What was meant to be the night of his life soon turned into a nightmare for Michael J. Fox when he found himself in the presence of Princess Diana at the "Back to the Future" world premiere in London. The 1985 film was the actor’s breakout role and he was excited to bask in the glow of his newfound fame, but things went downhill when he found himself sitting next to the Princess of Wales. The 59-year-old star revisited the horrific experience Wednesday during an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."
"She was sitting next to me," Fox recalled, per Yahoo! Entertainment. "The lights go down and the movie starts and I realize I am one fake yawn and an arm stretch away from being on a date with her, which is hilarious."
At issue was that Fox desperately needed the bathroom.
"The movie started and also I had to go pee," he explained. "So for the rest of the movie, I'm sitting there, like, dying. I can't say anything to her and I can't walk away from her because I can't turn my back on her. So it was just agony it could have been the greatest night of my life but it was just a nightmare. A pee-holding nightmare."
The interview comes on the heels of the release of Fox's new book "No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality," in which he discusses his decision to retire from acting.
"The nascent diminishment in my ability to download words and repeat them verbatim is just the latest ripple in the pond," Fox writes of his battle with Parkinson's disease, according to People. "There are reasons for my lapses in memorization — be they age, cognitive issues with the disease, distraction from the constant sensations of Parkinson's, or lack of sensation because of the spine — but I read it as a message, an indicator."
Fox admitted that the days of working 12 hours a day and memorizing scripts were behind him.
"In fairness to myself and to producers, directors, editors, and poor beleaguered script supervisors, not to mention actors who enjoy a little pace, I enter a second retirement," he added. "That could change, because everything changes. But if this is the end of my acting career, so be it."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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