The symptom was initially mistaken for exhaustion
Christina Applegate dismissed early multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms while filming Netflix’s Dead To Me.
The actor starred as Jen Harding in the Emmy-nominated dark comedy, which premiered in 2019 and ran for three seasons.
Also starring Linda Cardellini, the Netflix hit charts the blossoming friendship between a tightly wound widow and a free spirit with a shocking secret.
Applegate was diagnosed with MS in 2021 after experiencing tingling and back problems, among other signs.
According to the National Institution of Health, MS is a ‘chronic neurological disorder’ in which the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells.
Symptoms start out mild and can include vision problems, muscle weakness and numbness.
Some people might experience bladder control issues, clumsiness and dizziness.
Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini in the first season of Dead To Me (Netflix)
Applegate has said she now realizes she’d dismissed some early symptoms of MS two years prior to her diagnosis.
On the latest episode of her podcast, MeSsy, the 53-year-old spoke to Dead To Me director Liz Feldmen about the symptom the pair had initially put down to exhaustion.
During one scene, the star had to run through a field – and it’s here that she fell over, an early indication of her autoimmune condition.
Liz Feldman, Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images)
Applegate recalled: “I remember falling that day… Hi, first sign of MS!”
Feldman said she too remembered Applegate losing her balance ‘a couple of times’ but said it was ‘very hard to figure out’.
She added: “I remember one time it was like really late at night, we’d been shooting probably 14 or 15 hours, it seemed completely reasonable that anybody would be collapsing.”
Dead To Me was renewed for a third season in 2020, but faced delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic and then Applegate’s diagnosis.
Speaking on the news at the time, Feldman said: “There’s no handbook for this. I could just sense that A, she was scared and B, that something was wrong, something in her body was not working the way that she wanted it to.”
Applegate was diagnosed with MS in 2021 (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
She added: “I knew Christina well enough to know that something major had to be going on because she’s an extreme professional.”
By the time they began shooting in summer 2021, Applegate was being brought to set in a wheelchair as she ‘couldn’t walk that far’.
As her mobility declined, producers adapted her scenes so she’d be more comfortable.
Applegate said: “That would not happen anywhere else. So my gratitude toward you guys being humans – because you should be humans and love other humans! – is, like, I can’t even tell you, that’s not the normal reaction!”
Featured Image Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images/Netflix
