Michael J. Fox is not going anywhere.
“I’m always retiring,” the 64-year-old actor joked in an interview with People published Wednesday, October 8.
Fox first took a step back from his acting career in 2000, leaving his role as Mike Flaherty on Spin City. He continued to nab roles in the years that followed before retiring again in 2020 due to his health. (Fox has been battling Parkinson’s since 1991.)
He is, however, gearing up for an upcoming role on the Apple TV+ show Shrinking. While Fox didn’t offer much information about his character, the actor did confirm that he’ll be playing someone with Parkinson’s.
“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 said. “I just do it.”
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Fox is also gearing up to release his new book, Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum, on Tuesday, October 14. He’s also a big part of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, which he founded in 2000. (The book is a love letter to Fox’s famed role as Marty McFly in Back to the Future.)
“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,” Fox told People. “And as a parent, husband and friend, I have a lot left to do.”
He said that the past year has been “really positive” and “really energizing” but definitely busy.
“I wake up and get the message of what the day is gonna be like, and I try to adjust to it,” Fox said, referring to his illness. “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. You take the good, and you seize it.”
Fox discussed his Parkinson’s battle at length in the 2023 documentary Still.
“Every tremor is like a seismic jolt,” Fox said in the film, noting that Parkinson’s can cause him to be “frozen physically” and “frozen facially.” Fox explained that sometimes he will struggle to “smile” or “show expression,” which is typical for those who’ve been diagnosed with the disease.
“People express to me that I make them feel better and make them do things they might not otherwise do,” he said at one point in the documentary. “That’s the most powerful thing. It’s a huge responsibility … I don’t want to f*** it up.”
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Fox was diagnosed with the disorder at age 29 and waited seven years to go public. He “drank to disassociate” after receiving the diagnosis, Fox recalled in Still. (He’s now more than 30 years sober.)
“I was sullen and angry,” he recalled, noting that “fear” led to his alcoholism.
Now, the disease — often known as a “movement disorder” — has allowed Fox to embrace moments of “stillness” in his day-to-day life.
“The thing that I learned is that I couldn’t be still in my life. I couldn’t be present in my life,” he said. “Until I found this — this thing that happened to me that made me present in every moment of my life.”
