Michael J. Fox sometimes struggles to 'make lemonade out of lemons': 'People have tough lives'

As he emerges from a particularly rough year, during which he had to re-learn how to walk, Michael J. Fox has maintained his signature optimism — but he's the first to admit that it doesn't always come easily.

A series of falls led to major spinal surgery, and after he finally got back on his feet, another bad fall shattered his humerus ("A broken humerus is no joke — think about it," he cracked). The low moments were difficult to push through, he said Tuesday during Tribeca Film Festival's Storytellers series.

"I feel sometimes I don't want to be selling people the optimism thing because people have tough lives. Depression is real, and things happen to them that I can't even comprehend. They make my stuff seem like Band-Aids and skinned knees," said Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991 at age 29. "So I don't want to be saying, 'Cheer up!' Some stuff sucks."

The traumatic injury in August 2018 briefly broke his spirit, he said. "I'm known as a guy who makes lemonade out of lemons, but I was out of the lemonade business: 'I can't do this anymore, I can't,'" Fox recalled. "But then I realized that I have to take every step one at a time now, and that slows life down. You have more time that way. Every step is a new adventure. I could fall down, not fall down, I could go off this way, go backwards — who knows?"

Actor Denis Leary, who joined Fox onstage for the hourlong conversation, pointed out that even in Fox's hesitation to promote positivity, "Your optimism, it's not bulls--t."

"It works for me," Fox agreed.

And while he's now gotten accustomed to his new pace, Fox said he notices it most when he's at home with his family. The actor shares four children, three daughters and a son, with wife Tracy Pollan. He'll sometimes hear them chatting and laughing down the hall, and by the time he gets there, the conversation is already over. After he lamented to one of his daughters, she diagnosed him with a brand-new, but a much more common, issue: FOMO, or "fear of missing out."

Fox also confirmed that he's working on a new book. You can shop his best-selling previous memoirs below.