Michael J. Fox covers the June 2011 issue of Good Housekeeping, on newsstands Tuesday, May 10.
Here’s what the 49-year-old actor had to share:
On coping with Parkinson’s and his attitude in life: “You know, there’s a rule in acting called ‘Don’t play the result.’ If you have a character who’s going to end up in a certain place, don’t play that until you get there. Play each scene and each beat as it comes. And that’s what you do in your life: You don’t play the result. So you get diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and you can play the result. You can go right to, ‘Oh, I’m sick.’ It took me seven years to figure out that I’m not at the result. I’m not at the result till the end. So let’s not play it. It’s not written yet. And so that’s the attitude I take in life. Another expression is ‘Act as if.’ Act as if it’s the way you want it to be, and it’ll eventually morph into that.”
On Back to the Future: “If I’m changing the channel, sometimes I’ll see them, and I’ll pause for a second. But I love that people still see it. It’s funny that a film about multigenerational relationships, characters over a span of generations, has become a film that’s been popular over a span of generations. In fact, we’re almost at the place in the future that Marty went to. Fast approaching, and there are no flying cars.”
On the takeaway he wants his kids to have: “Life is what you put into it and how much you take out of it. You put in more than is expected, and you take out less than you want. Everything is cause and effect. If you don’t move, nothing will move with you, and nothing will move toward you. And so that involves risk and also resiliency. But I think I just really want my kids to enjoy life as much as I do.”
For more from Michael, visit GoodHousekeeping.com!
