Christina Applegate Says She's 'Probably Not Going to Work On-Camera Again' After MS Diagnosis
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The actress was diagnosed with MS in August 2021, while she was filming Dead to Me's third and final season
Christina Applegate doesn't see herself returning to TV and film after her multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
Discussing the impact the disabling neurological disease has on her everyday life in an interview with Vanity Fair published on Thursday, the Married with Children alum suggested that a chapter in her decades-long acting career has come to an end, explaining that she has no plans to return to the screen.
"I'm probably not going to work on-camera again," Applegate, 51, said while praising the experience of working with Linda Cardellini on Netflix's Dead to Me, which debuted its third and final season in November 2022.
"Ping-pong is so much more fun when the other person is just as good as you are," she noted. "...I'm so glad that I went out with someone who is by far the greatest actress I've ever worked with in my entire life, if not the greatest human I've ever known."
Applegate was diagnosed with MS in August 2021, while she was filming Dead to Me's third season.
Multiple sclerosis is a disease that affects the central nervous system — the brain and spinal cord — and can cause problems with muscle control and strength, vision, balance, feeling and thinking. Symptoms include: numbness, tremor or lack of coordination. MS differs in each case, with some people going through life with only minor problems and others becoming seriously disabled.
After her diagnosis, Dead to Me paused production so Applegate could begin treatment. When the series eventually wrapped, the actress spoke to Variety in November 2022 about the future of her career, revealing that finishing the show with her symptoms was "as hard as you would possibly think it would be."
"It's about finding what I'm capable of doing," she said of her acting future. "I'm so new in this right now. It takes time to kind of figure out this disease, and figure out what's bringing on symptoms. I'm just a newbie to all of this. So I'm trying to figure it out — and I'm also in mourning for the person who I was. I have to find a place that's as loving as my set was, where they won't think I'm a diva by saying, 'Hey, I can only work five hours.'"
She went on to explain that she's seeking "a place that will allow me to [work five hours] if I'm not the star," and that starring in something might be off the table in the future. "There's no way I could do the work that I just came off again. I mean, it was so hard," she said.
Related:Christina Applegate Says She Gained 40 Lbs. Due to Medications: 'I Didn't Look Like Myself'
"Right now, I couldn't imagine getting up at 5 a.m. and spending 12 to 14 hours on a set," she told the Los Angeles Times in February. "I don't have that in me at this moment."
Still, Applegate — who shares daughter Sadie Grace, 12, with husband Martyn LeNoble — isn't walking away from the business entirely. As she explained to the LA Times, she envisions herself "doing a s--t ton of voice-overs to make some cash to make sure that my daughter's fed and we're homed."
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"I can't even imagine going to set right now," she added to Vanity Fair last week. "This is a progressive disease. I don't know if I'm going to get worse. I can do voiceover stuff because I have to support my family and keep my brain working," she said.
And that's not it. "Who knows — I'm probably gonna get real bored of being in my room. I'd like to develop stuff, I'd like to produce stuff," she said to Variety. "I've got a lot of ideas in my mind, and I just need to get them executed."
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