Christina Applegate says she ‘probably won’t work on camera again’

‘Dead to Me’ star is calling time on her career on screen

Christina Applegate believes that her time as an actor on screen has likely come to an end.

Applegate has acted in film and TV since she was a child, first gaining popularity in Married... with Children from 1987 to 1997.

Most recently, the actor concluded a three-season run on the acclaimed Netflix dark comedy, Dead to Me.

However, in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Applegate stated that the role, in which she played an acerbic widow named Jen, would “probably” be her last in front of a camera following her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis in 2021.

Speaking about her screen partner, Linda Cardellini, Applegate recalled how they “were in love with each other” from their first day on set, and her gratitude to be able to work with someone whose acting talents matched her own.

“It’s rare that you have an equal playing field and you get to play ping-pong instead of tennis. There’s a difference,” Applegate, 51, noted. “Ping-pong is so much more fun when the other person is just as good as you are.

“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 learned she had MS, a condition that disrupts the communication between the brain and the body, in 2021. As a result, the actor finds it difficult to walk unaided and has increased sensory sensitivities.

(Getty Images for Critics Choice )

Cardellini played Judy in Dead to Me, a woman also dealing with grief who befriends Jen at a counselling group.

Both actors have spoken highly about one another and have established a close friendship off-screen.

Cardellini was a guest when Applegate was recognised with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in November, as well as Applegate’s Married... with Children co-star Katey Segal.

Elsewhere, Applegate claimed that staff at ABC were “not sympathetic human beings” when she was diagnosed with cancer during the filming of Samantha Who? in the 2000s.