Michael J. Fox: Leonardo DiCaprio inspired me to retire from acting
Leonardo DiCaprio was an unlikely inspiration for Michael J. Fox when the ’80s icon made the decision to retire.
The 61-year-old revealed that watching the Oscar winner, 48, in Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” encouraged him to retire from acting.
The “Back to the Future” alum was shooting the series “The Good Fight” in 2021, and he struggled to recall some of his lines due to his Parkinson’s disease.
Fox looked back on the moment with Empire magazine recently, noting that the part in the comedy-drama where DiCaprio’s character Rick Dalton can’t recollect his script inspired him.
“I thought of ‘Once Upon A Time in . . . Hollywood,’ ” Fox said. “There’s a scene where Leonardo DiCaprio’s character can’t remember his lines anymore.”
“He goes back to his dressing room, and he’s screaming at himself in the mirror. Just freaking insane.”
“I had this moment where I was looking in the mirror and thought, ‘I cannot remember it anymore. Well, let’s move on.’ It was peaceful.”
The Canadian native was diagnosed with the disease in 1991 and disclosed his condition to the public in 1998.
Fox released his new Apple TV+ documentary “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” earlier this month, and he got candid about the mental health issues that he endured while battling Parkinson’s.
He told Variety in a recent cover story: “It’s just a nice way of people letting me know they are moved by my acceptance of things and by the way that I’ve tried to make a difference.”
“But no matter how much I sit here and talk to you about how I’ve philosophically accepted it and taken its weight, Parkinson’s is still kicking my ass. I won’t win at this. I will lose. But, there’s plenty to be gained in the loss,” he sighed.
The “Teen Wolf” star has suffered from the brain disorder for over three decades and admitted that he doesn’t believe that he will live to be 80 years old.
Fox came to this realization in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” anchor Jane Pauley on April 30.
The father of four stated that his illness will one day “make the call” as to when it’s his time to go towards the white light.
“Yeah, it’s, it’s banging on the door,” Fox said. “I’m not gonna lie. It’s gettin’ hard, it’s gettin’ harder. It’s gettin’ tougher. Every day it’s tougher.”
“You don’t die from Parkinson’s. You die with Parkinson’s,” the “Spin City” actor explained. “So — so I’ve been — I’ve been thinking about the mortality of it.”
Elsewhere in the talk, Fox brought back memories of partying too hard in the 1980s with his friend Woody Harrelson.
Fox said that he and the “Cheers” alum “did some damage” during the wild decade, and the chaos could have led to his disease.
“I mean, there’s so many ways that you can … that I could’ve hurt myself,” he said. “I could’ve hit my head. I could’ve drank too much at a certain developmental period.”
“Most likely, I think, is that I was exposed to some kind of chemical,” he said. “What we say is that genetics loads the gun and environment pulls the trigger.”
