Michael J Fox/Barbara Walters Interview

that's disease come on Turkey let go might take a look at this you never would have known this was last week's episode of ABC's comedy hit Spin City nothing and Michael J Fox his performance would tell you that he had any illness he was as energetic as ever I just feel like I've been in God's pocket for so long that I just didn't think that I was gonna be hammered with this that did that did I would find a way to live with it to learn from it to deal with it and in a half we first met Michael J Fox on the 80s TV sitcom Family Ties then came the enormous success of back to the future his boyish good looks and physical comedy made him a box-office star and a rich young man too many Fox never looked old enough to marry but he did ten years ago to actress Tracy Pollan they have three children a son and twin daughters mister while he continued to make films few knew about his condition two years ago he returned to TV as the executive producer and star of Spin City then last weekend the stunning news that the actor had Parkinson's the actor Michael J Fox told People magazine that he is battling Parkinson's disease Michael all this week we have been reading and hearing that you have this devastating disease that it is life-threatening that you are in the fight for your life it's just the way you feel it no it doesn't represent the way I feel but it's it's been an interesting few days the the first thing that I felt was that I was really moved that did people cared and expressed that emotion you got in touch with me and I I don't mean to diminish that at all but on some levels of the media that the the breathlessness of it in that in the tragedy of it in the drama of in the melodrama of it it certainly didn't apply to me I mean I felt very apart from it you don't consider this a tragedy not by any stretch of imagination it's my life it's my life and it's my life is so filled with positives and so filled with blessings and so filled with things that that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world you work a full schedule yeah absolutely you can still do athletics I'd ski I ride horses are you tyke oh man pretty active there are other young people who do have Parkinson's it's rare to get it as young as you did at 30 but there are people who do are you concerned perhaps that they won't want to say anything because they see that the reaction to to your telling about your case I sought a quote from a man who's well into his 80s and has Parkinson's and and it was quoted as saying yeah about me when I look at that young man's eyes I see such fear of the future and such foreboding and dread and and you know Tracy I kind of thought well maybe it was gas I don't know my son but Dad that's just not what I feel and that's and that projection I think again is could be harmful to to other young people that that have this condition many people associate Parkinson's disease with Muhammad Ali whose slurred speech and uncontrollable shaking represents a severe form of the disorder others like Attorney General Janet Reno and singer Johnny Cash are like Fox in the mildest ages the symptoms vary from mild tremors and stiffness to large flailing movements and rigidity the disease is progressive and the symptoms grow worse over time as I look at you there are absolutely no symptoms right I mean you did not have to publicly say that you had Parkinson's disease right why did you why have you now told people about this disease I would say the first reason is that it's been such a part of my life for a long time and I wanted to just chart my own path and live one day at a time and so I I kept it to myself the other part of it was also wanting to to be stigmatize in a way and and did you say you know yes someone you know is is dealing with this and dealing with it is the operative word I found myself at seven years battling it not struggling with it not suffering from it not breaking under the burden of it but dealing with it and then the tiniest element would be that I knew that somewhere sometimes possibly someone who I didn't want to tell everybody on my behalf would beat me to the punch a tabloid might buy somebody like that and so so I thought let me do it on my terms and I feel great about my family and I feel great about the show and I thought this is a good time to do it and I have to say in fairness that we've had indications going back as far as a year that they're there the tabloids have known elements of it and have for one reason or another not printed it it may be out of fear of litigation maybe other things but I have to say thank you thank you for not doing it I seriously mean that this may be the first time that an actor has thanked the tabloid do you feel relieved now yeah but this weird aspects to it um I was looking at the channels at night it is nothing short of a bombshell laughs and I stumbled on that this retrospective of my career and it was a strange feeling that's like if you ever wonder was like to see your obit you know like none of us will ever get the reader obit I in a way kind of got to and it was strange but also didn't didn't freak me out I feel more at ease all the time because it it's uh it's mine you know it's my life and it's my it's my reality yeah no one knows what causes Parkinson's some believe it comes from head injuries or drug abuse or family history according to Fox none of these factors applied to him one of the things it's ironic Michael is that you are always perceived as being so boyish I mean that that's part of what you want has a sense of humor yeah god it's definitely has a sense of humor that they would give you a disease that most often affects people over 60 right let's go back to the beginning when did you first have symptoms of this disease and what were they was actually in the fall of 90 okay mister I was doing a movie called doc Hollywood my Florida and I just woke up one morning my pinky was just doing that that's weird and and it wouldn't stop for a day or so so I went ice under ologist I said what could that be and he said you know I gave me a few tests he said what your age you know he said there's nothing neurological that I can imagine it would be he said you probably whacked your elbow so I went to a sports therapist and he worked on it for a while and then sent me to a neurologist and that was something the neurologist that gave me some tests and said that it was it was Parkinson's what did you think you're 30 years old and the doctor says you have Parkinson's I I was shocked and it it it frightened me what was the prognosis 7 years ago well it was mixed and it was also heard through the filter of disbelief I sat down the chair and he said you have Parkinson's but you'd be able to work for years and years so everything after Parkinson's he could have said you know but your 3 tugged marché and you eat squirrels I mean I am I don't know what he said you know I was still back in Parkinson's I went for a second opinion third opinion a fourth opinion but it I I knew and what did you say to yourself I said you know I said this is gonna be an interesting journey this is not gonna be boring but I never had a moment where I fell to my knees and said you know oh god this is horrible you know why is that forsaken me what is this I never had that moment when I had was Wow okay that's not what I was expecting and you don't dwell on this do you it's pointless to dwell on it it's absolutely pointless to do on it it's like worrying about what the weather's gonna be like tomorrow Oh approximately a million and a half Americans suffer from Parkinson's five to ten percent are under 40 many like Fox take a daily medication call Sinemet Fox took the drug shortly before our interview it usually works within an hour well Sinemet stops your symptoms right and the symptoms are primarily what you used to be a pretty dramatic tremor on my left side and by dramatic I mean yeah show me if you could what it used to want it would be it would be like so waving it big yeah like that there must have been drawbacks to this disease though I mean since you take medication and it doesn't last how long does it last oh it's not party alright don't get me wrong yeah yeah you know I can last two hours three hours it can last one hour it can last for hours well what if somebody said we want you to emcee a dinner and you know the dinners gonna last I don't know two three four hours I wouldn't do so you had to give an excuse yeah People magazine wrote about one night when you were going to get a Golden Globe Award and you were so stiff of idjit you couldn't get out of the car if you're walking into the Golden Globes I guarantee you at any given moment 150 to 200 people are looking at you you saw that the pressure of that moment if I if I was feeling symptomatic which I was my arm was was tremoring in my my leg was trim room and I didn't want to get out and walk through that government so I you know I said to the guy what small around the block once we're out of the box I don't know what he thought was going on back there but he I Tracey was massaging my shoulder maybe thought you know have a little fun on the way to the Golden Gloves I have no idea you made in this last seven years film after film you know I noticed you did stunts where you jump do discus and you still do no one knows how did they not know um I didn't want them to I didn't want them to and they didn't when we come back you'll hear a full season did you decide to do television in part because of this disease oh yeah I wanted to be with my family more I wanted to have a habit as 9:00 to 5:00 a job as I could have still on this set of Spin City there were times when Fox kept the cast and crew waiting while his medication took effect the crew had no idea why they were delayed and when the cameras did roll Fox could find ways to hide his minor tremors you said that there were all kinds of tricks that you can do that that keep the arm from tremoring or rigidity like what I'm gonna show you too many but but but someone who is part of Sony tremor sometimes if the hand is involved it will stop so so you just involved a hand for a few minutes and they not involve it never involve it don't put it down and then pick something up so oh you'd move or he'd move ship your position but the one symptom that I had that was it was most problematic for me was this tremor in my left arm and they did picked up steam and and it got bigger out of out of so what I'm looking for it was it was not in scale with the rest of my progression very serious well I mean serious in that it's like a dog would you know pees on a rock I mean you can't avoid yeah you just be just annoying yeah last spring you had brain surgery right first of all how do you keep it secret there are some things on all of our lives depending on no matter what we do that we just keep to ourselves you know what I'm getting at is that for an actor as famous as you are doing a series that's on every week to take off and have brain surgery and no one knows isn't itself a major feat that's pretty cool look at this hospital outside boston fox underwent a procedure similar to this one the success rate is very high for this operation but there was a 5% chance that he could be paralyzed or die Michael there was a risk I mean you could have died you could have been paralyzed we're scared I have full faith in my doctors I have full faith in God what is this operation called shuttle madami salamati me is a procedure where they drill a hole and top your head they put you in a kind of his brace and sit in a lazy boy basically you've got just a just a little kind of happy valium anything happening but you're but you're awake and you're see responsive and then they insert a disco tube it's this hole in top of your head and into your brain with computer mapping the probe finds and destroys malfunctioning nerve cells which cause Fox's tremors you are conscious you're sedated but you know what's going on yeah oh yeah and talking to them and at one point my doctor dr. Bruce Kirk is just a terrific surgeon um brain surgeons are interesting because there's no margin for error there's no margin for error you can't leave the sponge in there so um as he was in there and he was doing something at one point he touched something and I was giving them an answer and I said I said yeah well I think I've you gonna kind of wound up again and I said wow you you're in my brain and this is really wild you're in my brain and then he said make can you make your arm tremors now and I said okay I tried and and and and I couldn't and so I'm getting mad at myself thinking oh don't be a jerk yeah the guy wants you to make her move man make it move and I couldn't make it move and I said I'm sorry dr. cook I can't do it and he wasn't good we're not it's a wrap he stopped the tremor don't ya did the surgery stop almost all of the symptoms no it doesn't it stops the big tremor yeah the big tremor on that on that on that left side so you get you still have residual small tremors in the way that that may or may not progress you you don't know you know Michael are you at all concerned that now audiences will look at you differently it was a thought but I feel good about what I do and I have a pre I'm pretty confident the people are gonna watch it and laugh and just be into watching the show it must be a relief now though that everyone on the show does know yeah well yeah you're in the middle now the five-year contract with Spin City do you see yourself staying on and on and on absolutely I plan on keep carrying on for I'd love to go for seven years I mean seven is my lucky number what's your prognosis today there's nothing finite that anyone can ever say but what my doctors do agree on is that I'll be able to work and function for many more years to come in terms of an end frog neurosis I mean Parkinson's leads to a logical conclusion and there's no getting around that you you know Parkinson's goes where Parkinson's goes as our conversation came to a close we asked Michael's wife Tracy Pollan to join us when you first heard that Michael had the disease were you devastated no I wouldn't say that I was devastated I was very shocked and surprised and you know it's funny I am you know you hear Michael speaking and he's just the ultimate optimist and he always has been and he's the complete opposite to me but it's hard to worry when you live with Michael because he's such not a warrior and he looks at you like you're a bug if you you know it's true like I he's really taught me to live in the present the great deal of my optimism um comes from Tracy it'd be because it because she means so much to me and she she helps me in so many ways and fills in the blanks in so many ways and when I think of that moment when I told her and she didn't panic she didn't draw back you know there's just that moment when you know and you Scott you are in this with me for the long haul aren't you and I could just tell me that she was and then it was like okay we'll deal with it and it led me on a on a really terrific journey of really looking at things and I would not be as happy a person today uh were not for this journey that I've been on there are so many things in her eyes and so many medications and surgical procedures um I really feel up within the next ten years they have a funny way to flick a switch and this is gone maybe one of the reasons I'm more optimistic and happier and more relaxed than people would expect me to be is I don't want c50 with this I will see 50 but I will not have this you think by then your 37 law by the time you're 50 I know I won't have this I will not have it

Channel: That's Entertainment

Views: 10,602

Rating: 4.9354839 out of 5

Keywords: Michael J Fox, Interview, Spin City, Back to the Future, Parkinsons Disease

Id: NLunLKp4Mg0

Length: 17min 12sec (1032 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 27 2020