Christina Applegate Talks Returning to ‘Dead to Me’ After MS Diagnosis

Christina Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while filming the third and final season of Dead To Me, but as she reveals in a new interview, she wasn’t about to let that stop her from finishing the Netflix hit series.

Speaking to the New York Times, Applegate shares she insisted on concluding the dramedy on her own terms. “I had an obligation to [creator Liz Feldman] and to [co-star  Linda Cardellini], to our story,” she says. “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.”

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that disrupts communication between the brain and the body. Applegate currently walks with a cane. The article details that Applegate prides herself on self-sufficiency, and would never ask any of the crew to do anything for her she could do herself. Her MS isn’t visible in the series, but some days she couldn’t work, and other days she had to arrive on set in a wheelchair. She hopes viewers look beyond her diagnosis and give the series the send-off it deserves.

“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,” she says. “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.”

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The black comedy series, which premiered in 2019, is about two grieving women who bond during therapy. Applegate stars as Jen Harding, a realtor whose husband is killed by a drunk driver, and Linda Cardellini plays Judy Hale, a woman who meets Jen at a grief support group. Applegate earned Emmy nominations for Dead To Me in its first two seasons.

Dead to Me, Season 3 Premiere, Thursday, November 17, Netflix