Despite receiving a multiple sclerosis diagnosis during filming the third and final season of Dead To Me, Christina Applegate says in a new interview that she wasn’t going to let it stop her from completing the Netflix sensation.
Speaking to the New York Times, Applegate shares she insisted on concluding the dramedy on her own terms. “I had an obligation to [creator Liz Feldman] and to [co-star Linda Cardellini], to our story,” she says. “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.”
An autoimmune condition called multiple sclerosis impairs the body’s ability to communicate with the brain. Applegate uses a cane to walk right now. According to the story, Applegate takes great pleasure in her independence and would never ask any member of the crew to do anything for her that she could do herself.
Although her MS is not evident in the series, she occasionally had trouble working and once had to arrive at the set in a wheelchair. She hopes that people will look past her prognosis and give the series the proper send-off.
“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,” she says. “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.”
The 2019 debut of the dark comedy series centers on two mourning women who become friends in therapy. Linda Cardellini plays Judy Hale, a widow who meets Jen at a bereavement support group, and Applegate plays Jen Harding, a realtor whose husband is killed by a drunk driver. For the first two seasons of Dead To Me, Applegate received Emmy nominations.
