Michael J. Fox has returned to acting after retiring five years ago — but it turns out the Back to the Future star didn’t necessarily see his original retirement as the end of his life in showbiz.
“I’m always retiring,” he told People magazine in a recent cover story interview. And as for getting back into the scene with his upcoming role on the hit Apple TV+ dramedy Shrinking? “It’s just been really positive, really energizing,” he gushed to the outlet about his first role since 2020’s The Good Fight.
The supporting role Fox plays on the series is a special one — as it appears his character lives with Parkinson’s disease, which Fox has also lived with since his diagnosis in 1991. He first revealed his diagnosis seven years later in 1998. The actor was interested in working on the series after he discovered lead Harrison Ford’s character was diagnosed on the show.
“I said, ‘You did a show about Parkinson’s, and you didn’t call me?’” Fox explained of getting on the series. “And he said, ‘Oh, you want to do it?’ And I said, ‘I’d love to do it.’ So he said, ‘Let me think about it, see what I can do.’ So he went to work on it and came up with this concept, it’s really good.”
The experience of working on the dramedy was even better than a normal gig for him, simply because he got to exist in his normal state — and not apologize for it.
“It was the first time ever I get to show up on-set, and I didn’t have to worry about am I too tired or coughing or anything,” Fox noted. “I just do it. It was really good, because for the moments when I say, ‘I’m not going to be able to do this,’ then I say, ‘Well, I’ll just deal with how I can’t do it in the scene.’ And you get through it.”
The specifics of Fox’s role, and Season 3 in general, have been mostly kept under wraps, but Ford told Variety earlier this year that Fox was an indispensable part of what’s to come on the show.
“Michael’s courage, his fortitude and his grace, more than anything else, is on full display. He’s very smart, very brave, noble, generous, passionate guy, and an example to all of us, whether we’re facing Parkinson’s or not,” Ford told the outlet at the time. “You cannot help but recognize how amazing it is to have such grace… Parkinson’s is not funny. And I want to get it right. It’s necessary to be correct with what we do in respect of the challenge that Parkinson’s represents, and that we don’t use it for its entertainment value.”
As far as how Parkinson’s is affecting Fox’s life these days, he has a really positive attitude even when things are difficult. “I keep getting new challenges physically, and I get through it. I roll around in a wheelchair a lot, and it took some getting used to,” he told People. “You take the good, and you seize it.”
The actor is still hungry for life and to create. “I see other people’s work, and it makes me think that I might be able to find something that’s for me as an actor and as a writer,” he revealed in the interview. “And as a parent, husband and friend, I have a lot left to do.”
Season 3 of Shrinking has yet to receive an official release date, but all signs point to the show returning pretty soon.
Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
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