Credit: NBCMichael J. Fox sat down with Variety yesterday to promote the new documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, made by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim.
Still explores the life of the incredible actor and Parkinson’s advocate, reminding us of his comedic roots and how he got where he is today.
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During the interview, Fox took a look back over his life himself, talking about some of the biggest projects he was part of. One of the productions he spoke about was Family Ties, the big break that made his career.
Family Ties was an NBC series about a family where the parents and children have opposing political viewpoints: The parents are hippie liberals, and the children are Reaganite conservatives – but they always worked out their differences by the end of each episode.
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Fox played Alex P. Keaton, oft befitted in a suit and holding a briefcase, and though his politics leaned to the right, Fox doesn’t think the character would still be a member of the Republican party today. In fact, Fox posited that Alex would have abandoned the ideology long before the January 6 attacks on the Capitol.
“He would have left. I don’t think Alex would even see Republican and Democrat now. He’d see normal people and crazy, fascist weirdos.”
But Fox’s ruminations about changes in character don’t stop at the character he played. As he mused over the way he was catapulted to fame after starring in Back to the Future, he mentioned that he doesn’t think he handled the sudden rise very well.
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He was very harsh on himself after seeing old archival footage in Still, of himself on the set of Family Ties.
“I was a jerk. You just want to slap me. You just want to go, ‘Shut up, sit down, have a Diet Coke and relax and sit in the corner.’”
His costars, however, are less likely to categorize him as a typical Hollywood brat. Actress Meredith Baxter, who played his mother on the show, had this to say:
“I don’t think he lorded it over us…when someone gets all that attention and all that heat, it’s hard for it not to go to their head. You can’t fault where that adulation takes you. “
You can watch the footage and decide for yourself in Guggenheim’s Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, out on Apple TV+ as of today.
What do you think of Michael J. Fox’s time on Family Ties? Let us know in the comments!