Michael J. Fox knew something had changed when the lines stopped sticking.
The “Back to the Future” star has revealed that his worsening ability to memorize dialogue played a major role in his decision to step away from acting.
Fox, who has Parkinson’s disease, took a six-year break from on-camera acting before returning in Apple TV’s “Shrinking.”
He says the problem became impossible to ignore.
A new variable emerged: my ability to memorize lines. There’s a time for everything, and the time for 12-hour workdays was behind me.
The actor had already experienced the frustration during his appearance on “The Good Fight.”
He was handed lengthy legal dialogue and simply could not get it into his head.
I’d have to read screeds of legalese. I couldn’t get it.
That experience hit Fox hard enough to make him question whether acting was still something he could do.
He later found himself in front of a mirror, thinking about Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” who struggles with his own inability to memorize lines.
Fox saw himself in that moment.
I went: Meh! I can’t do it. I can’t do this anymore.
Then came “Shrinking.”
Instead of forcing Fox to hide the physical challenges he deals with, the show gave him a character that allowed him to use them, and that changed everything.
This new character allows me to show up on set as myself.
Fox said he could take how he felt on any given day and bring that into the performance.
He has also described working with Harrison Ford on the show as “insanely fun.”
After years of wondering whether he could still act, Fox has found a way back that works for him.
And this time, he does not have to pretend his body has not changed.