In 2020, Michael J. Fox announced that he was retiring from acting, but it ended up not being a permanent decision. Along with his voice role in Zootopia 2 a few months ago, the Back to the Future star has now made his onscreen acting return in Shrinking, which premiered its third season on the 2026 TV schedule this week. This wasn’t the first time that Fox has gone back on deciding to leave acting behind him, and he explained why he decided to return again to take part in the Apple TV subscription-exclusive series.
Fox is guest-starring in Shrinking Season 3 as Gerry, a Parkinson’s patient who befriends Harrison Ford’s Dr. Paul Rhoades, who has the same disease. After being impressed by Shrinking’s first two seasons, Fox reached out to show creator Bill Lawrence, whom he worked with on Spin City and Scrubs, to delicately ask “Bill, why the fuck am I not on the show?” That paved the way for his performing comeback, and when asked by The Los Angeles Times how he it was to arrive at the decision, Fox answered:
It was non-emotional and kind of OK. I was doing ... ‘The Good Fight’ — I confused it with Kiefer [Sutherland’s] show [‘Designated Survivor’] because both shows, I had similar issues. They’re both very legal. I’d have to read screeds of legalese. I couldn’t get it. When I did ‘The Good Fight,’ I had just seen one of my favorite movies, ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,’ and there was a great scene where Leo [DiCaprio] goes back in his room and just lays into himself in the mirror and just goes insane and drinking and crying at his lack of ability to memorize lines and I found myself, similarly, in front of a mirror and I went: Meh!
Now it should be noted that Michael J. Fox wasn’t entirely offscreen during his five-year retirement. He was the subject of the 2023 documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, which is also available on Apple TV. But back in 2020, after he’d finished his stints on as Louis Canning on two episodes of The Good Fight, Fox decided that he just didn’t have the drive to memorize lines and perform anymore. As he recalled:
‘I can’t do it. I can’t do this anymore.’ So, let’s just get this puppy done as best I can and ... move on with my life. So that’s what I did. I flashed back to back in the early aughts when you were doing ‘Scrubs’ and you called me up and asked me if I would do something. I thought, ‘Well, I retired.’
Michael J. Fox had already well cemented himself as a cherished Hollywood talent by the time he exited Spin City, not only for playing Marty McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy and Alex Keaton in Family Ties, but also for movies like Teen Wolf and Doc Hollywood. It’s not like he would have been forgotten if he never returned to acting, but he agreed to play Dr. Kevin Casey on two episodes of Scrubs, and that launched a new chapter of his career. Fox continued:
I had retired from ‘Spin City’ and I didn’t really want to do anything, and I did the show and I loved it and [had] all these great offers for things — I discovered this new niche, which is do characters that had some kind of flaw and taking my Parksinsonian issues and translate that into cancer on ‘Boston Legal’ and a form of Parkinsonism on ‘The Good Wife.’ But I saw Billy’s show, and I just thought, it’s fantastic.
I won’t go into spoilers about Michael J. Fox’s role in the Shrinking Season 3 premiere, though if that last scene made you nervous, don’t worry, you’re not alone. The good news is that Fox will reprise Gerry later on in the season, and the actor is clearly pleased with how well the character is written. He wrapped up this portion of the interview saying:
The depth of character, the quality of relationships, the language — it’s just a beautiful show. And I thought, just do that for its own sake. I don’t have an agenda. Don’t have to be coming back into acting or anything. It’ll be fun. And there’s Harrison Ford, which is insane.
I hope that Michael J. Fox doesn’t announce another acting retirement, and not only because that hasn’t worked out the last few times. As he said, it’s not like he has to fill his plate back up with movie and TV jobs, especially taking into account his Parkinson’s, but at least leave the door open for a gig here and there. And hey, by the time Shrinking Season 3 concludes in a few months, maybe we’ll know if Fox will be back for the recently announced fourth season.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
