Michael J. Fox said he was retiring from acting in 2020, but that turned out to just be a hiatus as the icon has now filmed a supporting role for the new season of the Apple TV+ comedy “Shrinking.” The gig marks Fox’s first on-screen acting job since his 2020 guest role on “The Good Fight.” The actor recently quipped to People magazine: “I’m always retiring.”
As for the specifics of his acting return, Fox is not spilling any details yet on “Shrinking” Season 3 other than revealing that it was his idea to land a role on the series after he found out that Harrison Ford’s character, Dr. Paul Rhoades, has Parkinson’s disease. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991 and publicly announced his condition in 1998. The actor personally called “Shrinking” creator Bill Lawrence to inquire about a role on the comedy.
“I said, ‘You did a show about Parkinson’s, and you didn’t call me?’ And he said, ‘Oh, you want to do it?’ And I said, ‘I’d love to do it,’” Fox said. “So he said, ‘Let me think about it, see what I can do.’ So he went to work on it and came up with this concept, it’s really good.”
“It was the first time ever I get to show up on-set, and I didn’t have to worry about am I too tired or coughing or anything,” Fox added. “I just do it. It was really good, because for the moments when I say, ‘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.’ And you get through it.”
Speaking about living with Parkinson’s more generally, Fox concluded: “I wake up and get the message of what the day is gonna be like, and I try to adjust to it. 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.”
It also appears ending his acting retirement from “Shrinking” has reignited Fox’s acting bug a bit. As he explained: “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. And as a parent, husband and friend, I have a lot left to do.”
While plot details for “Shrinking” Season 3 remain under wraps, it appears likely that Fox and Ford will be sharing the screen as characters both living with Parkinson’s. Ford told Variety earlier this year that having Fox join the show was “essential.”
“Michael’s courage, his fortitude and his grace, more than anything else, is on full display. He’s very smart, very brave, noble, generous, passionate guy, and an example to all of us, whether we’re facing Parkinson’s or not,” Ford said. “You cannot help but recognize how amazing it is to have such grace… Parkinson’s is not funny. And I want to get it right. It’s necessary to be correct with what we do in respect of the challenge that Parkinson’s represents, and that we don’t use it for its entertainment value.”
Fox originally announced his acting retirement in 2020 via his book, “No Time Like the Future,” where he told fans that his Parkinson’s was making it too difficult to be on set and to memorize lines.
“The nascent diminishment in my ability to download words and repeat them verbatim is just the latest ripple in the pond,” Fox wrote at the time. “There are reasons for my lapses in memorization — be they age, cognitive issues with the disease, distraction from the constant sensations of Parkinson’s, or lack of sensation because of the spine — but I read it as a message, an indicator.”
“There is a time for everything, and my time of putting in a twelve-hour workday, and memorizing seven pages of dialogue, is best behind me,” he added. “At least for now…. In fairness to myself and to producers, directors, editors, and poor beleaguered script supervisors, not to mention actors who enjoy a little pace, I enter a second retirement. That could change, because everything changes. But if this is the end of my acting career, so be it.”
While Fox had been offscreen since “The Good Fight” prior to “Shrinking,” he did hit the press circuit in 2023 in support of his Apple TV+ documentary “Still.” He said participating in the movie was a “big thrill” and told Entertainment Tonight in 2024 that “if something came up that I could put my realities into it — my challenges — if I could figure it out” then he’d considering returning to acting.
“If someone offers me a [new] part, and I do it, and I have a good time, great,” he added at the time.
Apple TV+ has not yet announced when Fox’s season of “Shrinking” will begin.
variety.com
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