Michael J. Fox Reacts to Matthew Perry Calling Him His Acting Inspiration (Exclu

WORLD ENTERTAIMENT CHANNEL

Transcript

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]

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