Exclusive: Michael J. Fox
RAHNI SADLER: At the age of 29, at the height of his fame, Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
RAHNI SADLER: G'day, Michael.
Michael J. Fox: Hey, g'day.
RAHNI SADLER: How are you?
Michael J. Fox: Good, thank you.
RAHNI SADLER: I'm Rahni.
RAHNI SADLER: Michael is now 50.
RAHNI SADLER: Please sit down.
RAHNI SADLER: He rarely gives interviews and when he does, he takes medication beforehand to steady the shaking.
RAHNI SADLER: How are you feeling today? You alright?
RAHNI SADLER: He can never guarantee when it will kick in. You ready to go now?
Michael J. Fox: Yeah, I, you know. When you have Parkinson's, you deal with what you call on-offs — and when you're on, it's great and, like, I'm on right now. I don't care what it looks like but it's comfortable. I can sit and be still and I can speak coherently and don't have cognitive issues that come with being interrupted by tremors. But I can just as easily be off.
RAHNI SADLER: In recent years, Michael has embraced his Parkinson's in TV roles.
RAHNI SADLER: But the biggest challenge of his life is off-screen. It's his quest for a cure. And now the actor-turned-advocate has a new partner - Australian father-of-3, Clyde Campbell.
Clyde Campbell: Am I going to be Clyde That's Got Parkinson's or am I gonna be Clyde That Does Something About Parkinson's?
Michael J. Fox: I wouldn't put it past an Aussie to figure it out.
Clyde Campbell: G'day, buddy. Good to see you, mate.
Michael J. Fox: Hey, buddy.
RAHNI SADLER: Working together, their plan is to cure the disease.
Michael J. Fox: He has no other agenda than to cure Parkinson's. That's all he wants to do is cure Parkinson's, and...
Clyde Campbell: Then we can all go home then.
Michael J. Fox: We can all go home. Yeah, yeah.
RAHNI SADLER: In the '80s and '90s, Michael was living a Hollywood dream...
.starring in some of the biggest movies and TV shows of the time.....a teen wolf and a teen pin-up. His big break as Alex P. Keaton on 'Family Ties' came in 1982 and it came in the nick of time. By the time you got to 'Family Ties' you were really on skid row?
Michael J. Fox: Yeah, I was broke. When I was negotiating the deal
for it, my phone service was cut off so I was using a pay phone at a chicken, fast food chicken place in my neighbourhood. And I was passing it off as my phone, it was like my office. And so I was on the phone negotiating this contract for, like, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
RAHNI SADLER: In 1985, Michael was in such high demand, he was juggling jobs,
shooting 'Family Ties' during the day and 'Back to the Future' at night. The blockbuster of the year was rewarded with a royal screening with Princess Diana.
Michael J. Fox: I sat right next to her and it was really exciting and cool
except that as soon as the movie started, I had to go to the bathroom and it was instant and it was urgent but they'd just gone through the rules with me
that I couldn't speak to her unless she spoke to me first and I couldn't stand up unless she stood up. Having to pee the whole time and so, I just sat there for two hours so, sitting with, like, being on a date with the princess at the movies was destroyed by the fact I was just filling up, my eyes were getting watery.
RAHNI SADLER: By now, Michael was Hollywood royalty.
Michael J. Fox: I had five cars, you know, it was crazy.
RAHNI SADLER: You were riding high. You were at the height of your fame.
You felt basically that you were pretty damn good at that time.
Michael J. Fox: Yeah, it was a charmed life. It was just a charmed life.
RAHNI SADLER: It was around this time that Michael met actress Tracy Pollan
on the set of 'Family Ties'. She had a small part.....and he was the big star
with the out-of-control ego.
Michael J. Fox: We had all gone separately for lunch and came back from lunch
we were doing a scene and she literally walked in the door to a scene, from the entrance, and I opened the door and she'd said her line to me and I could smell garlic so I just said, "Whoa, scampi for lunch, babe?"
RAHNI SADLER: You were being a bit of smart arse.
Michael J. Fox: I was being a smart ass.
Michael J. Fox: And she said, she said that I was being rude and "You were a complete and total (BLEEP) asshole." And I was like, "Wow. No-one ever talked to me like that" and you know what? She was right. And I fell in love.
RAHNI SADLER: In 1988, they married. A year later, they had their first child, a boy called Sam. In 1991, Michael was shooting 'Doc Hollywood'. And was during 'Doc Hollywood' that you saw the first sign.
Michael J. Fox: Yeah, my pinkie started to twitch. My hand would shake and I was developing these symptoms and I went to a neurologist and he diagnosed me
and I was 29 years old and I didn't see it coming.
RAHNI SADLER: You were in denial, weren't you?
Michael J. Fox: Oh, yeah. I thought it was B.S. There was no way I could have Parkinson's.
RAHNI SADLER: You said like with everything else you were looking for an angle, you were looking for a way out.
Michael J. Fox: Yeah. I thought it was negotiable. "Call my agent, can you get me out of this?" This can't happen to me!
Michael J. Fox: Who do I have to screw to get off this picture?
RAHNI SADLER: Being diagnosed with Parkinson's at 29 is extremely rare — most patients are over 50. Michael's first response was to drink heavily.
Michael J. Fox: I struggled with it and tried to bury it in drinks at first
because it was just so -I couldn't get my head around it.
RAHNI SADLER: You were heading in a bad direction.
Michael J. Fox: One day I just woke up on the couch, sun beating on my face
and my son crawling on me and trying to wake me up. And I look up at Tracy
and I just - she was not mad, she was not upset, she was just bored of it.
And that was the scariest thing in the world and I just knew I've gotta change this, now.
RAHNI SADLER: No-one knows what triggers Parkinson's but more than 80,000 Australians have it. Neurons in the brain are damaged and it causes tremors,
loss of balance and impaired speech.
RAHNI SADLER: For a long time, seven years, Michael kept it secret. He continued to act, hiding the symptoms for as long as he could. At home, his family was growing but his condition was worsening. Michael and Tracy
have four children.
Michael J. Fox: If you are that loved and you're that supported...
Tracy: You gonna cry?
Michael J. Fox: Yeah.
RAHNI SADLER: Michael's decision to go public in 1998 gave those suffering
from the disease a powerful voice. He started a foundation bringing together the world's best research and providing funding for the most promising studies. In 12 years, it's raised $US285 million.
Michael J. Fox: Room full of smart people.
RAHNI SADLER: Michael has done more for Parkinson's than any other patient.
Michael J. Fox: I just wanted to, a couple of things - my meds were kicking in about 10 minutes ago and I was feeling great and the bottom dropped out, so do something about that, will ya?
Michael J. Fox: When you get famous and you have some lucky breaks and all of a sudden, it's all about you. And then you get a little bit older and you have an experience where it can be difficult with trying experiences like Parkinson's or whatever and then you realise it's not all about you and it's so liberating.
Bill Murray: There's a lot of pressure to do something correctly.
Michael J. Fox: You want to talk about pressure, try taking up golf in your 40s with Parkinson's. It's important to find a golfing buddy with a sense of humour, like my friend Bill Murray.
RAHNI SADLER: Once Michael J. Fox sets a goal, nothing gets in his way.
Bill Murray: It's just the excitement of, "where could this go next?" "Where could this ball go?" More than anyone I've ever played with.
RAHNI SADLER: Your goal is to put your foundation out of business?
Michael J. Fox: Yeah, we're a business without a business. Our bottom line is, is, is "What can we do today? "Who can we find today "who's going to get us closer to what we trying to get done?"
Clyde Campbell: Did you enjoy that today, girls?
GIRLS: Yep.
Clyde Campbell: What did you enjoy the most?
Girls: Saying Dad was crazy.
Clyde Campbell: Saying Dad was crazy!
RAHNI SADLER: Clyde and Carolyn Campbell, kids Josh, Zoe and Phoebe are new recruits to Michael's global search for a cure. Clyde is a self-made millionaire from Sydney. His Parkinson's symptoms surfaced two years ago.
Clyde Campbell: 60 of us in a meeting. I was about two minutes into the opening address as CEO for the company and I started to shake. The papers I held in my hand started to tremble - which is really unusual for me - so half the brain saying, "Deliver the speech, tough it up, "get through." The other half of the brain's going, "What the hell's happening here?" The hardest moment was telling the kids. Zoe spoke about it at a speech at the school 12 months later. She said, "Whenever Dad calls us together as a team... "..there's normally something wrong."
Zoe Campbell: He told us he had Parkinson's and I was very shocked. And the next day I asked him if that meant he was going to die 'cause I thought everybody with a disease died. But he said, "No, it's just a disease that makes me shake."
RAHNI SADLER: Can I ask you, you are very optimistic but are you a little bit frightened for the future?
Carolyn Campbell: Um.....there is an element there's absolutely an element but... ..sorry. This is one of those moments.
Clyde Campbell: You right?
Carolyn Campbell: Yep, I'm good.
Good.
Clyde Campbell: RAHNI SADLER: So you didn't want to be a victim?
Clyde Campbell: I didn't want to be a sook about it. For myself, it was all about how to find a cure. His search for the scientists closest to a cure
led Clyde to New York City and to a man with just as much drive and determination to solve the riddle of Parkinson's disease.
Michael J. Fox: Hey you buddy.
Clyde Campbell: Good to see you, mate.
Michael J. Fox: Good to see you. How you doing?
Clyde Campbell: Yeah, really well.
RAHNI SADLER: Clyde and Michael are now working together on a groundbreaking study called PPMI...
Michael J. Fox: We're really excited about having a presence in Australia.
RAHNI SADLER:..looking for the trigger that causes Parkinson's. That's the key to finding a cure. It involves extensive medical tests on patients in the US, Europe and Australia.
Clyde Campbell: It's the biggest research project the Fox Foundation have ever done. $US45 million worth of funding internationally. And what it is, it's benchmarking Parkinson's so we understand the progression of Parkinson's disease. That doesn't sound that sexy but it's incredibly valuable.
RAHNI SADLER: So you find Clyde motivational?
Clyde Campbell: Oh, absolutely. He could, he could sit back and just, he can afford to live a private life and to not get involved and to just deal with himself and just deal with his own issues but, but Clyde's enthusiasm
and his purity of motive is contagious.
Michael J. Fox: Finding a cure for Parkinson's - we all have to work together.
RAHNI SADLER: You've got no doubt you're going to find a cure for Parkinson's?
Michael J. Fox: Oh yeah, we're going to get it done because we're looking under every rock and up every tree.
RAHNI SADLER: If you could go back in time, really, you wouldn't change the fact that you got Parkinson's, would you?
Michael J. Fox: No, I wouldn't, I absolutely wouldn't. I wouldn't at all
because this path that I'm on is so amazing.
RAHNI SADLER: Your nana told you you were destined for greatness.
Michael J. Fox: Yeah.
RAHNI SADLER: Do you think maybe this is what nana was referring to?
Michael J. Fox: It may have been, it may have been because this, certainly, I would say I gave up my job to do my life's work.
Michael J. Fox: This is going to be the best shot of the day.
Bill Murray: Wow, that was the best shot of the day.
Michael J. Fox: Optimist.
Bill Murray: Nice.
