The disease struck him at the age of just 29, and from that moment Michael J. Fox’s battle against Parkinson’s disease began: the actor talks about himself in the documentary “Still: the story of Michael J. Fox” by Davis Guggenheim.
Michael J. Fox and his son Parkinson
The diagnosis came when Michael J. Fox was 29 years old, at the peak of his career and returning, among other things, from the success of the “Back to the Future” trilogy in the role of Marty McFly: so his life changed radically in a way he never would have expected, when he was still very young and found himself having to live with Parkinson’s disease. “When the doctors first spoke up,” he says, “I was incredulous and said well, this can’t happen to me.” In May 2000, the actor gave life to the “Michael J. Fox Fondation”, a foundation dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease with the aim of helping the over 5 million people who suffer from it worldwide the world.
The Documentary “Still: The Michael J. Fox Story”
A difficult diagnosis to accept and which made him go through a period of great difficulty and addiction to alcohol: “At first I worked through my sadness and depression by drinking too much. But that couldn’t be the end of the story. I looked for a new way to win and get away with it. With the help of my wife Tracy, I did it.” His story, his illness, his family and his career: all this is told in “Still: the story of Michael J. Fox”, a documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim which will be available on Apple TV starting May 12th.
Michael J. Fox: “Illness is another incredible segment of my incredible life”
The film alternates documentary with archival materials and fiction, to tell the actor’s story through his own words: from childhood to the heights of celebrity in 1980s Hollywood, from public life to anecdotes about private life never revealed before, also dealing with the years following the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. A documentary that allows us to discover what happens when “an incurable optimist is confronted with an incurable disease”: “The disease is another incredible segment of my incredible life. It is a challenge with the disease, with the reaction I see in the eyes of the people I meet, with the possibility of still doing good things”.
