- We have a special first guest joining us today, everybody.
She's made almost no public appearances
since she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis last year,
which as many of you know,
is a condition that causes you to be immunocompromised.
We're blessed that she's doing well enough to call in today.
She's done a bunch of amazing movies and shows.
I've loved her since I was a kid.
You can see the third season of her latest show Dead to Me,
which is hilarious, right now on Netflix.
All right, everybody
let's say hello to Christina Applegate.
(crowd cheering and clapping)
- Hi, Kelly Clarkson.
- Oh my gosh, hi Christina Applegate.
It's so great to see you.
I love that we're both not there.
This is the best interview.
- We're just not there.
(Kelly laughing)
We're just not. Everyone else is there but us.
(laughing)
- We got some things going on Kelly.
We got some things going on. - This is live.
So we were supposed to have an outdoor lunch together
and couldn't because of high winds.
- I ate all the food.
(Kelly laughing)
- See, we would make very good friends
- They sent it to my house
and I'm sorry I ate all the food.
- That's okay. I get it.
You're my sister in life. That's what that is.
Well, now I'm sick, so I'm so sad about it.
I'm so sad we can't be there in person together.
But, I wanna start with this, 'cause this is really cool.
You just got your star in the Walk of fame recently
so it was your only public appearance
since you were diagnosed with MS. Right?
How are you feeling?
- Yeah. Oh boy.
Look at them feet.
Yeah, that's the first time, well,
since filming which was not public,
but public now obviously for Dead To Me.
But yeah, it was the first time
I had to be somewhere with my disability
and it was interesting and it was beautiful.
It was an amazing day and I feel incredibly blessed
but at the same time, yeah, it was weird.
- Yeah. Aw man.
I hate that anything special like that
was even tainted like that.
But it was a cool thing though for everybody just to get-
Like I've been a fan of you since I was a kid.
I thought it was so cool your name was Kelly Bundy.
My name was Kelly.
(laughing)
- Yeah, I know.
- So we've been a fan of you forever
and so it was cool for us,
to get to see you honored like that.
But are you someone who's naturally optimistic
when you're sick or when you're fighting something?
'Cause I go to humor and very dark humor.
I don't know how you deal with things.
- Yeah. My humor shield keeps me okay.
But of course, down on the insides you feel the things
and I do it to kind of deflect
and then also make people not be scared to be around me.
You know?
When people see me now as a a disabled person,
I want them to feel comfortable that we can laugh about it.
I have a song that I wrote
♪ Called to say hey baby ♪
♪ Hurry down the chimney tonight. ♪
♪ I can't cause my wheelchair won't fit down it. ♪
(crowd laughing)
- Oh my God.
See, you're like me. You'd take humor with it.
- Yeah. To be honest, being diagnosed with MS last year
and what had happened to my body
to my mind, to my spirit, to my everything.
Of course I didn't wanna be around anyone or talk about it,
but I had to go to work.
And I was not forced to go to work,
but I made sure that we finished the show.
We had to finish the show.
That was like a part of my family.
Linda Cardellini and Liz Feldman,
everyone there is my family
and there's a story that we needed to finish.
And I pushed as hard as I could through that.
So, it was really incredibly difficult.
And then I went to sleep for a few months
and then all of a sudden now I had to come out again
and be this person that-
People had seen me as this other person
for the last almost 40 years
and I'm different now and it's incredibly hard.
I don't wanna be the fish in the fish tank,
but I'm gonna do my best to just get through it I suppose.
I think that's the answer I'm trying to get to, but-
- Yeah, but do you feel like-
I feel like sometimes,
well and this is a completely separate thing
obviously not comparing,
but just going through any kind of grief
like I've gone through grief and it's like, sometimes
for me it's nice to have something to be productive.
There's something to do
so I'm not just sitting in my thoughts.
Are you like that? Do you like to be a little busy?
- I've probably been going through grief
and trauma my whole life
and acting was the place that I got to go
to not feel it, you know?
- Oh wow.
- So, I think that I went through many breakups
during television shows, I went through trauma,
I went through deaths I went through cancer,
I went through all this stuff
and I always had a place to go to kind of not deal with it.
And the beauty of Dead to Me
is that it gave me almost this weird platform
of dealing with it.
Where I didn't have to be on all the time
and I didn't have to make all the jokes
and I could fall apart in a scene.
And it was like me. It was my soul actually falling apart.
And unfortunately in front of the world.
But it was cathartic in a in a beautiful way.
So, yeah, I hear you honey.
We're work horses.
You've been doing it since you were young
and it's like the place we go
because we don't know how else to deal with all the noise.
But, yeah.
- No, I get that a little too
because I'm like that on stage
- I think you and I are going to be best friends
pretty much after this
- I think we're very similar.
I've seen you in interviews.
I Google everyone and I go down the path on YouTube
whenever I'm interviewing people.
So I do think we would get along really well.
I mean, how difficult was it to keep working though?
'Cause I have people in my life that I know that have MS
but I've never experienced it personally
so I never like to pretend I know what that's like.
So it's like, it has to be wearing on you emotionally,
mentally, and physically.
How was that to keep working?
- Well, there's four different kinds of MS.
So not everyone is the same.
Everyone's symptoms are different.
Everyone's experience with it is different.
Every day is different.
So that is just so that people understand that
'cause people are like, well, why don't you like this one
and you're feeling better like this one.
And it's like everyone has a different experience with it.
So that's just a preface.
Shooting the show was the hardest thing
I'd ever done in my life
because I was diagnosed during shooting
and I didn't know what was happening to me.
I couldn't walk,
they had to use a wheelchair to get me to set.
I was freaking out until someone was like, you need an MRI.
And then I found out on a Monday after work
that I had MS.
A disease that I'm gonna have for the rest of my life.
And then I started thinking about the last four years
and I had very small symptoms.
And I think that's important for people.
Let's not all be hypochondriacs
and run to the doctor when our leg gets weak.
But- - But be aware.
- That was happening to me four years ago
where we were on set and I'd go like,
"Ooh, I think I'm tired", you know?
So it presented itself like a few years ago
until it just got as bad as it did.
- That's hard, Christina. That's hard.
Getting that call and being at work
and having that kind of news laid on you
and ooh, that's really hard.
- Can I say it sucked balls?
(crowd laughing)
- Yeah, you can say whatever the hell you want.