Michael J. Fox has long struggled with difficulties caused by his Parkinson’s condition, but he remains as tenacious as ever in the face of great difficulty.
The now-retired actor has become the face of the struggle against the crippling disease, devoting to advancing research and understanding since being diagnosed in the early 1990s.
Recently, the Back to the Future star has spoken openly about his difficulties with the condition, acknowledging that his health is deteriorating and declaring that he does not expect to live to be 80 years old.
Historically, the 61 has often projected optimism about his Parkinson’s diagnosis and has never been one to mask the toll it has taken on his health and wellbeing.
Fox mentioned his mortality in a recent interview, adding that life with Parkinson’s was “gettin’ tougher”.
“I won’t lie. It’s getting harder. “It’s getting tougher,” Fox told CBS Sunday Morning host Jane Pauley.
“Every day is tougher. But, but, that’s the way things are. I mean, who should I see about that?”
He added that he recently had spinal surgery after a tumor was found on his spine. While it was benign, it affected his ability to walk, and was injured from falling: “[I] broke this arm, and I broke this arm, I broke this elbow. I broke my face. I broke my hand,” Fox told Pauley.
“You don’t die from Parkinson’s. You die with Parkinson’s,” Fox concluded. “I’ve been thinking about the mortality of it. … I’m not gonna be 80. I’m not gonna be 80.”
Fox’s fight with the brain disorder – which he was diagnosed with in 1991 after noticing a tremor he had developed in his pinkie finger – has once again come to the fore in the build-up to the release of his new documentary Still, which covers the actor’s life over the course of the past three decades.
As per reports, he admits in the film: “I’m in intense pain. Each tremor is like a seismic jolt.”
He elaborated on the statement in a new interview with The Times newspaper, saying: “It’s not so much pain from the movement, but from the not moving. It’s when you freeze, and in that freezing that not-movement becomes infused with all this energy and it becomes this burning, impending thing that never happens.
“I don’t want to get the violins out. I’ve broken my hand, my elbow, my humerus, my other humerus, my shoulder, my face and some other s— too. And all that stuff is amplified by the electricity of the tremors. So, yes, it hurts a lot. But what you learn is that nobody gives a s—. It’s just life. It doesn’t matter. You suck it up and you move on. And there might be a story to tell in it. But only that. There’s no chit that you can present to a window for a refund.
Ever determined to remain optimistic despite his obvious struggles, Fox gallantly promised that he’s not “going anywhere”.
The actor, who formally retired in 2021 due to his declining health, said: “The depression is [not] so deep that I’m going to injure myself … it always comes back to a place where I go, ‘Well, there’s more to celebrate in my life than there is to mourn.’ The pain speaks for itself. You either tolerate it or you don’t. And I’m not going anywhere.”