Michael J. Fox claims to have left acting inspired by Tarantino and an improvised scene by DiCaprio

Michael J. Fox is in full promotion of ‘Still’, his biographical documentary that has just arrived on Apple TV. Last April, after the film was presented at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), he already spoke about when the end of his life will be. In 2020 he definitively retired from acting due to Parkinson’s that he has suffered from at a very young age. Since his retirement, we have been able to witness his emotional reunion with Christopher Lloyd, he has won the Jean Hersolt Humanitarian Award at the 2023 Oscars and, last March, he once again gave a life lesson on Parkinson’s in the aforementioned documentary ‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie’, where he said he didn’t have time to feel sorry.

Now, in an interview for Empire magazine (via Variety), the actor has confessed something very curious, that it was Tarantino and DiCaprio who encouraged him to make the decision to leave the interpretation, albeit indirectly. The actor had been struggling for some time to remember his phrases on the set of ‘The Good Fight’, and then he went to see the latest Quentin Tarantino movie:

I thought of ‘Once upon a time in Hollywood’. There is a scene where Leonardo DiCaprio’s character can no longer remember his lines. He goes back to his dressing room and is yelling at himself in the mirror. just crazy. I had this moment where he was looking at me in the mirror and I thought, ‘I can’t remember anymore. Well, let’s move on. He was a peacemaker.

Those who have seen the Tarantino film will remember how Tarantino’s character has a meltdown in his dressing room after forgetting his lines and smashes various items in his trailer in a fit of rage. The most curious thing is that Tarantino declared that DiCaprio improvised the collapse:

It wasn’t actually in the script, so we never rehearsed it or anything. Leo had a whole thing inside. At some point it was like, ‘Look, I need to fuck her during the ‘Lancer’ sequence, okay? And, when I screwed up during the ‘Lancer’ sequence, I need to have a real crisis of conscience about it and I have to recover from it.

Fox also commented on Variety how ironic his career with Parkinson’s has been:

I have won more awards and had more nominations since announcing my diagnosis. People may feel bad for me, but I prefer to see it as recognition for continuing to have a legitimate career.

Of course, Fox wanted to make it very clear that there is no purely positive approach to this:

No matter how much I sit here and talk to you about how I accepted it philosophically and took its weight, Parkinson’s is still kicking my butt. I will not win in this. I am going to lose. But, there is much to be gained from loss.

Fox’s biographical documentary ‘Still’ is now available on Apple TV+.