Michael J. Fox: The Heroic Story of an Unlikely Hero
Next Question with Katie Couric
Katie Couric Media
4.4 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2023
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Academy-Award winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim set out to make Still, a film about Michael J. Fox, he imagined he’d be making a hybrid documentary/80s movie. What he discovered along the way, however, was something deeper: his subject is far more than an iconic mega-star — Michael is an inspiration. After decades of living with the degenerative and debilitating effects of Parkinson’s disease, Michael J. Fox reveals his personal philosophy: “With gratitude, optimism is sustainable.” Katie’s conversation with Michael and Davis is funny and revealing, and traces the highs and lows of creating a film about an incurable optimist trying to overcome an incurable disease.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Picture Miami. Picture its beaches. Picture three radio journalists assassinated in cold blood. |
| 0:09.2 | This is silenced, the radio murders. |
| 0:12.4 | You left the body there for reason. It was the calling card. It's like the mafia used to do. |
| 0:17.2 | The mastermind has never been caught. To find him, we had to go deep into a world of drugs and darkness. |
| 0:24.4 | And there were these hints of a much bigger conspiracy. |
| 0:30.8 | I'm Osvalotian. Listen to silenced, the radio murders. On the iHot radio app, Apple podcasts, |
| 0:37.5 | or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:45.2 | Hi everyone, I'm Katie Curric and this is next question. |
| 0:49.6 | So I have a confession to make. I love Michael J. Fox and I love Tracy Pollan. |
| 0:56.5 | I have known this couple for several years now. I've interviewed Michael many times through the years. |
| 1:03.6 | And I have to admit, both of them are my personal heroes. |
| 1:08.8 | But when I saw still the newly released documentary that chronicles his life, I felt like I got to know Michael |
| 1:15.7 | in a whole new way. The film is part 80s movie featuring Michael is the unlikely hero and is charming, |
| 1:23.5 | supercharged, always on the move way. But it's also such a deeply profoundly personal story |
| 1:31.4 | because it features Michael as another kind of unlikely hero as someone who's fighting a battle |
| 1:37.7 | every second of every day with Parkinson's disease. |
| 1:42.1 | And it's interesting to dance you do. And this, this, this thing that I'm doing now, |
| 1:49.6 | playing with this pill I'm moving, this time moving, and that's it. I'm finding ways to negotiate |
| 1:53.6 | with this thing that's with me all the time. And so I'm having a conversation with you, but I'm also |
| 1:59.8 | having this this record Roman wrestling that's with this monster is my brain. |
| 2:05.2 | Academy Award winning filmmaker, Davis Guggenheim, who I also admire a ton, |
| 2:10.8 | spent three years making this documentary capturing Michael struggles, |
... |
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