Dead To Me: Why It's Unlikely Christina Applegate Will Act On-Camera Again
While her powerhouse turn in "Dead to Me" Season 3 is up to par with her Emmy-nominated performances in seasons 1 and 2 of the hit Netflix series, the third chapter of the dark comedy may be best remembered as Christina Applegate's last screen appearance as an actor.
Applegate, who defied a major health risk in 2008 when she beat breast cancer, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in August 2021. As a result, Applegate's MS forced her to make a lot of changes in "Dead to Me" Season 3, and she alerted fans in advance of the season debut in November 2022 that they would notice changes to her physical appearance because of the debilitating disease, which affects the central nervous system.
And while Applegate appears certain her screen career is over, she's at least happy knowing her "Dead to Me" co-star and close friend Linda Cardellini was with her for her final bow. "I'm probably not going to work on-camera again, but I'm so glad that I went out with someone who is by far the greatest actress I've ever worked with in my entire life, if not the greatest human I've ever known," Applegate told Vanity Fair.
Applegate told the publication that she and Cardellini loved each other since the very beginning of "Dead to Me," and the trust and support they found in each other hasn't happened to her often over the course of her illustrious screen career. "It's rare that you have an equal playing field and you get to play ping-pong instead of tennis," Applegate told Vanity Fair. "There's a difference. Ping-pong is so much more fun when the other person is just as good as you are."
Dead to Me Season 3 was difficult to film for Applegate
A veteran of such hit series as "Married ... with Children," "Samantha Who?" and "Jesse," as well as such memorable films as "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead," "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," and "Bad Moms," Christina Applegate kicked off her run on "Dead to Me" in 2019. In the series, Applegate plays Jen Harding, a woman grieving over the unsolved hit-and-run death of her husband. While attending a grief support group, Jen meets with Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini), not realizing that the person who will soon become her best friend was also the person who was driving the car that killed her husband.
James Marsden also stars in "Dead to Me" as Steve Wood — Judy's mentally abusive fiancé — who was in the car with Judy during the tragic accident; and who dies at Jen's hands when he was taunting her about her husband's death. Luckily, Marsden — who initially thought of "Dead to Me" as a "one and done" type of project — was brought back to the series for seasons 2 and 3 as Steve's much nicer twin brother, Ben.
Applegate told Vanity Fair that while it was difficult seeing "Dead to Me" come to an end and that she misses Cardellini, Marsden, and series creator Liz Feldman, she "just had to get away from it all" because of her continuing struggles with MS. "I miss the experience of it, but at the same time, because it was such an incredible struggle this last year, I'm relieved that I no longer have to push so hard to get through my day."