Could actor Michael J. Fox (62) and Princess Diana (1961-1997) once have become the new Hollywood dream couple? In an interview with People magazine, the Oscar winner looks back on a meeting with the princess and jokes about how close he got to her.

“It was all so crazy,” says Fox about his rise in Hollywood, recounting an encounter with Diana at the London premiere of his film “Back to the Future” in 1985. At the premiere he was in the hall right next to the princess , who was then still married to the Prince of Wales (now King Charles III, 75).

It would have been "just a fake yawn and an arm movement" to make it look like the two were on a movie date, the actor jokes. "This and similar moments were so surreal."

Although the official date did not take place, Princess Diana was still enthusiastic about the film. "She seemed to laugh a few times - she certainly didn't boo," Fox said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2020.

In an interview with People, Michael J. Fox also talks about how the film industry has changed since he started as an actor. "There's a saying that I referenced when I was given the honorary Oscar - someone said to me the day before (...): 'You're '80s famous,'" Fox said. "I thought, 'Wow, that's cool. '80s famous. Right, we were different.'"

"We were tougher. We didn't have social media, we didn't have any of that crap," he explains. "We were just famous. We were on our own. And it was an incredible time." When asked if it was "more difficult" to be famous in the 1980s, Fox replies: "Well, you had to be talented. That helped."