Christina Applegate talks acting future amid ‘Dead to Me’ awards show

Christina Applegate earned a nomination for the 2023 SAG Awards for her role in the final season of Netflix’s Dead to me. In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times mulling over that upcoming honor, she shares that it could be her last acting award amid her MS diagnosis.

“It’s probably my last awards show as an actor, so it’s kind of a big deal,” said Applegate, who received her sixth nomination from the Screen Actors Guild for her role as Jen Harding, whom she played alongside Linda Cardellini for three seasons. in the tragicomedy about friendship. “Right now I can’t imagine getting up at 5am and spending 12 to 14 hours on a set; I don’t have that in me right now.”

The SAG Awards, which will be held in Los Angeles on February 26, will continue the awards ceremony for the final season of Dead to me. Applegate recently attended the Critics Choice Awards, her first awards ceremony since her diagnosis, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She will compete at the Emmys for the 2023 show, having previously been nominated for Dead to me season one and two.

The third and final season of the Netflix series was halfway through filming when Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021. They took a five-month hiatus while Applegate began treatment and, determined to finish it, returned on their star’s own terms to wrap up the show.

Applegate has previously described the support she received on set while working to finish the show. Talking to the LAT, she explains, “I was a wreck every day, but most of that wreck would be on my own in my trailer. But there were times when I broke down on set and thought, ‘I can’t, we need to take a break, I need half an hour,’ and everyone was so loving that it was okay.

Looking ahead to how her role on sets will change amid her diagnosis, Applegate – whose humor remains ever-present – says she’s considering her next steps, citing among them producing, developing and “doing a bunch of voiceovers to get some making money to make sure my daughter is fed and we are home.

Creator Liz Feldman had revealed to The Hollywood Reportr that since they only had guest star James Marsden for a month of shooting, they spent the first half of the final season of Dead to me completely out of use. There are certain episodes where 10 months have passed, and Applegate admits here that the season, which came out in November 2022, was difficult to watch. And it took months for her to do it.

“I don’t like to see myself struggling,” she says. “Plus, I gained 40 pounds from inactivity and meds, and I didn’t look like myself, and I didn’t feel like myself. At some point I was able to step away 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 first time.”

Applegate has also previously praised her co-star and boyfriend Cardellini for her support during the final months of filming. Their farewell scene — a moment between friends on and off screen that will serve as the show’s legacy — was the last scene they shot.

“The tables were turned,” Applegate now explains of the final season’s plot, which saw — spoiler alert! – Cardellini’s character, Judy, dying of cancer. (Applegate plays Jen.) “Jen takes care of her friend who is dying, but Linda took care of me as I said goodbye to the person I’d always known — so a part of me died,” she says.

When Cardellini spoke THR after the finale, she shared a similar feeling about their bond. “We found it very difficult to say goodbye. Jen and Judy, and Linda and Christina cried really big tears,” she said of the final scene. “I think what you see on the show is that Christina is absolutely as brilliant as she’s ever been, and she’s just an incredible actress. She really can do anything.”