Why Michael J. Fox Returned to Acting After a 5-Year Break

Published: October 21, 2025

By Gavin Boyle

Michael J. Fox retired from acting five years ago when it became too difficult due to his Parkinson’s Disease, but he has now been able to add another role onto his resume as he portrayed a character with his same disorder.

“I said, ‘You did a show about Parkinson’s, and you didn’t call me?’” Fox recalled telling his friend Bill Lawrence after watching the first season of SHRINKING on Apple TV+. “And he said, ‘Oh, you want to do it?’ And I said, ‘I’d love to do it.’ So he said, ‘Let me think about it, see what I can do.’ So he went to work on it and came up with this concept, it’s really good.”

While this was the first time Fox was on a set in years, it ended up being easier than normal because he did not have to try to cover up the effects of his disease.

“It was the first time ever I got to show up on set, and I didn’t have to worry about am I too tired or coughing or anything,” he said. “I just do it. I was really good, because for the moments when I say, ‘I’m not going to be able to do this,’ then I say, ‘Well, I’ll just deal with how I can’t do it in the scene.’ And you get through it.”

“I tend to live on the edge of my energy,” Fox later added. “I just feel I have to. It’s a tradeoff. I want to be around for everything. I want to be active at everything, keep working, keep my partnerships going, my good friends, and enjoy my time with my family. And it’s all good; it’s so much better than it could be.”

Fox’s decision to live to the full has had major implications far beyond his own life. Since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991 at age 29, Fox has been a major advocate for studying the disease and has raised over $2 billion for medical research. This funding has led to major breakthroughs in both detection and understanding how the disease affects the body.

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“When I was diagnosed, it was like a drunk driving test,” Fox explained in 2023. “Now we can say, ‘You have this protein, and we know that you have Parkinson’s.’ It opens the gates for pharmaceutical companies to come in and say, ‘We’ve got a target and we’re going to dump money into it,’ and when they dump money into it, good things happen.”

While his fans will rejoice at having the opportunity to see him on screen again, Fox continues to live an amazing life as he puts all his energy towards not letting Parkinson’s thwart his dreams.

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