Michael J. Fox says he’d come out of retirement for the right role

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN

(CNN) — Michael J. Fox has revealed that he would consider coming out of retirement for the right acting role.

The “Back to the Future” star announced back in 2020 that he was stepping away from performing for good because of the deterioration of his health.

Now, however, he has revealed that he would not rule out a return to acting – provided the role is right and takes into account his Parkinson’s Disease.

In a candid interview with Entertainment Tonight, the 62-year-old star said: “If someone offers me a part and I do it and I have a good time, great.

“I would do acting if something came up that I could put my realities into it, my challenges, if I could figure it out.”

Fox, who rose to fame as Alex P. Keaton on the hit 1980s sitcom “Family Ties,” was diagnosed in 1991 with the incurable degenerative disease, which affects the nervous system and motor skills including walking and speech.

The five-time Emmy Award-winning actor, who also has four Golden Globes, a Grammy and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, was speaking ahead of a major fundraising event on Tuesday for the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which has raised more than $2 billion to date for research into Parkinson’s.

He was joined by a host of country music stars, including Sheryl Crow, Little Big Town and Jason Isbell, for “A Country Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson’s” in Nashville, Tennessee that night.

During the interview, ET host Rachel Smith asked Fox how he felt about the standing ovation he received for his surprise appearance at the BAFTA awards in London in February.

Met with huge applause, he came onto the stage in a wheelchair but made the final few steps to the podium unaided to present the Best Film award to “Oppenheimer.”

He told Smith he was “surprised” and “appreciated” the response, though he insisted that the work his foundation does “is not about me.”

“We can change people’s lives and change the future,” he said.

He said his illness has given him “perspective” on life, adding: “It’s a gift that keeps on taking but it’s a gift. Everything it takes, it leaves me something and it gives me something and I learn something.”

Fox’s life with his family, and how living with Parkinson’s affects their day-to-day reality, is the subject of the Apple TV+ documentary “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.”

It intercuts the actor’s narration of his life – more than 30 years of which have been with Parkinson’s – with clips from movies like “Back to the Future” and his many other career highlights.

In it, Fox talks about the shock of his diagnosis, which led to heavy drinking and other coping mechanisms, the massive impact on his family and his feelings about the future.

The film received a BAFTA nomination for the best documentary award but lost out to “20 Days in Mariupol.”

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