Actor Christina Applegate recently opened up to The New York Times and discussed her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis and the wrapping up of the final season of her Netflix series Dead to Me.
Applegate was diagnosed with MS in the summer of 2021, during the production of the final season of the show. The show paused for five months so that Applegate could begin treatment.
She revealed that although it was one of the hardest things she'd ever done, she felt the need to push through and complete the series "on [her] terms."
Applegate told the Times:
"I had an obligation...The powers that be were like, 'Let's just stop.'"
"'We don't need to finish it. Let's just put a few episodes together.'"
"I said, 'No. We're going to do it, but we're going to do it on my terms.'"
Applegate also shared the pause in production was a needed break for her to process the changes in her life.
But it was not the solution or cure some may have thought she would need to improve.
"There was the sense of, 'Well, let's get her some medicine so she can get better."
"There is no better. But it was good for me."
"I needed to process my loss of my life, my loss of that part of me. So I needed that time. "
"Although it's not like I came on the other side of it, like, 'Woohoo, I'm totally fine.'"
"No. I'm never going to accept this. I'm pissed."
Applegate shared her collection of designer walking sticks to Twitter with the caption:
"I have a very important ceremony coming up. This will be my first time out since being diagnosed with MS."
"Walking sticks are now a part of my new normal."
Replies of support soon filled Twitter.
Upon returning to the set to finish wrapping the show, Applegate shared that her mobility had greatly declined. She had difficulty getting up the steps to her trailer, and her body would give out while filming.
Of the final season she said:
"This is the first time anyone's going to see me the way I am."
"I put on 40 pounds. I can't walk without a cane."
"I want people to know that I am very aware of all of that."
She finished:
"If people hate it, if people love it, if all they can concentrate on is, 'Ooh, look at the cripple,' that's not up to me."
"I'm sure that people are going to be like, 'I can't get past it.'"
"Fine, don't get past it, then. But hopefully people can get past it and just enjoy the ride and say goodbye to these two girls."
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