Michael J. Fox says he turned down a role in Ghost: ‘I Could Be An Idiot Too’

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Michael J. Fox I may have communicated with the dead FrightenedBut she almost starred another blockbuster about languid souls.

The actor said he turned down a role in the 1990 romantic thriller Evil spiritstarred in Patrick Swayze as a murdered banker whose soul wanders to protect his partner (semi-swamp) from those responsible for his death. “I don't see how it will work,” Fox said. Diversity In a cover interview published Thursday. “It just goes to show that I can be stupid too.”

Fox didn't elaborate on which roles he was up for, but by the time the Oscar-nominated film debuted, he already had several high-profile titles lined up, including the first two back to the future movies, teen wolfAnd casualties of War, It was around the same time, in 1991, that Fox received a diagnosis of early-onset Parkinson's, at age 29.

Michael J. Fox

Terry Wyatt/Getty Images Michael J. Fox

Fox said, “It's such a bad disease.” “I didn't want to think about it. I didn't want to deal with it. It didn't fit my story. I just shut up.”

Fox's decades-long battle with Parkinson's, a disorder that affects the nervous system and can cause tremors and balance problems, seen in upcoming Apple + documentary Still: A Michael J. fox movie From director Davis Guggenheim. Just don't call it a Parkinson's movie. Fox previously told EW it only had one request For the Guggenheim when they set out to make the film: no violins.

“He's highly scholarly,” said Fox. Guggenheim said, “We're not going to put him in a box as a disabled person. We're not going to say, ‘Oh, poor Michael.' And see break that expectation right away, right from the beginning of the movie.

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The doctor instead delivers a message of hope and perseverance. “I see how Michael behaved [his diagnosis], and it gave me a way to move forward,” Guggenheim said. “It could be Parkinson's, it could be cancer, it could be work, it could be whatever. But that's the appeal for me; It is a universal story. The pitch was: What happens when a hopeless optimist confronts a terminal illness?'”

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