Michael J. Fox Tells Whoopi Goldberg He Regrets Turning Down ‘Ghost’ Role

Michael J. Fox made an appearance on The View where he came face-to-face with Whoopi Goldberg and told her he regretted not working with her on Ghost. During Fox’s appearance on the ABC talk show, the Back to the Future alum was asked by Goldberg if he had any regrets about acting roles he had walked away from in the past. “There was a chance to work with you that I missed,” Fox said. “They talked to me about Ghost early on. I said, ‘It’ll never work.’ I said, ‘Whoopi is great but it’ll never work.’”

Goldberg starred opposite Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in the 1990 romantic drama. Fox didn’t clarify whether he was in the running for Swayze’s role or another part. Ghost was the highest-grossing film of 1990 and, at the time of its release, the third highest-grossing film of all time. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a neurological condition in which the brain becomes progressively damaged over many years, in 1991 aged 29. He announced that he had been diagnosed in 1998 and, in 2020, entered a “second retirement”.