Christina Applegate is continuing to hint she may be retiring from acting and that her role as Jen Harding in Dead To Me will be her last.
During a recent interview, Applegate opened up about how difficult it would be for her to film another TV show at this stage in her life.
“Right now, I couldn’t imagine getting up at 5 a.m. and spending 12 to 14 hours on a set,” Applegate told the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t have that in me at this moment.”
Applegate is nominated for a Screen Actor’s Guild Award for her role in Dead To Me, and when speaking about the show, she revealed “it’s my last awards show as an actor probably, so it’s kind of a big deal.”
The actress announced in August 2021 that she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Applegate has been candid about how difficult it was for her to film the last season of the popular Netflix show after receiving her diagnosis during production.
“Shooting the show was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life because I was diagnosed during shooting, and I didn’t know it was happening to me,” Applegate said on The Kelly Clarkson Show in December 2022. “I couldn’t walk. They had to use a wheelchair to get me to set. I was freaking out until someone was like, ‘You need an MRI.’”
Applegate recalled having to call everyone she worked with to let them know about her diagnosis, commending them for the way in which her illness was handled.
“If I called them in the morning and was like, ‘Guys, I can’t get down the stairs,’ they were like, ‘OK! We won’t do today. We’ll do other stuff.’ Netflix even let us take a break for a couple of months so that I could mourn and find treatment,” Applegate told Variety in November 2022.
While her role on the show has earned her a Critics Choice Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination this year, Applegate revealed to the Los Angeles Times, she wasn’t able to enjoy watching the final season.
“I don’t like seeing myself struggling. I gained 40 pounds because of inactivity and medications, and I didn’t look like myself, and I didn’t feel like myself,” she said. “At some point I was able to distance myself from my own ego and realize what a beautiful piece of television it was. All the scenes I wasn’t in were so much fun to see and experience for the very first time.” (Fox)