Name: Michael J. Fox On Meeting Steven Spielberg And Ronald Reagan | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-05-11T22:28:32.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Michael J. Fox On Meeting Steven Spielberg And Ronald Reagan | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-05-11. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Michael J. Fox On Meeting Steven Spielberg And Ronald Reagan | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-05-11. Transcript available.

Yeah, I got a couple of these talk show things to do,
and then I'm back in the coast.
Yeah, how's the movie doing?
Whoa, is that box office or net?
Yeah, how's the sitcom?
43 share.
OK, that's OK.
No, no, listen, you're just going to have to tell Spielberg.
I'm not prepared to make that commitment.
Excuse me, I'm sorry.
We like to try and keep that line open, if you don't mind.
Yeah, listen, I got to go.
Some guy wants to use the phone.
All right, bye-bye.
Good night.
Yeah, this is he.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Not the grinder, the hero.
Look, you screwed up one more time, pal.
You're history, you're a ghost, you're vapor.
Oh, hey, the guy better have the steak fries on him.
On him, he's got 'em?
He better have, pal.
I'd like to keep it open.
OK, here we go.
Big night.
Our first guest is doing pretty well for himself these days.
He is the star of two major, major motion pictures.
One is, of course, Back to the Future, and the other is Teen Wolf.
As well as a show on this network called Family Ties, please say hello to
Michael J. Fox.
Yes, sir.
I'm glad you have a growth, too, because I left mine on it.
You have a growth there.
Yeah.
It's about a week.
Now let's see, Teen Wolf was made actually before Back to the Future, is that
correct?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And these two things are doing amazingly well.
Back to the Future did, what, $80 million worth of business or something?
I'm not really sure.
I'm not really sure.
A huge hit, isn't it?
Yeah.
Real well.
And Teen Wolf is doing as well?
Uh, not quite as well.
It's probably doing as well, because it was made for a lot less.
So, comparatively, if you got out the calculator and figured it all out.
Now, you, so you don't really need this TV stuff anymore, do you?
This NBC?
You don't?
You're really upset with NBC.
No, no, no, no.
No, believe me.
No, I know I'm lucky to have a job.
Well, they do that all the time.
They'll put you on other bodies and stuff like that.
That's happened to you as well?
I'm a veteran of that.
Yeah.
Water off my back.
But you, you have no plans of leaving the show to be a full-time motion picture
star?
Uh, not really, no.
Yeah.
How much, now, are you contractually bound to the show for another five years
or something?
Uh, not, well, a couple of years.
But, uh, you know, it's, I like the show.
I mean, it's home.
A couple of years and then you really hold them up, right?
This is...
No, I don't know.
Possibly.
I don't know.
Um, no, I, I just, you know, I like the show and they let me do Back to the
Future so
to turn around and say, uh, adios, you know?
How, how long has the show been on the air?
Uh, we're in our fourth year.
And, and was it, uh, on the set of the show that you actually met Steven Spielberg?
Yeah.
Yeah, for the first time.
How, what was that like?
Well, there was, we have a boom man named Murray, uh, who has a, has a beard.
We always tell him he looks like Steven Spielberg.
And, and he left the show.
And then one day he was back and he was talking to our executive producer on
the set.
And I came up and said, Murray, you old bag of dirt, how you doing?
And, uh, and Gary said, you know Steven?
And I said, no.
And, uh, and that's when I met Steven Spielberg.
Did, uh, he, now he couldn't have been offended by that.
He probably thought it was funny, didn't he?
I hope so.
Yeah.
So, uh, but now I get to say Steven, you old bag of dirt.
There you go.
Uh.
Just kidding.
Steven, you're not old.
No.
Did you, uh, was it fun working with the guy?
Yeah.
I didn't get to see him too much.
I worked mostly with Bob Zemeckis.
You know, Steven would just come by every now and then.
But, uh, yeah, good guy.
Yeah.
Pretty basic.
Just a guy, you know?
Uh, and you also, you also have met other, uh, huge figures in the film
industry.
I'm here.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Um.
It didn't work.
Yeah.
I thought somebody walked in.
Um.
No, but you met, uh, Robert Redford.
Long time ago.
Yeah.
Read, read for, uh, Ordinary People five years ago.
For, for which part would that have been?
The, uh.
That was for, yeah, the one I didn't get.
Yeah, the.
So that was for, that was the Tim, the Tim man.
Yeah, the Tim.
The Tim man.
Yeah, yeah.
And what was that like meeting Robert Redford?
Uh, it was, uh.
Yeah, it was nerve wracking.
Um, uh, but he made me feel real comfortable.
He sat back and put his feet on the coffee table and flossed his teeth.
And.
He flossed his teeth?
Yeah, I felt good about it.
Wow.
Yeah.
Uh, now.
So, so, uh, what did you say when you went in there?
You had to go in and read for the guy?
Uh, yeah.
I went in and read.
Yeah.
And, uh, and, uh, of course I was so immediately relaxed that, uh.
You, now you weren't relaxed?
No.
No.
You found that his manner was off-putting?
Well, I mean, he might have had a bad day.
Yeah.
Well, what, what did he say to you?
He said, uh, thanks.
So that was it.
And that was it?
Yeah.
I didn't, I didn't, uh, bring this up.
Yeah.
Sorry, Bob, I'll still work for you though.
That's all.
Uh, and then, uh, Paul Newman?
Yeah, yeah.
Now what was he like?
He seemed like he would be a regular guy too.
He loved popcorn and, yeah, beer and stuff.
And he was great.
What was the film that, uh, you auditioned for?
That was, uh, Shadowbox.
Mm-hmm.
I got this all written.
Um.
Uh, it was a thing called Shadowbox that I had done the play.
I went in and I had all my reviews and my guitar and stuff.
And, uh, and that worked.
Yeah.
And I got it.
But then I couldn't do it because I was doing a series at the time.
So it didn't turn out anyway.
It didn't turn out.
Yeah.
But he seemed like a reasonable fellow.
He got it.
Okay.
Oh, that's very nice.
No, we're pretty sure that's Richard Dawson's body.
Because it's certainly not my body.
I think there's a lot of thought put into that.
There's no golfing at all?
There's no golfing in the show and certainly no chariot racing in the show.
Uh, but John Cougar Mellencamp will be here.
That'll be a Saturday night.
Anyway.
Oh, that's him golfing.
Yeah, maybe that's John golfing, perhaps.
Uh, how long ago were you at the White House?
Uh, two weeks ago.
For, which was this?
The, uh, reception for?
Uh, the Prime Minister of Singapore.
Uh-huh.
And who, who else was there?
Yeah, a lot of, a lot of people.
Uh, there's about a, uh, I would say about a hundred and so people.
I don't know.
Sylvester Stallone was there.
Sylvester Stallone.
Now, how are these people chosen?
I mean, who decides?
I have no idea.
I mean, a lottery or something.
I, I don't know.
They just, um, they just call people off.
And I guess when you're the president, you know, you get a pretty good shot of
them coming.
Yeah.
You know.
Uh.
I was, you know, I wasn't gonna say, uh, yeah.
I don't know.
Football game on.
Uh.
Now, I don't, I don't know this to be true, but I'm guessing you, you had not
met the president
before.
No.
No, definitely not.
And did you get to meet him this time?
Yeah, just briefly.
And, and how was that?
Are you, is, is it a reception line?
And, um, and, uh, and you go through, and we were brief, luckily I met Shirley
Temple Black.
Mm-hmm.
Before I went in the line, it was real great.
She used to be the chief of protocol.
And, uh, so she kind of told us, you know, what to do.
Yeah.
And what do you do?
What is the protocol there?
Um, just kind of, like, smile and, you know, don't, uh, say anything stupid.
And, and, uh.
It's the same protocol we use here, oddly enough.
Yeah.
They tell me every night before I come out here, smile, try not to say anything
stupid.
It's always, yeah, it says you'd be right at home.
Do you, do you meet, uh, do you meet Nancy first and then Ronald Reagan?
Yeah, you go up and then, uh, there's a lot of Marines all over the place,
which is,
you know, I guess, good.
And, uh, I'd want a lot if I was the president.
Uh, and, and then they, they, they kind of whisper in each other's ears as you're
coming
up and then you get up there and then hopefully you'll get up there at the same
time the whispers
have reached.
Now what, what are they whispering?
They're saying, okay, well this is, you know, whoever.
Or it's an identification.
Maybe they're saying, you know, check out this guy's shirt.
What an idiot.
Yeah, which in my case they probably would.
And, um.
Look at the tie on this guy.
Yeah, look at the buffoon.
Here comes that maroon from television.
And, uh, and, uh, then you get up there and, and, uh, and then they say to the
president,
um, they say, you know, Michael Fox and, and then I say hello and, and, uh, I
knew
that he had seen the movie and I was hoping that.
Teen Wolf?
Yeah.
I gotta tell, I gotta tell.
The writers, here's the, the writers in the show are so nice.
You come in the door and they make you feel so great.
I came in and, and, uh, was it Fred?
Fred, sure.
Now he's really gonna kill me.
But yeah, I came in and Fred said, uh, I love the movie.
And I said, oh, thanks very much.
And he said, yeah, so I guess you're, uh, working on a sequel.
And I said, yeah, there's talk.
And he said, yeah, is it gonna be Teen Wolf 2 or Teen Wolf's Bloody Revenge?
Yeah.
Now in my own defense, I didn't hear that joke.
I wasn't there when that joke was executed.
We would've heard it.
Yeah.
No, but anyway, uh, yeah.
So I went up and he'd seen the movie.
By the way, Fred's on a roll.
Anyway, anyway, uh, so you, he talked to you about the movie.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He liked the movie.
And, uh, and, uh, and I guess he, he wasn't quite sure that the, um, the name
of it.
But, uh, he had seen it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now do you, do you think that he really saw it or is he just being.
No, I think he did.
Did see it.
Yeah.
What was, what was the, the food like?
Food was, food was good.
Yeah.
Is it, is it like a baked chicken or is it real nice stuff?
Uh, no, it was, uh, it was veal.
It was good.
Yeah.
This is like tell all.
I've like alienated everyone.
No, no, no, no.
Alienating anybody.
But there's, see, you have to understand, Michael, that there's a, a, such a, a
tiny
percentage of American citizens.
Yeah.
Will ever get this experience.
And I'm a Canadian and I got to go.
Huh?
Yeah.
It was either me or Paul and they flipped the corner.
Uh, anyway, uh, geez, congratulations on everything.
Thank you.
It couldn't be going better for you, could it?
Yeah, it's been a fun year, yeah.
The, the show is a big hit and your two movies are still doing great business.
Right.
Geez, nice meeting you, Michael.
Nice meeting you.
Thanks for everything.
Wow.
We're going to meet Princess Gloria right after staging that end of occasion.
Thank you.