Christina Applegate began to feel the first symptoms of multiple sclerosis while filming the pilot for Dead to melong before she was diagnosed with the disease in 2021.
During the Wednesday, December 11 episode MeSsypodcast she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Applegate, 53, recalled falling while filming a scene in which her character runs across a field.
“I remember the fall that day,” Applegate said in a conversation with Dead to me creator Liz Feldman. “Hi, first sign of MS! So, not to knock everything down, but there it was.”
“I remember you lost your balance a few times when we were shooting the pilot,” Feldman, 47, told Applegate. “It was really hard to figure it out because, you know, I remember one time, it was really late at night. We shot for probably 14 or 15 hours… It seemed completely reasonable that anyone would crash.”
“It was MS,” Applegate said.
Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler.
John Russo
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Applegate announced her MS diagnosis in August 2021, saying she had been diagnosed a few months before. However, Applegate still finished filming the third and final season Dead to mealthough her mobility has declined. The progressive disease “damages the protective covering around nerves called myelin in your central nervous system. It can cause muscle weakness, vision changes, numbness and memory problems,” according to the Cleveland Clinic.
“There’s no playbook for this,” Feldman said. “I can’t compare it to any experience I’ve ever had with a person.”
“I could just feel A, that she was scared, and B, that something was wrong… that something in her body wasn’t working the way she wanted it to.”
Feldman recalled telling Applegate that it was “just a TV show” they were doing. “At the end of the day, yes, it may reach people and help people and entertain them, but this is your life,” Feldman said. “I just always tried to put her health first.”
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Later, Applegate praised Feldman and others Dead to me to the team for understanding during the production, especially reminding that the shooting was interrupted once a week because of her.
“It wouldn’t have happened anywhere else, so my gratitude to you for being human — because you’re supposed to be human and love other people — is astounding,” Applegate said. “I can’t even tell you… It’s not a normal reaction.”
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(left to right): Christina Applegate, Linda Cardellini and Liz Feldman.
Getty
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Dead to me starred Applegate and Linda Cardellini as two grieving women who bond during therapy and become intertwined, despite their very different personalities. Applegate earned 2020 and 2023 Emmy nominations for her performance.
In December 2022, Applegate told Kelly Clarkson that filming the final season helped her cope with her MS diagnosis.
“Beauty Dead to me is that it gave me almost this weird platform to deal with it, where I didn’t have to be on all the time and I didn’t have to make all the jokes and I could fall apart in a scene,” Applegate said. “And I was, like, me . It was my soul actually falling apart, unfortunately, in front of the world, but it was cathartic in a wonderful way.”
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