The longest-running talk show in the US, airing five times a week, The View is a must-attend event for many Hollywood stars when it comes to promoting their new projects. And so Michael J. Fox recently sat down with Whoopi Goldberg and her co-moderators. The actor-star has long since ended his career in front of the camera due to his Parkinson’s disease, but now presents one last film: “Still” is a documentary about Fox, his career in TV, film and then TV again, as well as his life with the disease. The excellent movie (4.5 stars in our review) is available to stream on AppleTV+.
While “Still” focuses on the movies Fox has made, his appearance on “The View” was about a project he made created: the legendary Hollywood romance “Ghost” with his talk show host Goldberg, who even won an Oscar for her role as a medium.
Fox didn’t think “Ghost” would work
Michael J. Fox revealed to the host that there was an opportunity to work together. He was contacted very early in the development phase of “Ghost”. But he refused, although he liked the (later Oscar-winning) screenplay. But he thought, “That’s never going to work.” He didn’t believe the script could be made into a good movie – but he was taught better and regretted it: “Then it was great, a great success. I’m a goddamn idiot.”
Incidentally, Fox was not the only Hollywood star who could not imagine that the film, directed by Jerry Zucker, known at the time for comedies such as “Top Secret!”, would become a real success. Harrison Ford, Johnny Depp, Nicolas Cage, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner, Mickey Rourke, John Travolta or Bruce Willis, who was married to leading actress Demi Moore at the time, among others, would have refused because they were not convinced.
Everyone believed that playing a ghost would not work. got in the end Patrick Swayze the part, although director Zucker long opposed it. But when he invited him to audition after the many rejections from other stars, Swayze was able to inspire. The rest is history…