraising and all the things that you would hope would come in this fight to find a cure for Parkinson's disease. He has been incredible to so many families, about 10 million around the world with someone living with Parkinson's. Michael and I got together at his favorite little restaurant on the Upper east side of Manhattan, pulled up a table to talk about his new book called Future Boy. It commemorates the 40th anniversary, if you.
- [02:40]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Can believe it, of Back to the.
- [02:41]
Willie Geist
Future, which came out in 1985 and tells a story I didn't really know, which is he was starring in Family Ties, the hit NBC sitcom where he played Alex P. Keaton at the time. He gets the offer from Steven Spielberg and director Robert Zemeckis, who were creating Back to the Future, to work on that movie. Back to the Future. Family Ties says, you can do it, but we're still shooting Family Ties, our hit show. So basically, all day long he would shoot Family Ties, then get in a car and all night long shoot Back to the Future. It also came there was an actor already in the role in Back to the Future of Marty McFly for a few weeks, Eric Stoltz, a great actor, and it just wasn't working. So they pulled him off the project and then approached Michael J. Fox. I'll let him explain all of it to you, but the book tells us behind the scenes, just back and forth. Gives great stories about the making of Back to the Future. Also a neat coda, kind of, I think, at the end of the book where he talks to Eric Stoltz reaches out to him, who talks through 40 years of what could have been if he'd been the star of Back to the Future. So there's a ton in there. A ton to talk to. I always love sitting down with Michael. He's a dear friend of mine, I should say. I'm on the board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. I ran the New York City Marathon to raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. I unapologetically love this man and always enjoy getting a chance to sit down with him. So sit back, relax, and spend a little time with Michael J. Fox right now on the Sunday Sit down podcast.
- [04:15]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
It's great to see you, my friend.
- [04:16]
Michael J. Fox
Nice to see you, as always.
- [04:18]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Thanks for doing this. This is your spot, right? You got your own table with your picture over there.
- [04:22]
Michael J. Fox
Yeah. New York, New York is the thing. You have to have your spot.
- [04:25]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Yeah.
- [04:26]
Michael J. Fox
And this is a great spot. You know, it's great. A lot of you run into a lot of people that you know, and. And it's nice. Very social and great place, great people.
- [04:34]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
It's great energy, food.
- [04:35]
Michael J. Fox
Not to mention.
- [04:36]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Yes, for sure. I have some crazy news to tell you, which is that Back to The future is 40 years old. I don't know if you can believe that. I can hardly believe it. I was a kid when it came out, obsessed like everyone else.
- [04:48]
Michael J. Fox
I hate that you were a kid when it came out. I was a kid when it came out, too. I was a little older kid. But yeah, it's amazing. It motivated me to want to do this book because I've written a lot of books about Parkinson's, about my family, about my stuff. But this was a chance to write about this specific moment in time that was just so fun. 23 years old, rolled by the tail, working my butt off with these great people. And people are interested in it. And it's a way to kind of. To tip my hat to all those folks that have supported this movie for 40 years.
- [05:25]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Yeah, you were saying still. And I don't doubt it at all. People come up to you all the time and want to talk about Back to the future, tell you their favorite scene, talk about Marty McFly, or that they dressed as Marty for Halloween this year. Can you believe the resonance this movie has had over 40 years?
- [05:41]
Michael J. Fox
It's amazing. I try to figure it out. I try to. First of all, people come up to me, want to talk about time travel. And I said, you're wasting your time. I have no idea. I have no clue. I don't know. You know, I like the incense thing, but time is a conspiracy to keep everything from happening at once. And it's kind of like that. I can't figure it out. I can't remember where the time went. Another thing that I was thinking about as I prep to talk to people about this book is about bullies. Like, time is a bully and Parkinson's is a bully, and the movie is about bullies. It's a great message to just. To overcome the doubters and the people that say you can't do things. So people love about the movie is it's just about this kid and this. This crazy scientist who just have their own agenda and just want to get it done. They're sincere and they're energetic and they're a lot of love and such a positive movie.
- [06:36]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
It is. It is. I. I love reading the book saying, not too long ago, you were, you know, in your apartment or somewhere, and you passed the television and it was on. And Tracy says, where have you been for the last two hours? He said, I was watching Back to the Future, and you know what? It's pretty damn good.
- [06:53]
Michael J. Fox
I was worshiping. I said, I'm pretty damn good. It was strange. It was Christmas time. We were trimming the tree. I said, I'm gonna go and get something to eat or something. And I left. Remember, the girls were in there. Was it. Sam was there. I went back through the hallway, and as I passed the tv, did the opening chords for the theme started and wow, that's cool. So I drifted over to the sofa and cut to 50 minutes later, 45 minutes later they said, what are you doing? I said it's back to the Future and I'm really good. It was just because I never connected with it on that level of just like as an audience member just watching. I watched it a few times since in the preparation for this book to then nail them moments into try to get the chronology in my head and see familiar faces. And it was really, it was nice checking in to just the personal part of it. A gift that it's been to me. So I hope people respond in the same way.
- [07:57]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
What is it like for you, Michael, to watch 23 year old you on that screen sitting where you are today? Everything that you've achieved in your life since then, everything that you've endured since then. What is it like to have that experience?
- [08:11]
Michael J. Fox
Well, it reminds me of a story that I've told before about Muhammad Ali. And I was writing in the previous book and I was writing about the people that say to me you have melancholy when you look at yourself in better shape and you healthier. And all that stuff made me think about it. So I thought I'm going to call Loni Ali and ask her what Muhammad thought, what Ali felt when he saw himself as a younger man. Did he like look at it and see this footage of him spouting poetry and dancing and just mystifying him and being a magical presence, everybody just that whole big thing. I said does it make him sad when he said does he think it's lost? And she said he loves that man. He loves that loves to see himself a younger man because that's hidden. That's he owns that. I took that and I said, that's right, I own that. It's not a younger version of me, it's me. And it's me that helped get me get to this place, which is really amazing. So it's imaginable and people really respond to that question of how do you do both. And as I watched the film I realized that it's just self propelling, it was just energy built on itself. And I just had to go, we had to get it done. And it was so the odds were so against us that it just, it's a little miracle. It is.
- [09:38]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
And I imagine when you're watching the movie you're also starting to think about what that experience was like, which I learned in the book and a bunch of other people are about to learn when they get this book is you were living this insane life. Family Ties had Come into its own. It's a big hit, three seasons of it. And then the creator of that show, Gary, calls you into his office and says what to you?
- [10:02]
Michael J. Fox
He. He said. He said. And I. I didn't know he was calling me into his office. I had just done Teen Wolf, and I thought maybe he saw Teen Wolf and was firing me. And so I. I go, by the.
- [10:13]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Way, I will not stand for the attacks on Teen Wolf.
- [10:15]
Michael J. Fox
I like Teen Wolf.
- [10:17]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
I love Teen Wolf.
- [10:18]
Michael J. Fox
But I went. I went in the office and. And. And he was sitting me on his desk. He had this envelope, and he said, I don't know how to tell you this, but a few months ago, Gary, Steven Spielberg, and Bob Smeckis came to me, said they have this movie they wanted you to do, and I couldn't let you go because I had to do the show. And I was just, oh, this way. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. And then he handed me the envelope. He said, so take the script home, read it, and tell me what you think, and if you want to do it, we'll make it work. I picked up the envelope. I love it. Best thing I've never read. It's great. And I was in the world once started. And I was just in the book. I have a series of everything from wardrobe meetings to meetings with Bob, but it all happened very fast. And the great thing was I'm getting a wardrobe finish. I'm picking out the wardrobe, I'm picking out the shoes. Little decisions. Like, I thought I was wearing Nike Cortez, Nike Bruins. And they said, what do you want to do for shoes? I said, these work. And so they called up Nike and had him order all these shoes. And that was a huge thing. The whole history of shoe Nike story was altered, changed a little bit because of that split decision. And all kinds of decisions like that were made very quickly. And then they stand in a parking lot in Puente Hills, and it's lit for days. Like this parking lot. It's all wet down and the lights bouncing off it. And I looked at those lights. I said, this craft's more to light the scene than it does to do an episode of Family Ties. And so I do a little thing where I skateboard up and kick the skateboard up, catch it. And next thing we shoot. Next scene we shoot is with Doc and Nemecreus. So I literally had never met him before we went to do that scene, and he pops out making a whole. Yeah, amazing. That's how I keep up with this. But it was great. It was great. It's just one magical moment after another.
- [12:33]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
It's amazing. I was watching that scene again this morning, knowing what I know now after having read the book, which is you rolled up like an hour before you started shooting that scene. You go to the hair and makeup trailer. Hey, nice to meet you. Roll the cameras. And that's a scene that is iconic and lives forever. And as you say, you had just met everybody.
- [12:52]
Michael J. Fox
It was a whirlwind. It was really. I knew it was special. I knew it was a special moment. Whether people were gonna see it. I didn't know it was gonna be a huge film, but I knew that it was gonna be a great experience for me. And it was.
- [13:06]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
And people, I'm sure, don't realize what you were doing while you were shooting that movie, which is continuing to shoot Family Ties. That was part of the deal with Gary. Like you're still doing Family Ties. You'll be here all day. Then we're put you in a truck and you're going to arrive and shoot all night on Back to the Future. Any hesitation about that schedule? Were you too excited?
- [13:26]
Michael J. Fox
No, my mother has that. My mother is telling me that this offer has been made to me and I was going to do it and she thought, no, you get too tired. It doesn't work that way. I've been here for three years eating garbage and dumpster diving and trying to get a job and I'm gonna not do this. So it just all rolled so fast. Amazing.
- [13:54]
Willie Geist
Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Michael J. Fox right after the break. Start the season with Etsy and make your holiday traditions extra special. On Etsy, you'll discover original pieces from small shops that will help you celebrate your way. Shop Etsy for holiday decor that makes you feel seen. Special starts on Etsy.
- [14:18]
Michael J. Fox
911, what is your emergency? Get off the fuel.
- [14:23]
911 Show Promo Announcer
911 has faced nearly every emergency on Earth. ABC Thursdays. They will go where no first responders have gone before.
- [14:32]
Public Service Announcer
Five everyday heroes were launched into space.
- [14:35]
Michael J. Fox
All contact with the spacecraft was lost due to a sudden geomagnetic storm. Mission control, do you copy?
- [14:43]
911 Show Promo Announcer
911-All-New Thursdays, 8, 7 Central on ABC and stream on Hulu.
- [14:48]
Micro Perfumes Advertiser
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- [15:20]
Willie Geist
Welcome back. Now more of my conversation with Michael J. Fox.
- [15:25]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
I won't walk you through the whole movie, even though I could. But the Johnny B. Goode scene with the guitar, which obviously lives in film history, and the guitar is famous and apparently we're still looking for the guitar. Collectors want to know. There's so much happening in that scene, and you really took that seriously and trained hard to learn all the chords.
- [15:48]
Michael J. Fox
Yeah, well, I was a guitarist. Modest talent, very little talent, but I loved to play guitar. I played in bands when I was a kid. The pictures in the. In the book of. Of my band.
- [16:00]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Yeah. And I think you said coming to a church basement near you.
- [16:03]
Michael J. Fox
Yeah, yeah, we played a lot of church basements and. And we were the house band at the Naval Academy. Really fun because we just basically scored fights. We'd just play and we'd have the biggest bouncer bodyguard types we'd find on the football team come and stand in front of our pas. Our speakers damage. But, yeah, we just play. And they'd fight. We'd play some in Marmello and they'd fight. But it was really great. It was a great time. And my father. I remember my father coming to see us, and I'm standing in the back of the room and he looked kind of impressed. It's not his thing, but he was kind of impressed. He said that. He said, how much money do you make for this? And he said, $200 or $100? He said, that's really great. He said, how much does it cost you to rent the equipment? $400. He said, get this, like three stooges. I'm the victim of sabotui.
- [17:06]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Didn't see the future for you in music, perhaps?
- [17:08]
Michael J. Fox
No, but it was a great time and I love doing that. So the point I was making was.
- [17:13]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Well, we were talking about the guitar. And that scene also for you has taken you to all these amazing places.
- [17:19]
Michael J. Fox
It's a medley of my head. Yeah. And it's tough. Barry's head, obviously, but it was. It's been a great thing for me. I played with a lot of great musicians and Gazellig thing pictures of me with the who and I mean, just everybody.
- [17:38]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Police with Coldplay. Coldplay, Glastonbury.
- [17:42]
Michael J. Fox
Yeah, that was really great.
- [17:43]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
We were just talking. We were at the Michael J. Fox event in Nashville a few months ago. Chris Stapleton surprises the crowd by playing Johnny B. Goode. And you're up in the seats dancing to it. Incredible.
- [17:55]
Michael J. Fox
Really fun. Nashville. Thing is, Mitch turned out to be a great event.
- [17:58]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
That song's taken you a long way. There's a scene in the book Christmas 1984. Your home in Canada with your family. You've agreed to do Back to the Future. And you describe it as your last brush with the old world. Meaning you knew on the other side of this huge Spielberg Zemeckis movie, your life was about to change. How dramatically did it change when that movie came out?
- [18:25]
Michael J. Fox
A huge, huge difference. And you travel. My family, they were so amazing because they did no reference to this. They didn't know how to respond to it or react to it. So I would find myself trying to dole it out to them. But I would become impatient too, and that was tricky. But they, like my father, had life change. My father's a great guy. He was a real tough guy. My parents both were born during the Great Depression and kill as during World War II. It was the greatest generation of those people. And I was doing this thing I was asked to do in Vancouver, a benefit for the symphony. And they wanted me to host it. And it says black tie event. So I invited my parents to come because I said, that'd be nice. In Vancouver, it'd be a big deal. So we're ready to go. I have a tuxedo on and walk out, and I have these shoes on, skull and crossbones on them. And my father looked at the shoes and he said, you can't wear those shoes. And I said, no, I'm gonna wear these shoes. He said, you can't wear those shoes. It's disrespectful. I said, that's not disrespectful. It's my shoes. And I look down at them and I see I have this tuxedo room. I'm talking to the civilian Yorkshire. And I look down, I see shoes with skull and crossbones on him. I know it's me. I'm having a laugh and I'm saying grounded. And he finally relented, but. But it was so funny because I loved it. My parents still. I was 24 years old, 25 years old, and very successful and famous and all over. My father thought he could tell me what shoes I could wear, right? And I thought, that's good. I mean, normally I would have. I Would have maybe changed his shoes, but I think at some level, he wanted me to keep him on too.
- [20:03]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Right, right. We're still your parents. We still have a say in this thing.
- [20:07]
Michael J. Fox
Yeah, the integration, unrelated to Back to the Future. But when I went. When I won my first Emmy, I brought it home, Canada. And we put it on a table, and we were all sitting around playing board games and drinking and stuff, visiting. And I went to bed and my Emmy was on this table. Woke up the next morning, my Emmy was there with my dad's bowling trophy, my brother's boxing trophy, my sister's skating trophy, my mother's crib trophy, and they're all around it. That's great, right? I'll never get out of control. They'll keep me. They'll keep me.
- [20:40]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
You had some level of fame with Family Ties, but even during the shooting of Back to the Future, you write in this book, the crowds had started to gather because you were a star and about to become a bigger star. How did you. You come, as you say, from pretty humble roots, your family, normal people. How did you adjust to that, being truly one of the most famous people on the planet in a span of a couple of years?
- [21:05]
Michael J. Fox
Well, the movie helped because the movie was all about how hard we worked. And that became the galvanizing principle of my thing, which is to work hard. To work hard. Never let them see it. Not work hard and always be present. Step up and not take anything for granted. And so my life really changed a lot. But I sit with my family and my friends. Kept me, kept me in peace. There was a little excess. Here's the moose heads.
- [21:38]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
You were entitled to a little, weren't you? Yeah, it's all right.
- [21:41]
Michael J. Fox
Stuff like that would happen. Like I was on tonight's show with Johnny Carson. I mentioned that I like Moosehead beer. Two days later, I get up and ruckus outside my house. The Moosehead truck had pulled up at my house. I was on unloading beer.
- [21:56]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
See, that's real power. When you mention something and it shows up at your house, you might have.
- [21:59]
Michael J. Fox
These kids, get into trouble. There's all kinds of people there. And that was great to keep working, to work on the show and work on the movie and start to get involved in philanthropy. Prior to Parkinson's, I get involved in other things, and it just really keeps you connected.
- [22:20]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Were your parents, Mike, just thinking about your family, Were they supportive always of your pursuit of acting? Because you said pre Family Ties, you were down and out. I mean, truly down and out. Struggling actor might be an understatement. Did they always support this dream of yours?
- [22:37]
Michael J. Fox
They didn't understand it, but they supported it. And they supported it under some duress. My father just said I talked to him about I want to move to the States, be an actor when I was 17. It's in line with it, if you want to be a, if you want to be lumberjack, better go to Nam Forest. So he drove me down and they were kind of letting me go, but they didn't know what to expect. But the courage and the belief in me to just let me go and try it.
- [23:06]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
And you're a kid, you're a teenager at that point.
- [23:08]
Michael J. Fox
I was 18 when I finally moved to the States. Wow. I went through three years of before I did. You gotta tell them. I had back to the future. And. And at 79, I went down. I got back to preach in 82. And then it just changed. I did a lot of work, but nothing broke through until family time.
- [23:26]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Yeah.
- [23:28]
Michael J. Fox
And it was just a whirlwind. And I can't believe I'm sitting here now, 64 years old, four kids, wife, career. I'm about something I believe in a lot. Battle for Parkinson's. Parkinson's research and a cure for Parkinson's. It's amazing. It's amazing. Life.
- [23:49]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
The whirlwind has continued.
- [23:52]
Willie Geist
Stick around for more of my conversation with Michael J. Fox right after a quick break.
- [23:58]
Michael J. Fox
91 1, what is your emergency? Get off the field.
- [24:03]
911 Show Promo Announcer
911 has faced nearly every emergency on Earth. ABC Thursday. They will go where no first responders have gone before.
- [24:12]
Public Service Announcer
Five everyday heroes were launched into space.
- [24:16]
Michael J. Fox
All contact with the spacecraft was lost due to a sudden geomagnetic storm. Mission control, dude, you coughing?
- [24:23]
911 Show Promo Announcer
911 all new Thursdays, 8, 7 Central on ABC and stream on Hulu.
- [24:28]
Goldbelly Advertiser
Hey guys. Finding the perfect gift for the food lover in your life is easy thanks to Gold Belly. Gold Belly ships America's most iconic foods straight from world famous restaurants right to your door. So if you want to treat someone to Joe's Stone Crab from Miami, Franklin Barbecue from Texas or desserts from famous foodies like Ina Garten or Martha Stewart, Goldbelly has you covered. Just go to goldbelly.com and for a limited time, get 20% off your first order with promo code gift. That's promo code gift.
- [24:56]
Micro Perfumes Advertiser (Alternate)
Ever spend $200 on a fragrance only to realize you hate it? Micro Perfumes fixes that. Now you can try luxury scents without the luxury price. Pick from real designer fragrances like Dior, Tom Ford and Creed. It's the real deal. Authentic scents starting at just a few bucks. They come in sleek travel sprays, ship fast, and there's no subscription required. Why gamble on a full bottle? Go to microperfumes.com podcast for up to 60% off. That's microperfumes.com podcast for up to 60% off.
- [25:29]
Willie Geist
Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Michael J. Fox.
- [25:34]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
There's another element to this story that, again, I don't think people realize is that you originally were not in this movie. It was a different actor, Eric Stoltz, who started the movie as Marty McFly. The team there, Spielberg and Zemeckis, decided it wasn't working, and that's when they reached out to you as an actor. Did that feel odd to be stepping in?
- [25:55]
Michael J. Fox
Well, it felt a little weird, but it happened so fast. As I said, just say boom, boom, boom. Like they'd gone to the. They'd gone to Gary initially, and before they hired Eric to see if I was available. And he said, understandably, he said no, because he worked in building the show. It was his baby, and he couldn't risk. He feared risking me going off and leaving the show. But now he'd come to this point where he'd come back and he would believe me, fate and karma and stuff. So he thought, come back to me. Now is my chance to do the right thing for Mike. And he let me do it. And as you said, a life changer just in that moment. And I got up and think about when I heard the story told by other people about how difficult it was for the film within the studio system to get made, to deal with these changes that met this notion of me kind of as a gunslinger hanging back outside the undertakers, loading up my gun, getting ready to go and take over the joint, this hired gun. It wasn't that feeling at all. It was just. They didn't feel the movie was working. Eric is. Everybody knows Record. It's a great actor, and he had just unmasked, which is a great film, but once it happened, it happened so fast, there was no time to. To talk about. To talk with Bob about what the character would be like or any of that stuff. It was just. I just showed up and did it.
- [27:25]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
One of my favorite parts of the book, you talk to all these people around the movie and you get their input and their memories, and you're sort of wondering, as you read, what about Eric Stoltz? How does he feel? And then we come to the epilogue, and you Tell the story of reaching out to him. What was that exchange like?
- [27:44]
Michael J. Fox
It was great. What I didn't want to do and I didn't do characterize his feelings about the movie, his feelings about what happened. It's not important at this point. But what was important for me was two young guys, we were two 23 year old guys, actors that were in a situation beyond our control. And these two of them did the best we could. And I knew, and I knew from anecdotal stuff, people I talked to. He was a great guy, very smart guy. So he came over. My partner Nell, who wrote the book with me, talks about being in her office, which is back behind my office. And we were in closed door conversation and she said she couldn't hear what we were saying, but she kept hearing these gales of laughter and she was like, I can't go on. So it was really cool and I don't want to put her focus on. On that part of it. But I needed to mention it. And so hopefully it didn't disrupt his life and get people ask him about it and all that stuff. But he very gracious come over and we had a good time. We met again since and it's just great because we shared this in our life. Big thing.
- [29:00]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
It's a great coda to this whole story. It's really. I'm so glad that you all got together that way. Just big picture, Mike. How much fun was it to sit and relive this chapter of your life when you were on the launch pad and it all kind of took off for you?
- [29:15]
Michael J. Fox
It's good. It's kind of like listening to when I'm 64. It makes me feel both it was a long time ago and a different life. And also very much connected to my life now and what I do. The lessons I learned about resilience and about teamwork and about there's a purpose, an end game which is to bring this story to people and have them enjoy it. And in fact they still love it. It's just amazing.
- [29:39]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
They do.
- [29:39]
Michael J. Fox
They do.
- [29:40]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
I watch it again. You still get sucked in when it. Just like you did on that Christmas day. You can't help but watch it.
- [29:46]
Michael J. Fox
It sucks you in, doesn't it? It does.
- [29:47]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
It does. You also, by the way, you're still. You've been acting for. You continue to act. And you're in the new season of Shrinking.
- [29:55]
Michael J. Fox
Yeah.
- [29:56]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Harrison Ford raving about you, Jason Siegel, all those guys. What kind of experience has that been?
- [30:04]
Michael J. Fox
Of all Tercen's amazing. And so Generous and so sweet and so, like, protective of me. And it was one of the great experiences of my life working with him. Really amazing. He was just everything that I hoped he'd be. And he had done some work with our foundation. He shut some promotional stuff. So he was connected a little bit. But he just was such a great host and treated me so well. And it was great. It was a great experience. I loved him.
- [30:32]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
He said, you are essential to that show. They're so much better off for having you on it. That's the way he put it.
- [30:37]
Michael J. Fox
Billy Lawrence, who's the producer, was one of my producing partners on Spin City.
- [30:42]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Right.
- [30:43]
Michael J. Fox
So we have a long history and Gary was our partner. And so it's all interconnected. Gary introduced me to Billy and Billy, he asked me to do Scrubs and I started doing Scrubs and started doing more shows after I retired. Changed my life. And he reached out and got me again. That's great. Such a great show. Such good.
- [31:05]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
It is good.
- [31:06]
Michael J. Fox
It's nice to deal with people, the real life, people that have disabilities and particularly mental health issues, brain issues. We understood, we're trying. We've been working for 25 years.
- [31:20]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
So let's talk about that. 25 years of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. I'll say here. I'm on the board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. My dad has had Parkinson's, for gosh. He was diagnosed 33 years ago, not long after you. Actually, you've raised two and a half billion dollars for research. Two and a half billion more is the goal. There's. Do you remember even 25 years ago, what your hopes were for it, what the vision was? It's got to have wildly exceeded at this point. But what was the original idea, I.
- [31:54]
Michael J. Fox
Think I did, was just give a voice to people that were disenfranchised and marginalized because of the piece of disease. It was an old person's disease. There was nothing that anybody thought about. There was one drug that was the cinematodel dopamine, which is like the gold standard. That was it. I kept it to myself for seven years. And I finally got out there, told people about it, and I saw the opportunity and I started to meet different groups of people that worked with Parkinson's on various levels, whether it's research or politics. And I just thought, this is an opportunity. This is really like, you don't get a chance, like, this is a person to step up and make a difference. So the more I thought about it, the more I thought, I can't not do This, I have to do this. There's people, I remember talking on going to visiting chat rooms with people who had Parkinson's. And so I went anonymously on chat rooms. I said, what about this Michael Fox thing? What's that all about? And they say it's great. I say it's crazy to have park. And they say, yeah, it's great to hear opportunity for us. And I saw that. I thought, well, I get that. It doesn't bother me. I get that. I get that people will be encouraged by the fact that there may be a voice theirs that will speak up for them on their behalf and, and push for changes and push for new treatments, new therapies, hopefully cure. We've really moved certainly in that direction.
- [33:24]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
What are some of the developments that are exciting you and the team over there? Because it has come such a long way in those 25 years when doing.
- [33:32]
Michael J. Fox
Research, you fail more times than you succeed. One of the things that work and really grab onto them. We had the same ppm, which is biomarkers and it ways to identify the disease before where symptoms are apparent. And that's been a tremendous success anyway. It's helped us find a biomarker of a synuclein, which is an indicator with a host of other clues that urinary hypergas or you had. And so what that means is we can now, by the time I was diagnosed with a little twitch of my pinky, some 70% of the immune producing cells in my brain were already gone. If we can say you're going to have Parkinson's, because based on a blood test or a spinal tap or some other biomarker or some other indicator, we can say you're going to have Parkinson's. We can treat it now prophylaxically before you get it. And that's a tremendous thing. We made that a very likely scenario that we never would have thought about. And we are always pushing other therapies, working with fda, working with patient groups. The other thing we've done that I've really been excited about was get patients involved. And they were never encouraged to be involved before. And they would say, my doctor doesn't want me to, she wants me to take the pills and shut up. I say, you're the expert, you're the expert. You see your doctor, you have Parkinson's, you're the expert. I say, I'm so lucky. I go, my doctor spends an hour with me and we talk. And it's not, I know that's not the case with most people. We have five, 10 minutes laying out there, banging out. They get a couple of pills and move on. We need to make this a living, functioning relationship with our doctors and with. With the medical community. Everything's possible. Everything's possible. And I'm encouraged and I'm excited. I'm exhausted, but I keep going. And great people like you and other friends that are on the board and we get involved in other things, aspects of the. We have people who do the spinal tap for the bar. Mother. No, they don't have it. But you say it's a control factor and we need to. And they'll get a spinal tap. I don't want to get a spinal tap.
- [35:58]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
A voluntary spinal tap sucks, a wide spinal tap. Everything's possible, by the way, that might as well be your motto. I think, just knowing my own experience, sometimes people with Parkinson's, the instinct is to withdraw a little bit. And especially for someone like you who's in the public eye, there may have been some temptation to let people remember Alex P. Keaton and Marty McFly and all those characters. Tell me about that conscious decision to step forward and say, this is what I'm going to do now. I'm going to be out there. You've never withdrawn. You always put yourself out there. You're always hopeful. You're always optimistic about treatments and research. Why did you do that?
- [36:39]
Michael J. Fox
Well, first of all, screw vanity. Like, I don't know what I look like or what. It didn't matter to me. But it's been a great experience. And if I can help encourage other people to know that it's not over with a diagnosis, it's not. Life goes on. And I think the thing that surprised me most is I say, like, I'll say I could talk to somebody else for 35 years, but there aren't that many of us around. So I know that I'm a freak freak, but I'm a freak occurrence. And that I've been managed to sustain this level of energy, level of involvement, and that's great. It's a great gift. And so I don't want to waste it. It's been amazing. It's obviously the biggest thing in my life. Parker's chef, the other stuff is all great, but if I come out of this with some kind of really substantial change in the way Parkinson's is treated and the way that we relate to it and even find something for you to cure, so much better than any movie or any TV show. Not as good as my life and my kids, my family, but important.
- [38:08]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Sounds like a pretty damn good legacy you just laid out there.
- [38:12]
Michael J. Fox
Legacies. Legacies are for dead people. I'm not there yet.
- [38:18]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Mike, Congratulations on this book. It's so much fun. Fans are gonna love it. And on behalf of a Parkinson's family, thank you for showing the way. Always. You are a hero to so many of us.
- [38:29]
Michael J. Fox
I almost saved you kids. You're gonna love it. Yes, thank you. Do you love it?
- [38:33]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Yes. Great to see you, my friend.
- [38:34]
Michael J. Fox
Thank you, my brother. Thank you.
- [38:39]
Willie Geist
My big thanks to Michael for a great conversation.
- [38:42]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Always a joy and an honor to.
- [38:44]
Willie Geist
Spend time with him. Michael's new memoir, future Boy, Back to the Future and My Journey through the Space Time Continuum, is available now, wherever you get your books. And my thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear all of these conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday Today every weekend on NBC to see these interviews with your own two eyes. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit down podcast.
- [39:22]
Michael J. Fox
Foreign.
- [39:26]
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- [39:52]
Interviewer / Podcast Host
Com.
- [39:54]
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