Christina Applegate On Preparing For First Awards Show Appearance Since MS Diagnosis

Earlier this week, the actress took to Twitter to share her thoughts about attending the 2023 Critics’ Choice Awards this upcoming Sunday. Applegate, 51, is nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance in “Dead to Me.”

“So this Sunday will be the first awards show I have been to since 2019,” she wrote. “And the first since MS. NERVOUS! But grateful to the @CriticsChoice for including me.”

One day prior, Applegate took to Twitter to express her gratitude to the Screen Actors Guild for her nomination for the 2023 SAG Awards in which she also received a nod for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for Netflix’s “Dead to Me.”

“Thank you @SAGawards for this nomination today!” she wrote. “I have been a proud member of this union since 1975. I’ve had an incredibly hard year, and today this made me smile. Much love to my peers and to my sweet Jean Smart and the other incredible ladies I walk beside.”

Netflix’s official Twitter account replied to Applegate’s tweet, writing, “SO WELL DESERVED,” to which she responded, “Thank you for letting us do this show. It was the experience of a lifetime xo.”

The Critics’ Choice Awards and SAG Awards nominations mark Applegate’s third time being recognized by the organizations for her role of Jen in “Dead to Me.” She was previously nominated for Seasons 1 and 2 in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

In August 2021, Applegate revealed she had been diagnosed with MS and has been very open about her experience with the disease in interviews leading up to the release of the third and final season of “Dead to Me,” which hit Netflix in November.

In her profile with the NYT back in November, the “Married with Children” alum said she had signs of MS years prior, including once becoming off-balance while shooting a dance scene for “Dead to Me” Season 1.

“I wish I had paid attention. But who was I to know?” she said.

After Applegate received her diagnosis, production on Season 3 of “Dead to Me” was halted for about five months so she could start undergoing treatment.

“There was the sense of, ‘Well, let’s get her some medicine so she can get better,” she told the NY Times. “And there is no better. But it was good for me. I needed to process my loss of my life, my loss of that part of me. So I needed that time.”

“Although it’s not like I came on the other side of it, like, ‘Woohoo, I’m totally fine,'” she said. “Acceptance? No. I’m never going to accept this. I’m pissed.”

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. It can impact the flow of information from the brain to the body — though it manifests differently in different patients — and is incurable.

Despite her illness, the Emmy winner said she was determined to finish shooting the show, noting that she felt that she “had an obligation” to the show’s creator Liz Feldman and her co-star Linda Cardellini.

“The powers that be were like, ‘Let’s just stop. We don’t need to finish it. Let’s put a few episodes together,'” she recalled. “I said, ‘No. We’re going to do it, but we’re going to do it on my terms.'”