Michael J. Fox says Parkinson's disease has not stopped him from living his life: 'I have no regrets'

Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1991 and has since opened up about living with it. At a screening of his documentary, "Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie," at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival on March 14, the 61-year-old actor described what life has been like since being diagnosed and going public with his diagnosis in 1998. According to PEOPLE, while answering questions about the film alongside director Davis Guggenheim, Fox said, "Parkinson's sucks, but it's a great life, so thank you for it."

"I have no regrets," he said of his period working after his diagnosis. "You do what you have to do, but you do not want to kill yourself. And that's when I stopped."

When asked how he "mobilized" people to care about Parkinson's, he responded, "I didn't have a choice. This is it. I have to give everything I have, and it's not lip service. I show up and do the best I can. Pity is a benign form of abuse. I can feel sorry for myself, but I don't have time for that. There is stuff to be learned from this, so let's do that and move on."

The star explained that he wants to give back to his fans by sharing his Parkinson's journey with them. "My fans have basically given me my life," Fox said. "I wanted to give these people, who have done so much for me, my time and gratitude. It was great for me to hear from all of you."

The logline of the "Back to the Future" star's documentary says that the film "incorporates documentary, archival and scripted elements, recounting Fox's extraordinary story in his own words." The film is an account of Fox’s public life "full of nostalgic thrills and cinematic gloss, [which] unspools alongside his never-before-seen private journey, including the years that followed his diagnosis with Parkinson’s."

However, Fox says that there is more to the documentary than his health journey. "David said early on, 'I want to cover Parkinson's, but I don't want to make a movie about Parkinson's.' He made a movie about life," he explained. "He made a conscientious decision not to make a movie about Parkinson's."

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight in 2021, Fox discussed his decision to go public with his diagnosis. "It was seven or eight years after I had been diagnosed... [and] the paparazzi and stuff, they would stand outside my apartment and heckle at me, like, 'What's the matter with you?'" Fox recalled. "I said, 'I can't be making my neighbors deal with this,' so I came out, and it was great. It was a great thing."

"It was a great surprise to me that people responded the way they responded," he added. "They responded with interest, in the desire to find an answer to the disease, and then I saw that as a great opportunity. I didn't get put in this position to squander it."

Fox founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research in 2000. "The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson's today," the foundation explains on its website. "In principle, it means leveraging our core values of optimism, urgency, resourcefulness, collaboration, accountability and persistence in problem-solving to work on behalf of the 6 million people worldwide living with Parkinson’s."