Christina Applegate Shares Disappointing News About Her Career After ‘Dead to Me’ Finale

Jen Harding might be the last character Christina Applegate plays. The Dead to Me star hinted that her career is winding down after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis during the production of the Netflix hit’s final season. Dead To Me‘s third season will be released on Nov. 17, more than two years after Season 2 was released.

During a discussion with Variety before her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Monday, Applegate, 50, was asked about the most memorable characters she’s played during her hilarious career. When she mentioned Jen, Applegate said the character was “quite possibly” the last one she will play. “With my disease, I don’t know how capable I am. But this was a gift. This was a gift to me. Because – Linda [Cardellini],” Applegate said, referring to her Dead To Me co-star. “Oh God, I’m gonna cry. It was a gift. It was a gift.”

Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) early last year. “A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS. It’s been a strange journey,” she wrote on Twitter in August 2021. “But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition. It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a—hole blocks it.”

The Married… With Children star’s diagnosis delayed the production of Dead To Me‘s final season, which was already pushed back because of the pandemic. The series was created by Liz Feldman and stars Applegate and Linda Cardellini as two friends tired together the death of Jen’s husband. The show has earned Applegate three Emmy nominations. She also won an Emmy in 2003 for playing Jennifer Aniston’s on-screen sister in Friends.

Applegate said she does not think she will watch the final season of Dead To Me herself. Although it was painful, she needed to help Feldman and Cardellini finish the story. “They were gonna pull the plug, you know?” Applegate told Variety. “Because it was like torture – and they felt like they were torturing me, too. But I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no: We have to finish this story. It’s too important to our hearts; too important to our souls. And we have to give this gift, not only to ourselves – there are people that love these characters, and we’ve got to let them have their closure too.’”

The actress further explained that finding what she does next will be determined by what she is capable of doing. The disease is still new to her, and she would only work on a project if the set could be “as loving” as the Dead To Me set was. Applegate is also sure she will no longer be the leading star of whatever she does next.

“I don’t know.I’m pretty convinced that this was it, you know?” she said of Dead To Me. “But who knows – I’m probably gonna get real bored of being in my room. I’d like to develop stuff, I’d like to produce stuff. I’ve got a lot of ideas in my mind, and I just need to get them executed.”