Christina Applegate is sharing more about her multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
The 50-year-old actress spoke to variety about the final season of Dead toMe , now streaming on Netflix, and how as production began, she experienced”scary” symptoms that ultimately led to her diagnosis. MS is a disease of thecentral nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brainthat can cause unpredictable physical, mental, and emotional symptoms.
“I’m not going to say that any of it was easy,” Applegate, 50, said aboutfinishing the show. “I started having symptoms in January 2021 — very small,something you could just brush off. Right before we started shooting [in May2021]it was as if I got hit by a truck and didn’t know what was going on.”
She called it “very scary for me, because this body that I had known was nolonger mine.” At first, they had to “kind of work around” her mystery symptoms”until, finally, I had answers. I found that I had MS while we were shootingon a Monday. I went home, and the doctor said, ‘I need to do this meeting withyou.’ I could feel that this Zoom was not going to be good news. It sucked,I’m not going to lie.”
Christina Applegate has said she won’t accept that she has MS, saying instead,”I’m pissed.” At her Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony, she rocked nailpolish that said: “FU MS.” (Photo: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)
After Applegate’s diagnosis, the show shut down for five months so the_Married … with Children_ alum could process the news and start treatment.However, “There is no processing the fact that you have a lifelongdegenerative disease,” she said. “Maybe other people could have gone intoacceptance. I’m just a year in, so I’m still in that mourning process.”
She credits her co-star Linda Cardellini and showrunner Liz Feldman, who shewas interviewed alongside, for helping her be able to complete the series. Bythe time she returned to the set — which she insisted on doing — she needed awheelchair. She had to physically be held up, by an off-camera crew member,for shots. She’d take naps to get through the long tape days. Sometimes, shejust had to leave and go home.
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“If I didn’t have these two ladies, especially, I don’t know what I would havedone,” Applegate said.
Applegate was given the option of not returning. Feldman said they would piecetogether what they had to bring closure to the story about two widowed bestfriends. The Emmy-winning actress said finishing it “was personal.”
“The conversation had come up, like, ‘Should we just stop?’ I was like, ‘No,we have to finish this for ourselves. We have to tell our story. And I’ll dowhatever I can — I’m just going to need your help,'” she said. “When I’d say,’Hey, you know what? I can’t work today,’ they’d go, ‘OK, we’re gonna not worktoday,’ or ‘We’ll find other scenes.’ I was profoundly grateful that I couldsay, ‘I need a half an hour,’ or ‘I need to go lay down — I can’t walk.’ … Myday started hard, so it was only going to get harder as we went along duringthe day.So we just tried to pace ourselves as much as possible.We just went,’Let’s just rely on the story and this relationship.All that other stuffdoesn’t matter.'”
Applegate now uses a cane to get around and has gained 40 pounds after herdiagnosis. She said while making the show, she “wouldn’t look in the mirroranymore” while doing fittings with the costume designer.
Asked what she learned while making the show, Applegate — not afraid of makingjokes about her diagnosis — quipped, “That I have MS. Just kidding — it nevergets old!”
She then got serious, saying, “I don’t think of life poetically. I don’t self-examine. I’ve always been go, go, go, go, go. I’m almost 51 years old. I’ vebeen in SAG since 1976. I’ve worked a long time. During the course of that, Ihave had some incredibly hard things happen to me in the midst of work, andwork always made me push through it. I broke my foot while I was living mydream of being on Broadway [in Sweet Charity ]. I had breast cancer while Iwas on my favorite show at the time, Samantha Who? A boyfriend [Lee Grivas]also died that year.”
She continued, “Having the biggest one [MS] happen to me during this, I haveto honor help. I have to feel the pain that I think I’ve always wanted to feelfor all these other things, that I wasn’t allowed to because I wasn’t given anamazing space to do so. I had pushed everything down for so long. Throughthese characters — getting a chance to not have to be on all the fing time,be funny or get to the fing punch line; being able to play these charactersthat are so broken, that feel so deeply and so painfully — it really taughtme: Christina, you’ve got to be able to honor that in yourself sometimes.”
Applegate isn’t sure what her future holds with acting, she’ll continue toproduce for sure, but said that “the gift of my life” was co-starring oppositeCardellini on this show. “Hopefully, that was not the gift of my swan song.But if it was, I am so happy that it was with [her].”
Earlier this week, Applegate made her first public appearance since herdiagnosis, attending her Hollywood Walk of fame star ceremony. She debuted hernew cane and appeared sans shoes, as footwear can be restricting for peoplewho have MS. Her former TV mom from Married … With Children Katey Sagal,hero her to help her keep her balance at the stage.
Applegate was accompanied by Cardellini and Feldman, who both spoke on herbehalf, as well as Sagal and David Faustino. Applegate’s husband, Porno forPyros musician Martyn LeNoble, 11-year-old daughter Sadie and step-daughterwere among those there to honor her.
She shaded the disease that’s made her lose control of her body, and made itclear she’s not accepting of any of this, rocking a special manicure for theoccasion that said: “FU MS.”