Ryan Reynolds is offering its deep gratitude to Michael J. Fox.
O Dead Pool actor sings Fox’s praises in a synopsis written for the 2024 TIME 100, magazine’s annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people, published this week. In his comments, he shares how Fox’s impact is being felt by younger generations, including the children he shares with his wife. Blake Lively.
“Last year I watched Back to the future with my 8-year-old daughter,” he says, referring to the couple’s eldest daughter, James. “It became his favorite film. And for now, that’s enough for me – and her. Another child from another generation sees what I saw.”
Reynolds and Lively, who got married in 2012, are the proud parents of four little ones. In addition to James, they also share daughter Inez, 7, and daughter Betty, 4, as well as a one year old baby whose name and gender were not disclosed.
“I know how lucky I am to call Mike my friend,” Reynolds continues his tribute. “She still has no idea that I know him. I don’t need to teach my daughter the level of compassion that Mike has mastered. Or teach her to tell stories the way Mike tells them. I need to teach her that it’s okay to fall. a lot. It’s the best way to know you’re flying.
Reynolds says he met Fox 17 years ago and that he Revolving city star helped his father “feel less alone” amid his battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Fox, 62 years old, was diagnosed with the progressive disorder in 1991, when he was just 29 years old.
Reynolds, 47, lost his father to Parkinson’s in 2015 and sat down in the board from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research since 2009.
“I know Michael J. Fox. Like, I know him really well,” explains Reynolds. “He’s funny. He’s warm. He’s handsome and extremely intelligent. He also falls a lot. Not just because he has Parkinson’s. He falls a lot because he’s not afraid of flying.”
This isn’t the first time Reynolds has written a candid profile for Time. Back 2022he wrote an article about a close friend Taylor Swiftthe then boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, for Time100 Next.
Swift and Alwyn eventually split, with ET breaking the news in April 2023. Now, Swift will release her 11th studio album, Department of Tortured Poets, on Friday at 12pm ET. The project is expected to serve as a reference to separation.
About that, ET spoke to Fox earlier this month about his lasting legacy and whether he would consider returning to acting after announcing his retirement in 2020.
“My biggest goal, I think, was to raise a family. We have four amazing kids and that’s been the big thing,” Fox said in reference to his wife, Tracy Pollan, whom he met on the set of Family ties in 1985. “And the other one stays with the foundation.”
But as for goals in front of and behind the camera?
“If someone offers me a role and I do it and I have fun, great,” Fox told ET. “I mean, the documentary was a big thrill.”
As the documentary is his new project, Yetan AppleTV+ documentary that chronicles her health battle.
“It was fun,” Fox said of filming the doc. “I would never have set that as a goal. It just happened.”
Like Reynolds, Fox is also the father of four children – although his are now adults. Fox shares son Sam, 34, twin daughters Aquinnah and Schuyler, 29, and daughter Esmé, 22, with Pollan.
When E.T. spoke to Reynolds in late 2022he joked about the size of his growing brood.
“We are very excited,” shared Reynolds. “You’d have to be an idiot to do it four times if you didn’t like it.”
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