Michael J Fox has shared his frank thoughts about death ahead of his new role as a character with Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurological condition.<\/p>\n
Fox, who became a pop culture icon for his roles in Teen Wolf, Family Ties, and the Back to the Future trilogy, was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s when he was 29.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As his disease progressed, his on-screen appearances became less frequent until he retired from acting five years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But he is returning to the screen with a three-part guest appearance on the television series, Shrinking.<\/p>\n
It comes at the same time as the release of his new book, called Future Boy, which looks at the making of the Back to the Future films.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the middle of this combination of reflections on the past and an on-screen portrayal of his condition, Fox has been giving generous insights into life with Parkinson’s.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Michael J Fox on the cover of People magazine.\u00a0 (People)<\/p>\n
Hoping for an undramatic death<\/p>\n
In an interview with UK newspaper The Times, <\/a>Fox spoke about the prospect of his own death.<\/p>\n “I’d like to just not wake up one day,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “That’d be really cool. I don’t want it to be dramatic. I don’t want to trip over furniture, smash my head.”<\/p>\n At 64, and more than 30 years after his diagnosis, Fox is acutely aware of his mortality.\u00a0<\/p>\n “There’s no timeline, there’s no series of stages that you go through \u2014 not in the same way that you would, say, with prostate cancer,” he told The Times.<\/p>\n “It’s much more mysterious and enigmatic.” President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Michael J Fox for his work as a Parkinson’s disease advocate. (AP: Manuel Balce Ceneta)<\/p>\n Returning to the screen<\/p>\n Fox will feature in three episodes of Shrinking, a series in which Harrison Ford plays a psychologist with Parkinson’s disease<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n This comes five years after Fox said he was retiring from acting; however, he jokes that he’s “always retiring” after calling it quits in 2000.<\/p>\n Since then, he has had a handful of roles, including appearances in Scrubs, The Good Wife, and Rescue Me \u2014 which earned him another Emmy award.\u00a0<\/p>\n Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown and Michael J Fox as Marty McFly in a scene from Back to the Future. (Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n Fox did not give much detail about his latest role in an interview with US entertainment outlet People<\/a>, only that he was playing a person with Parkinson’s disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It was the first time ever I got to show up on-set, and I didn’t have to worry about am I too tired or coughing or anything,” he told People.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It was really good because for the moments when I [would have said], ‘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.’\u00a0<\/p>\n “And you get through it.”<\/p>\n Fox has ‘a lot left to do’<\/p>\n Fox has been a vocal advocate for people with Parkinson’s disease, launching a foundation that has raised more than $US2 billion ($3 billion) in research for the condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n He was presented the US Presidential Medal of Freedom<\/a> for his advocacy work earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year he starred in a documentary called Still: A Michael J Fox Movie<\/a>, in which he talked about life with the disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The sad sack story is Michael J Fox gets this debilitating disease and it crushes him,” an interview puts to him in an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Yeah, that’s boring,” Fox replies.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a separate story published by People,<\/a> Fox explained how he made sure to “seize” the good things in life.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I keep getting new challenges physically, and I get through it,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I roll around in a wheelchair a lot, and it took some getting used to.”<\/p>\n Fox told People about how seeing other people’s work inspired him to keep working as an actor and a writer.\u00a0<\/p>\n “And as a parent, husband and friend, I have a lot left to do,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n What is Parkinson’s disease?<\/p>\n Parkinson’s disease is neurological condition that mainly impacts a person’s movements and moods, federally funded health website Healthdirect says<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was named after British doctor James Parkinson, who described the disease in a work called Essay on the Shaking Palsy in 1817.<\/p>\n The disease is generally associated with uncontrollable tremors, but symptoms vary from person to person.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Parkinson’s affects both motor and non-motor functions; everyone experiences it differently,” Parkinson’s Australia’s website says<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n What are the symptoms?<\/p>\n Parkinson’s Australia divides key symptoms into two categories: motor and non-motor.<\/p>\n “Motor symptoms are a hallmark of Parkinson’s, significantly impacting movement and daily activities,” its website says<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n The hallmark motor symptoms of Parkinson’s include:<\/p>\n tremorsslowness of movement, muscle stiffness\u00a0postural instabilityepisodes of freezing<\/p>\n But it also points out other possible symptoms such as:<\/p>\n memory problemsdifficulty concentratingconstipationurinary problems\u00a0blood pressure fluctuationsWhat are the early signs of Parkinson’s disease?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n