The characters that Michael J. Fox has portrayed have always been popular. Even if they weren’t lovable, most of us couldn’t help but like him. In Family Ties, Alex P. Keaton was his parent’s, and sisters’, biggest nightmare, but when push came to shove, he had a heart. The role propelled him to 80’s teen superstar, even though he was over 21 when he started playing the high school uber-Republican. Marty McFly, his character in the Back to the Future franchise, started out as kind of a goofy jerk, but ended up a hero. And Fox’s Mike Flaherty in Spin City was certainly more likeable than his successor, Charlie Crawford, played by Charlie Sheen.

So, after years of being the good guy in everything, Fox is enjoying his turn as a bad guy in Rescue Me. Fox takes on an even bigger challenge physically, playing paralyzed. Michael was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease almost 20 years ago, a degenerative nerve disorder which can cause tremors.

“The funny part is me playing a paralyzed guy because I am the opposite of paralyzed,” he tells Entertainment Tonight in an interview airing this evening. “It’s tricky just to even just to be still.”

The character is a far cry from the good guys Michael usually plays on screen, which will be another stretch for the veteran actor, one he’s looking forward to.

“[Dennis Leary] called me up and described [the character],” he says. “He is really dark and misanthropic. He’s bitter and nasty. It’s really fun.”

[From OK! Magazine]

Many actors have said how much more interesting it is to play complexly negative characters but it has to be especially fun for someone like Fox. Having been typecast his entire career as the annoying but lovable guy next door, it could be cathartic to play a jerk, release his inner demons in character, so to speak. Only, Michael J. Fox doesn’t seem to have inner demons.

Although the beloved actor has been struggling with the disease for a long time, Michael has remained optimistic about his condition, saying he’s “pretty good all things considered,” and penning Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist, due out this spring.

“If you’re never down you’ll never know how good it feels to be up,” he tells ET. “It’s a great ride and I wouldn’t change a thing. I love my life for whatever difficulties there are.”

[From OK! Magazine]

Fox could rightfully feel bad about the hand he’s been dealt, so you have to respect the indomitable spirit he seems to have. Michael and his wife, Tracy Pollan, whom he met when she played his girlfriend on Family Ties, have four kids who grew up watching their father fight Parkinson’s. I’m sure they had alot to do with Fox’s choice to look at things in the most positive light.

Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 and established the Michael J. Fox Foundation to support research for the disease. He is an ardent and outspoken advocate for stem cell research as a means to cure Parkinson’s and other diseases.

Michael J. Fox, his wife of 20 years, Tracy Pollan, and their daughter Schuyler Frances, 13, are shown at a benefit for the Michael J Fox foundation on 11/5/08. They have three other children: son Sam, 19, daughter Aquinnah who is Shuyler’s twin, 13, and daughter Esmé, 7. Credit: WENN.