Although he describes himself as tough after fighting Parkinson’s disease for more than 30 years, Michael J. Fox states that one of his biggest fears is anything hurting his family. 

During a recent interview with Town and Country magazine, the Back to the Future star described himself as a “tough son of a bitch” and then said anything that puts his family in jeopardy scares him the most. He admitted that he has nightmares of falling into Tracy or one of the kids on the kids on the street, and, in return, they get hit by a bus. However, he doesn’t have a lot of fear for himself. 

“One day I’ll run out of gas,” Michael J. Fox explained. “One day I’ll just say, ‘It’s not going to happen. I’m not going out today.’ If that comes I’ll allow myself that. I’m 62 years old. Certainly, if I were to pass away tomorrow, it would be premature, but it wouldn’t be unheard of. And so, no, I don’t fear that.” 

Fox also recalled an incident that happened in 2018. After having surgery on a spinal tumor that could have paralyzed him, as well as physical therapy for a few months, the actor tripped and fell in the kitchen. He broke his arm during the fall. “I said, ‘F— lemonade. I’m out of the lemonade business,” Fox recalled his reaction to the fall. He then opened up about the experience in his book No Time Like The Future. “That was nothing,” Michael J. Fox admitted. ‘My hand got infected and then I almost lost it. It was a tsunami of misfortune.” 

Michael J. Fox Recalls Feeling Like He Was in a ‘Drunk Driving Test’ While Getting Diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease 

Meanwhile, Michael J. Fox opened up about finding out he had Parkinson’s disease. “When I was diagnosed, it was like a drunk driving test,” he explained. The actor explained how his foundation helped lead a study demonstrating how the disease can now be detected in living people by locating a specific biomarker protein. 

“Now we can say, ‘You have this protein, and we know that you have Parkinson’s,’” Fox said about the studies. “It opens the gates for pharmaceutical companies to come in and say, ‘We’ve got a target and we’re going to dump money into it.’ And when they dump money into it, good things happen.” 

Although the research is significant in finding the cure for Parkinson’s, Michael J. Fox admitted that getting the government to help fund the research wasn’t happening. “The science was ahead of the money,” he noted. “We just have to throw the money at the right people.”