Michael J. Fox Reacts to Matthew Perry Calling Him His Acting Inspiration (Exclu
Michael J. Fox Reacts to Matthew Perry Calling Him His Acting Inspiration (Exclu
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00:00 To say that you're an inspiration to so many people,
00:02 I feel like is an understatement.
00:04 A lot of people throw around the word national treasure.
00:06 How do you feel when you are referred to
00:08 as a national treasure?
00:09 (laughing)
00:11 - I mean, I'm grateful for it and I love it
00:13 and I appreciate it.
00:14 And I see what people mean by it
00:16 or I see the love behind it.
00:18 And I'm really humbled by that.
00:20 But it's none of my business.
00:21 It's none of my business.
00:22 What do people think of me?
00:24 You see, I just, it doesn't,
00:26 I mean, hopefully they think I'm a nice guy
00:28 'cause I did something nice for them.
00:29 This has been an amazing journey.
00:31 It's just a privilege to be in a position
00:33 where I can not make a difference in people's lives
00:36 but activate them to make a difference in their lives.
00:39 - You also serve as an inspiration to so many
00:41 who have gone into acting.
00:43 And one most notably that I wanted to talk to you about
00:46 is the late Matthew Perry,
00:47 who once said that you were the inspiration
00:50 behind his acting aspirations.
00:52 Did he ever get a chance to tell you that?
00:54 - Matthew and I had some time together over the years.
00:57 He was a hockey player, good hockey player.
01:00 We played hockey together as fathers,
01:01 a good hockey player.
01:02 A really nice guy, I have to say,
01:03 and perhaps this is indiscreet,
01:05 but I hope he doesn't mind.
01:08 But when they first had their big sale
01:10 and whatever they did,
01:11 and they were all made billionaires for the rest of their lives
01:14 he wrote a big fat check to the foundation.
01:15 And we were really early on
01:17 and trying to find our feet.
01:19 And it was just such a tremendous vote of confidence.
01:21 And it wasn't accompanied by any self-aggrandizing or any,
01:25 just, "Tate, do your best."
01:28 And I love that.
01:29 And third of all, when I think of Matthew,
01:30 I think of he's just a funny guy.
01:32 And if I was ever as funny as he is, he's the funniest.
01:36 And I'm happy I packed him in.
01:38 He was really funny.
01:39 - It's definitely our biggest win today.
01:41 I don't say this lightly,
01:42 but it is already changing the world.
01:44 - And I have to give you and the foundation
01:46 a huge congratulations on an incredible year
01:49 of continued progress.
01:51 How excited are you tonight to celebrate
01:53 with a lot of friends near and dear to your heart?
01:56 - It's great to be here with all my friends.
01:57 It's a great thing of your choice and I enjoy it so much.
01:59 It really is a chance to not only raise money
02:01 for the foundation, but also to celebrate what we've done,
02:05 celebrate the support that these people have given us
02:07 to a degree that's unbelievable.
02:10 So especially this year when we were marking some progress,
02:13 it's really worthwhile and substantial.
02:15 It's great to have them here.
02:17 It's great to party.
02:17 - The foundation announced an enormous breakthrough
02:20 with the promise of better drug development and care.
02:23 How crucial is that to treatment?
02:27 - Anytime your diagnosis of Parkinson's
02:29 is based on a clinical series of tests,
02:32 not on a drug driving test.
02:35 And that and some other things.
02:36 I mean, I'm quite confident in the majority of diagnoses,
02:39 but it still is purely clinical.
02:43 But now we have something biological,
02:45 depending on which is much more precise,
02:47 which is a protein called alpha-synuclein,
02:50 which folds, misfolds,
02:51 and is really the root of all the problems.
02:54 But there are like five or six or seven or eight
02:56 or more indicators of Parkinson's.
02:59 But this is one that's consistent throughout,
03:01 so we were able to narrow it down to that one thing.
03:04 When I was diagnosed, I had a twitching pinky.
03:07 Well, by the time that pinky was evident,
03:10 that there was a problem with it,
03:11 a great majority of my dopamine-producing cells
03:13 were already gone.
03:14 So what this gives us an opportunity to do
03:16 is identify the disease before there are any symptoms,
03:19 perhaps years in advance of the sign of any symptoms.
03:22 So therefore, we can,
03:24 now that we've created an exciting target
03:26 for drug companies,
03:27 they'll fill the void with new research
03:29 and find a way to treat that early on,
03:32 in any case, early on.
03:34 You can technically have Parkinson's,
03:36 but never have any symptoms of it,
03:37 never have any progression.
03:38 - You know, you mentioned, of course, the progress
03:40 and how much of a game changer it has been.
03:42 Do you ever wonder how different your battle
03:46 with Parkinson's would have been
03:47 if maybe these advancements would have been around
03:49 at the beginning of your diagnosis?
03:51 - Well, certainly, again, it would have been,
03:53 it would have been a matter of,
03:56 what we did was respond to my symptoms
03:58 and do tests based on the fact that
03:59 I was exhibiting symptoms
04:01 and drive to a conclusion based on
04:03 the prevalence and the powerful quality of those symptoms.
04:07 But, for example, if it was just a matter of an eye swab,
04:10 you got, or a nose swab, you got at your doctor's
04:14 once a year, or a blood test that,
04:17 identify a biomarker, a biological marker,
04:20 whether it's a swab, a blood test, whatever, a spinal tap,
04:25 that we know then that we're treating Parkinson's
04:28 before there's ever any sign that there's Parkinson's.
04:31 So, therefore, I would have been,
04:33 in that world, in that scenario,
04:34 probably at 18 would have had a swab
04:38 and they would have said,
04:39 "Oh, we see something here biologically
04:41 "that makes this likely to be a Parkinson's."
04:44 It would have been a different scenario altogether.
04:46 - It must make you, looking back now,
04:48 to even more proud that you and your foundation
04:51 are that vehicle to changing.
04:55 - I'm proud of the foundation.
04:56 I'm proud of the people that work with us and for us
04:58 and the families that support us and benefit from our work.
05:02 And it's like, I whispered into the woods
05:04 and owls came flying out full of wisdom.
05:07 It just was amazing, the response that I had
05:10 on a personal level when I outlined
05:14 and articulated this mission.
05:16 And they've stuck with us all the way
05:18 and they've pushed for every advance we've made.
05:21 So, I'm proud, I'm not proud of me.
05:23 I just showed, I just had to twitch my pinky one day.
05:26 But some people did really some heroic work
05:29 and I'm grateful for them.
05:31 - You recently said that Parkinson's is a gift for you.
05:35 How so?
05:36 - Well, it's a gift in that it clears the deck
05:37 of all the BS.
05:39 It really gets all that stuff out of your life
05:40 and you start to see that things are important,
05:42 like your family and your health
05:43 and your career and your obligation
05:48 and opportunity to serve.
05:49 So, it was a tremendous gift in that sense.
05:53 It was, the thing that I would say at the end of that
05:55 is it's a gift that keeps on taking.
05:57 So, it keeps on taking regardless how chipper I am about it.
06:01 I've been so lucky that my family is extraordinary
06:04 and my wife is extraordinary and my kids are extraordinary.
06:07 I've been married for 36 years, almost 36 years.
06:09 And my kids are amazing 'cause they,
06:11 they didn't even take it in a lot through their childhood.
06:14 I mean, it was just who I was and how I behaved
06:17 and how I moved and how I responded to things
06:19 and how it triggered my activity in the world.
06:23 That's the thing I'm most proud of
06:25 is that they're all very philanthropic, all very activist.
06:28 So, it's been great to see that develop in them
06:30 and if in some way this is due to my experience,
06:33 then I couldn't be prouder.
06:34 - Does it make you to think of like the bigger picture
06:37 that you were almost meant to be this person
06:40 who helps create so much change
06:42 and eventually save so many other lives?
06:45 - Well, I'm very careful with that stuff.
06:47 You know, meant to be, should have happened,
06:49 was for a reason, that's none of my business.
06:53 I just showed up, it happened to me.
06:55 I saw an opportunity, given what I did for a living,
06:58 to make an impact.
06:59 I talked to a lot of people
07:00 that were able to articulate an impact to me
07:02 that was needed, a push, a profile, an energy.
07:07 And I was able to provide that
07:09 because again, things that have been given to me,
07:11 it's an endless thing.
07:13 When I was given this wonderful life,
07:14 this wonderful career,
07:16 and met this wonderful woman, had this great family,
07:19 I can't take credit for any of that,
07:20 but it's made it a lot easier.
07:22 - You recently said that you are not afraid
07:24 to run out of gas and that you don't fear death.
07:27 Now, that is a huge feat in itself
07:29 to get to that place of acceptance.
07:31 How did you get there?
07:32 - I make up little things to keep myself amused.
07:35 Like, if you imagine the worst case scenario
07:38 and it actually happens, you've lived it twice.
07:41 That stuff is maybe my business.
07:43 When I die, when I have some kind of Parkinsonian
07:46 related thing, or I step in front of a bus,
07:47 it's all dead.
07:49 I don't know what's on the other side of it.
07:51 So I enjoy this side of it.
07:53 I enjoy the family I have and the friends I have
07:55 and the opportunity I have to do good work.
07:58 (upbeat music)
08:02 (upbeat music)
08:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]