Michael J. Fox says he often 'can't stop laughing' at his Parkinson's symptoms
The actor went public with his diagnosis in 1998.
— -- Michael J. Fox has been living with Parkinson's disease for decades, but he's kept his sense of humor about it. In an interview for the April/May issue of AARP magazine, he spoke about how the condition makes him laugh.
"The truth is that on most days, there comes a point where I literally can't stop laughing at my own symptoms," he said.
Even mundane tasks that give him a little trouble are enough to entertain the actor, 55, who went public with his diagnosis in 1998. He talked about the adventures of getting coffee in the morning for himself and his wife.
"I pour a cup -- a little trouble there," Fox said. "Then I put both hands around the cup. She's watching. 'Can I get that for you, dear?' 'Nah, I got it!' Then I begin this trek across the kitchen. It starts off bad. Only gets worse. Hot java's sloshing onto my hands, onto the floor."
Fox said he and his wife of nearly 30 years, Tracy Pollan, don't let these small struggles get them down.
"There's the fact that it's 7 in the morning and this is how we begin our day -- the right way," he said. "But the thing that makes it hilarious to me is when I think of someone else watching all this and thinking, 'Poor Michael can't even get the coffee -- it's so sad!'"
The actor said he also had to learn to deal with the public perception of how "sad" his condition is.
"You deal with the condition, and you deal with people's perception of the condition," Fox said. "It was easy for me to tune into the way other people were looking into my eyes and seeing their own fear reflected back. I'd assure them that 'I'm doing great' -- because I was. After a while, the disconnect between the way I felt and the dread people were projecting just seemed, you know, funny."