Michael J Fox ‘struggling with memory skills’ in 22-year battle with Parkinson’s
Michael J Fox has opened up about his battle with Parkinson’s Disease and how he has pretty much been forced to stop acting as his short-term memory is no longer good enough
Michael J Fox has opened up about his 22-year battle with Parkinson’s and how it has forced him into ending his acting career.
The 59-year-old Back to the Future star has said that he no longer has the short term memorisation that is required to learn his lines for acting roles.
Michael was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, in 1991.
He went public with his battle in 1998 but continued acting, starring in Spin City from 1996 to 2001 and then in The Good Wife from 2010 to 2016.
He has now admitted that his acting days could be over as he is now struggling with the processes required to keep his career going.
Speaking to People, Michael said: “My short-term memory is shot.
“I always had a real proficiency for lines and memorisation. And I had some extreme situations where the last couple of jobs I did were actually really word-heavy parts.
“I struggled during both of them.”
Michael said that he is trying to improve his speech by practicing tongue twisters but has now primarily turned to writing as he accepts that acting may now be a thing of the past.
Michael said: “I’m down to this. My guitar playing is no good. My sketching is no good anymore, my dancing never was good, and acting is getting tougher to do.
“So it’s down to writing. Luckily, I really enjoy it.”
In the past couple of years, Michael has fought a further health issue after a noncancerous tumour was found on his spine.
It started growing rapidly and was causing him pain throughout his body.
He underwent surgery and it took him four months to learn to walk again before he had a fall, which Michael described hAfter undergoing a successful operation, Fox began a four-month process in which he had to learn to walk again.
But not long after, Fox had a bad fall which he has said “was definitely my darkest moment.”
During that time he said he found “optimism is really rooted in gratitude.”
Michael continued: “Optimism is sustainable when you keep coming back to gratitude, and what follows from that is acceptance.
“Accepting that this thing has happened, and you accept it for what it is. It doesn’t mean that you can’t endeavour to change.
“It doesn’t mean you have to accept it as a punishment or a penance, but just put it in its proper place.
“Then see how much the rest of your life you have to thrive in, and then you can move on.”
Michael said that he is now focusing on spending time with his wife Tracy Pollan and their children.
The couple share son Sam, 31, twin daughters Aquinnah and Schuyler, both 25, and daughter Esmé, 19.
Michael continued: “It’s not that I wasn’t sincere before, but my gratitude is deeper now, from having gotten through the darkest times.”
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