Christina Applegate was determined to finish the final season of Dead to Me amid multiple sclerosis diagnosis
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Christina Applegate opened up about the challenges of finishing the third and final season of Dead to Me amid her multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
In the summer of 2021, while in production of the Emmy-nominated dramedy, Applegate learned she had the autoimmune disease, which disrupts communication between the brain and the body. Production shut down for about five months as she began treatment.
"There was the sense of, 'Well, let's get her some medicine so she can get better,'" Applegate, 50, recently told The New York Times. "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."
Saeed Adyani/Netflix Christina Applegate as Jen Harding in 'Dead to Me' season 3
That time away doesn't have a clear cut resolution, though. "It's not like I came on the other side of it, like, 'Woohoo, I'm totally fine,'" Applegate said. "Acceptance? No. I'm never going to accept this. I'm pissed."
There had been conversations about whether the shoot for season 3 should resume at all after treatment, but Applegate had a resolve to finish. "I had an obligation to Liz [Feldman, creator and showrunner] and to Linda [Cardellini], 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.'"
Saeed Adyani/Netflix Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini in 'Dead to Me' season 3
Her determination came with its challenges. Applegate learned that she couldn't work as long or as hard without her body tiring out and would struggle to walk down the stairs of her trailer. A wheelchair would transport her to set, and some days, Applegate couldn't go to work at all. Cardellini — who portrays the Judy to Applegate's Jen, two trauma-bonded BFFs who become each others rocks in the face of crisis and deaths — became her advocate, Applegate said.
"She was my champion, my warrior, my voice," Applegate said. Whenever she hesitated to ask for breaks, her costar would step in. "It was like having a mama bear," she said.
Applegate called finishing the final season the hardest thing she's ever done, but wanted to ensure the series received the send-off it deserved. A new full length trailer from Netflix reveals that the police are on to Jen and Judy in the final season now that Steve's (James Marsden) body has been discovered in the woods. Elsewhere, Steve's twin brother Ben (also Marsden) reels from the hit and run that occurred in the season 2 finale.
The third and final season of Dead to Me premieres on Netflix on Nov. 17. Watch the trailer above.
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