Davis Guggenheim (‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie’ director) on striking the right tone between the hilarious and heartbreaking moments of Fox’s life [Exclusive Video Interview]
When making “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” director Davis Guggenheim wanted to make sure he got the right tone to come across in the movie. He wanted to subvert people’s intentions in the beginning by first showing Fox getting out of bed and doing his morning routine including getting out of bed and brushing his teeth making many think it will be a depressing look at a man falling apart. “The next line is…I said, ‘Is this a sad sack story of a movie star that gets Parkinson’s and it crushes him?’ He takes this long pause and he goes, ‘That’s boring,’ and that tone comes from Michael,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent Meet the Experts: Film Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video interview above).
“Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” was released in May and can currently be streamed on Apple TV+. The film looks at what the life of Michael J. Fox is like nearly 30 years following his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease. It also chronicles his life growing up in Canada, dropping out of high school to pursue an acting career in Los Angeles, landing roles on “Family Ties” and “Back to the Future,” his marriage to Tracy Pollan and how he reacted to his diagnosis. Guggenheim comes to this project with an accomplished filmography that includes winning the 2006 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for “An Inconvenient Truth.”
While Fox and his family were very open and blunt about their experiences in the film, there was one moment where Guggenheim thought that Fox might try to take out a specific part that didn’t reflect well on him. While screening the final cut of the movie, there’s a noticeable clip where the Emmy winner is acting like a jerk on the set of “Family Ties” following the success of “Back to the Future” and “Teen Wolf.” “He says, ‘You know the footage you have of me being a total asshole?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh no. We’re gonna have an argument about this.’ And he goes, ‘Where did you find that? I love that!’ To me, that’s a sign that there’s something special about him.”
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