Christina Applegate has opened up about her career possibly ending amid her battle with multiple sclerosis (MS).
The actress, 51, is best known for her role as Kelly Bundy in the sitcom Married... With Children as well as a successful movie career.
The Golden Globe nominee revealed in August 2021 that she had been diagnosed with MS a few months earlier, which had affected her ability to perform.
Adjustments were made to her filming schedule to allow her to complete the final season of Dead To Me thanks to her co-star Linda Cardellini and showrunner Liz Feldman, but the actress has revealed that she is likely to retire from appearing on camera in the wake of her condition.
Applegate opened up about the "possible end" of her career on screen while discussing the people she chose to surround her as she received her star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame last November.
She was joined by her husband and daughter, and heard tributes from her Married... With Children co-stars Katey Sagal and David Faustino, as well as Dead To Me's Cardellini and Feldman.
Applegate told Variety: "There was no mistake as to who I asked to speak, kind of my beginning and my… my possible end. That was really important to me. It was about where I came from and where I landed."
While she acknowledges that having MS makes performing more difficult - she is not resigned to retiring completely just yet.
Applegate reminisced on the best experiences she has had in her 40-year career in Hollywood, explaining: "[Samantha Who?] was the most fun I had ever had. Dead to Me has that place in my heart now. But after Samantha Who?, I never thought I would have another experience like that ever again.
"The cast and the crew were sublime. The stars aligned and we were gifted this moment in time. When it was canceled, I cried in bed for, like, a month."
Applegate made sure to carry as many of the cast and crew with her into future projects, including Mitch Cohn from the Netflix show's sound department, who would hold her legs steady out of shot during doorway scenes on Dead To Me when she was struggling to stand on her own due to the effects of MS.
Addressing her uncertain future, Applegate also shared her gratitude to how accommodating the Dead To Me cast and crew were to allow her to continue working on the show.
She admitted: "We don’t know what my future as an actress is going to be. How can I handle it? How can I go onto a set and call the shots of what I need as far as my boundaries, physically? I don’t know who is going to be as loving and understanding as this group of people were."
While she is contemplating leaving on-screen acting behind, Applegate revealed that she would still be taking on voice acting roles and developing projects behind the scenes, as well as starting a podcast with another friend who has MS.
She revealed that she finally managed to watch back the last series of Dead To Me but could "see the excruciating pain I was in every day I was there and I didn’t want to relive it."
Applegate added that she was grateful to Feldman for trusting she "had it in [her]" to complete the project, which she now sees is a "beautiful piece of work".
She is also thankful to have co-starred alongside Cardellini, adding: "If this is my last job, thank God it was with her."