Entertainment
Michael J Fox says he’s ‘living one day at a time’ amid devastating Parkinson’s battle-Rishma Dosani-Entertainment – Metro
He was diagnosed in 1991.
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Michael J Fox has spoken out about living with Parkinson’s, revealing that he ‘never would have guessed’ that he would still be working today.
The Back to the Future legend, 61, was diagnosed with the incurable condition in 1991, at the age of 29.
He recently revealed that managing his illness – in which parts of the brain are progressively damaged – has become ‘much harder’.
In a new interview, he insisted that his health issues had given him a new appreciation for living every day.
‘I truly live one day at a time,’ he said. ‘I live for each moment and I love each day.
‘If you told me when I was 29, when they just diagnosed it, that at 61 I’d still be going at it with a film to promote, that life would be so full, I never would have guessed it.
Michael J Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the age of 29 (Picture: Getty)
‘I’m cautiously optimistic, but mostly optimistic, not so much cautious, as my family would say.’
Although he is ‘cautiously optimistic’, Michael added to People Magazine that he doesn’t think he will be able to see in his 80th birthday.
‘You don’t die from Parkinson’s. You die with Parkinson’s. I’m not gonna be 80,’ he concluded.
The screen icon recently opened the doors of his home to film crew to explore his life and career for a new Apple TV+ special, titled Still.
The actor is set to release a documentary over his condition (Picture: Getty)
Through the film, he wanted to show that – despite his condition – his sense of humor is still intact.
Appearing at a press conference, he explained: ‘My thing on anything is, what’s funny about it? In any situation, what’s the funny part?
‘You can always find the part that’s tragic in something or sad in something, and it can bring you down, but it’s a little more of a challenge but much more rewarding to find what’s universally human, which is usually universally funny.
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‘I talk in the film about making people laugh and the joy of making people laugh, and I realized while we were making the movie, I knew when I was younger and started to do comedy and people would laugh, I made them make a noise they didn’t want to make, and that was powerful. Anything that powerful is important.’
‘With all that I’ve experienced over the last few years, the avenues I have to express my creativity and get my feelings out are diminished, in a way,’ he added.
‘I can’t do certain things I used to do, but I can tell stories. The stories I know best are my own stories and I found that, as I told them to people, they related to them and understood and that informed me in ways that I wasn’t aware of, so it brought this communal storytelling cycle that involved people out of my world and it was really exciting.’
Still: A Michael J Fox Movie premieres on Apple TV+ on May 12.
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