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"My mother thought it was a really bad idea for me to do Back to the Future. She loved the movie, [but she was right], I got tired."
Michael J. Fox is honoring the memory of his mother Phyllis Fox.
The 61-year-old "Back to the Future" icon reminisced on happy times with his late mom while attending a reunion panel for the '80s classic at New York Comic-Con on Saturday.
Phyllis died two weeks ago on September 24 at age 92. The actor recalled a story that detailed his mother's apprehensions of him taking on "Family Ties" and "Back to the Future" simultaneously.
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View Story"I was 23 years old, and I called her, she was in Canada, and I said, 'They want me to do this Steven Spielberg movie, but I have to do it at night and I have to do Family Ties in the daytime.' And she said, 'You'll be too tired,'" Michael revealed.
He remembered assuring his mother, "I live for this kind of tired. It'll be okay." Fox continued, "To this day — well, till two weeks ago — my mother thought it was a really bad idea for me to do Back to the Future. She loved the movie, [but she was right], I got tired."
Elsewhere in the panel, Fox also opened up about keeping optimistic despite the different struggles life may bring.
"Well, in the last year I've broken my cheek, my eye socket, my hand, my elbow … my shoulder. I had a rough year of getting beat up," he confessed. "But that was really cool because it made me realize … with gratitude, it's sustainable."
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View StoryHe added, "If you can find something to be grateful for, if you can find something and say, 'Well, that's good,' … It'll always get better," he continued. "… I'm very optimistic."
According to an online obituary, the Fox family matriarch was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1929.
Her family consisted of her father Henry "Skip" Piper and mother Jane "Jenny" Piper as well as three brothers — Kenneth, Stuart and Albert — and her sister Patricia. She outlived her siblings as well as her son Mark, daughter Karen and her husband William.
She is survived by her remaining children Steve, Michael, Jackie and Kelli. Phyllis was also grandmother to nine grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and a great-great grand daughter.
According to her obituary, "Nothing made her happier than watching her family grow."
