Christina Applegate Felt Obligated to Finish ‘Dead to Me’ After MS Diagnosis: We’re Doing It ‘on My Terms’
Christina Applegate knows “Dead to Me” Season 3 looks very different than the previous seasons. For one, she wasn’t undergoing treatment for multiple sclerosis the last time the Netflix dark comedy aired in 2020.
Applegate, who stars opposite Linda Cardellini as a widow who unknowingly befriends her husband’s killer, learned she had MS in the summer of 2021, pushing back production on the third and final season of “Dead to Me” for five months as she began treatment.
“There was the sense of, ‘Well, let’s get her some medicine so she can get better,'” Applegate told The New York Times after the Season 3 trailer premiered. “And 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.”
The Emmy winner added, “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. I’m pissed.”
Applegate already anticipates fan reaction to her changed appearance when “Dead to Me” returns November 17.
“This is the first time anyone’s going to see me the way I am,” the “Anchorman” star said. “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.”
Applegate continued, “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.”
While the “Dead to Me” team questioned whether Applegate should reprise her role, she was steadfast in her decision to continue. Applegate used a wheelchair on set, and her longtime friend and sound technician Mitch B. Cohn would lie on the ground and hold up Applegate’s legs out of frame when needed.
“I had an obligation to Liz [Feldman, the series creator] 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.'”