Woody Harrelson, a 'drunken melee' and the moment that changed Michael J Fox's life forever
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Apple TV+ documentary 'Still: A Michael J Fox Movie' is full of many revelations as it shows viewers the debilitating journey through which Michael J Fox has been going through since his diagnosis with Parkinson’s Disease in the 1990s when he was just 29 years old. While the documentary is revisiting many new facts, there are several new revelations too. One of them is about the day when the ‘Back to the Future’ star first had his Parkinson’s diagnosis and how Woody Harrelson was involved in it.
Michael J Fox was partying hard with Woody Harrelson the night before he realized the presence of his life-defining disease. In the documentary, while reminiscing about the day, Fox says, "I woke up with a ferocious hangover... I noticed my pinky, auto-animated. For Christ's sake, it's just your freaking finger. But it wasn't mine. S**t. It was somebody else's. Had I hit my head?”
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He continues, “The tape of the previous night's events was grainy at best.” However, he remembered there was a presence of Woody Harrelson on the night before, “Woody Harrelson was in the bar the night before. Maybe we'd had one of our legendary drunken fights?”
However, the ‘Stuart Little’ actor could not remember any “drunken fights” as the narration goes, “But I couldn't recall any such melee. I did recall how my bodyguard had to prop me up against the doorframe as he fumbled the key to my suite. But I didn't feel any bumps. F**k. In the face of all evidence to the contrary, I was in an acid bath of fear and professional insecurity."
‘The cosmic price I had to pay for all my success’
The ‘Family Ties’ actor continued, "The trembling was a message. The most paranoid fantasy I could think of could not have prepared me for the two words the neurologist bludgeoned me with that day — Parkinson's disease.”
Michael J Fox, the boy from British Columbia who dreamt big enough to make it a reality in Hollywood, also took the same approach as most of the mortals - denial. As he spoke further, “I said, 'You know who you're talking to, right? I'm not someone who's supposed to get this.' He said some more words like, 'progressive, degenerative, incurable.' He said, 'You lose this. You lose this game. You don't win this'. I remember standing on the street looking for an answer. My world blew up. I should've seen it coming, the cosmic price I had to pay for all my success," reports Marca.
‘I enter a second retirement’
He was given an estimate of hardly 10 years of career. However, defying all odds, he carried on with his career and even flourished in it. Shows like ‘Spin City’, ‘The Michael J Fox Show’, and 'Designated Survivor’, which cemented his fame in Hollywood, in fact, came out after his diagnosis. Almost 30 years after his initial diagnosis, Fox finally announced his retirement from acting in 2020.
Fox wrote in his fourth memoir, ‘No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality’, published in 2020, “There is a time for everything, and my time of putting in a 12-hour workday, and memorizing seven pages of dialogue, is best behind me … I enter a second retirement. That could change, because everything changes. But if this is the end of my acting career, so be it,” as quoted in The Hollywood Reporter.
Michael J Fox’s history of alcoholism
Getting diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the age of 29 had a huge toll on the actor’s life as often used to remain drunk to forget his sorrow about missed opportunities in life. However, at one point, he realized he had had enough and decided to forgo alcohol, as he said, "In the end, I understood that I could get rid of that, but not Parkinson's disease," reports Marca.
The honorary Oscars
You may call it the mechanism of fate or divine intervention, but the person who was with Fox the night before his diagnosis was also the person who handed him the honorary Academy Award for humanitarian work. It was Woody Harrelson who handed Fox the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award during the 13th annual Governors Awards in 2022.
Before presenting the award, Harrelson recalled, “Michael J Fox has brought understanding, empathy and determination to his cause, inspiring millions to stand a little longer and speak a little stronger. And hold on a little tighter to something humanity needs much more of, hope.” The ‘True Detective’ actor further said, “I was at a party in Hollywood — I don’t remember the details — but it was the mid-1980s, of course I was in the kitchen where all good parties end. I stepped outside to get some air and suddenly I came back and it seemed like everyone in there evaporated. But everyone was sitting in the living room watching a television program."
He continued, “So I stopped and looked, there was a high school student and he was electric," and added, "What he could do with a look or a pause, I was watching a phenomenon in the making. I think I’m pretty funny, and really funny when I’m high. But this guy was a masterclass in comedy. That was my first encounter with Michael J Fox.”
As reported by MEAWW, the ‘Lost in London’ star then added, “A year or two later he did Back To The Future, he was the biggest star in the world, and we had a Cheers Christmas party and he came over and he was incredibly kind – he loved the show and my character – he has this amazing ability to turn the tables and make others feel good. I’ve seen him do this so many times in so many years, Mike is a really great guy, what can I say – he’s Canadian. We had a nice chat and he got up on stage and did his solo from BTTF, everyone on the cast felt very happy to witness this. Apart from a lady who had no Christmas spirit and promptly kicked him out, and that woman became my wife – sorry cheap joke!”