Michael J. Fox predicts decades of future success, and lasting legacies, for Taylor Swift and Ryan Reynolds.
The 62-year-old actor spoke with People Tuesday for the publication’s 50th anniversary issue, and was asked about who he thought would continue to remain relevant over the next 50 years.
The Back To The Future star cited the massive influence and huge platform Swift, 34, already has with her sizeable fanbase.
‘I think she’s going to be a really important person,’ Fox said of Swift, just days after 90s rocker Courtney Love called the Grammy-winning songstress ‘not important.’
Fox, who headlined films such as Doc Hollywood, The Secret of My Success and Casualties of War, noted what Swift has ‘said publicly about issues.’
Swift has lent her opinion toward political issues on occasion, such as in 2018 when she publicly opposed RepublicanSenator Marsha Blackburn’s campaign in Tennessee.
Fox said that he’s come ‘full circle’ in his thoughts on Swift, as he ‘didn’t have an opinion’ about the musical artist in the first place.
‘Now I have a wife and four kids who worship her,’ Fox said in reference to his wife Tracy Pollan, 63, and children Sam, 34, Aquinnah, 29, Schuyler, 29, and Esmé, 22.
Fox said Reynolds, 47, also stood out to him as a celebrity whocould have a long-lasting impact in the world.
‘I think Ryan Reynolds could be a really important person,’ Fox said. ‘He’s so smart, he’s so talented … he knows how to leverage things and make them succeed in other areas.’
The Deadpool leading man –who was among the celebrities who accompanied Swift to an NFL game last fall– is ‘a very philanthropic person,’ Fox said of his fellow Canadian actor.
Fox added of Reynolds: ‘I think he’s positioned to really do amazing things … God forbid I should put more weight on him, but I think he’s positioned to really do amazing things.’
He added, ‘What is it about Ryan Reynolds that everything he touches is gold? What is it about people in my position that get involved in causes and have success and progress?’
Fox – who has headed The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research since 2000 – continued, ‘You just show up and do it. And you don’t worry about what everybody thinks, what everybody says, or what you get out of that.’
Fox, who was 29 in 1991 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and went public with the information in 1998, said that he ‘didn’t think’ firstly about image or legacy in his own considerable efforts to combat the disease.
‘I wanted to work on Parkinson’s because I want a cure,’ he said. ‘I just wanted to put us in the best position to find a cure, and hopefully, I did.’
In the autumn of 2000, Fox launched the foundation which ‘is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson’s today.’
According to the foundation, it has raised more than $1 billion for the cause.
He added of Swift and Reynolds: ‘And as far as other people, I think those are two good people.’
