Jania Ashlynn
Fox delivered a powerful speech when he received the Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2023 Museum of the Moving Image Spring Awards. The actor discussed his documentary, most specifically his careful choice in director Davis Guggenheim.
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The Perfect Choice
Fox said in his speech that he wanted Guggenheim to tell his story not because of the director’s extensive experience, but because they handled the topic with grace and without pity.
“I didn’t know Davis,” Fox shared, stating that he knew of him through Elisabeth Shue, who starred alongside Fox in the Back to the Future franchise.
He talked about his initial interaction with Guggenheim. “He said, ‘I’ve been reading your books and I realized, I want what you have.’ And I said, ‘You know I have Parkinson’s?’”
In Fox’s documentary, he reminisces on his life, career, and Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. He mentioned his other conversations with Guggenheim and how they led to his “wife’s beautiful porch in the vineyard,” where they had many conversations about “life, art, acting, film, Parkinson’s and family.”
Film and Family
Fox cited a singular reason for selecting Guggenheim to direct his documentary: anyone else that offered to direct the documentary about Fox’s life and diagnosis would start “crying” before they approached him.
“But Davis got it – which is that this is my life and I have so many great things in my life,” continued. “I don’t have a weepy, sad life. I have this thing that happened [to me] that really sucks, but put me in a position to do other things that were effective and have perhaps made things better.”
Fox shared his love for “film and this community” and how his recent guest roles in Boston Legal and Rescue Me were “really fun” because he could find the Parkinson’s in the character.”
