Sam Amico
Last year, Christina Applegate revealed that she is suffering from multiple sclerosis. This year, the former Married … with Children actress said she’s not giving up in her fight against the diagnosis.
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“It’s been a strange journey,” she tweeted at the time. “But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition.”
Applegate, 50, is in the process of recording her Netflix hit Dead to Me. She said she first noticed her symptoms back on Season 1, when she found herself off-balance during a dance scene.
“I wish I had paid attention,” she told the New York Times. “But who was I to know?”
Once the condition was discovered, Applegate took some time away from filming the show.
“There was the sense of, ‘Well, let’s get her some medicine so she can get better.’ And there is no better,” she said. “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.”
Christina Applegate Reveals Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis
Applegate was actually born in Hollywood, her father was a record producer and her mother a singer and actress. She began as a child actress, as a baby even, in commercials. Later, she got a movie role in something called Jaws of Satan, a horror film released in 1981.
But it wasn’t until Married … with Children that she had her big break come along. Applegate portrayed Kelly Bundy, the ditzy and promiscuous daughter.
Now, she has a new reality, and she intends to keep fighting, and keep hoping that things can somehow be manageable.
“Although it’s not like I came on the other side of it, like, ‘Woohoo, I’m totally fine.’ Acceptance? No, I’m never going to accept this,” she said. “I’m pissed.”
Despite the obvious setbacks, she said she wanted to finish Dead to Me, if for no other reason than to stick to her commitment to creator Liz Feldman and friend and co-star Linda Cardellini.
“I had an obligation to Liz and to Linda, to our story,” Applegate said. “The powers that be were like, ‘Let’s just stop. We don’t need to finish it. Let’s put a few episodes together.’ I said, ‘No. We’re going to do it, but we’re going to do it on my terms.’”
Now in its final season, Dead to Me comes out Nov. 17.
“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,'” Applegate said. “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.”
