This story about “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” first appeared in the race start problem from TheWrap Emmy magazine.
Davis Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning director of “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Waiting for Superman,” has intimately chronicled Michael J. Fox’s meteoric rise to television and film stardom in the 1980s, followed by his shocking diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. . In keeping with Fox’s usual approach, “Still” is light rather than heavy, even as it delves into the inexorable progression of a disease about which Fox’s doctor told him, “You lose this one.”
How did you get involved with this film?
It was during COVID. I was in a rut, I hadn’t had a movie that moved me in a long time. And I read this interview with Michael in the New York Times. Of course it was funny, but his narration was so strong that I said, “I have to read his books.” And after reading his books, I went up to him and he was very open right away. All he said was: “There are no violins.” That was the only note he gave me in the three years we did this.
So does the sheet music have violins?
Well, it’s fun. I panicked. We were in the mixing stage with the composer, John Powell, who had never done a documentary before. One of my favorite parts was with a violin. [laughs] and I thought, “I hope Michael was speaking metaphorically.”
You tell Michael’s story in a variety of ways, often accompanied by his readings from his audiobooks. There are re-enactments at times, and also clips from the movies and TV shows of him that serve as a playful autobiography of sorts.
Sometimes when you’re making a movie, you’re like, “God, I hope there aren’t any battles.” But a conflict-free movie is a boring movie. AND [editor] Michael Harte and I had a battle, which was, “How do you express these moments in Michael’s life when there are no files?”
My solution was reenactments, which we shot in Vancouver. And his solution was Michael’s movies and TV shows. I would storyboard a scene for reenactments, and he would cut storyboards with images from a movie or TV show. We would go back and forth. Sometimes I won and sometimes he won. It was really complicated, and he never wanted to do this, but he would show the movie every two weeks to find out what the audience would accept. Those battles were essential.
But you also had one-on-one interviews with a very open and honest Michael J. Fox.
My first instinct was not to do any interviews. I thought it was going to be totally a recreation and archive. But I did a commercial where I was introduced to a shot where you could sit very close to a person you were interviewing. You’re like four feet away. We were looking each other in the eye and laughing, and I was asking the hard questions. It’s very intimate and raw and real in a way I didn’t imagine. And it was so good that we kept coming back to it. We did six interviews over more than a year. You see his decline in those interviews, you know?
Towards the end, you also confront him with a blunt statement: You never told me you’re in pain.
We had a whole movie, which we showed people and it was pretty good. But I saw him struggle, I saw bruises on his face, I saw pictures of him in emergency rooms, but he never talked about being in pain. So I thought: “I’m going to do one more interview. I’m going to face it. And he says, “You didn’t mention it. I’m not going to lead with that.”
You said you were stuck when you first approached Michael. Did that change over the course of this movie?
Making this film changed my life in fundamental ways. He brought joy back to my cinema. You start conducting from memory when you reach a certain age. I’m turning 60 in November, and there’s a bit of “poor me.” [Laughs] I feel more fragile, my children are leaving, I feel like my best days are behind me. And Michael’s attitude toward his own life has helped reinvigorate me. This movie has changed my life and Michael has changed my life.
Read more of the Race Begins issue here.
