Christina Applegate has recently finished filming the third and final season of Dead to Me, which was a struggle to complete because she has recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Applegate has been working steadily since she was a child and teen in the 70s and 80s, and is about to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Applegate is best-known for playing Kelly on Married…with Children for eleven seasons, beginning in 1987. But initially, Applegate refused to audition for it because it was a comedy. Speaking to Variety, she says; “They had sent me the script to audition for it, and I just come off a cop drama. I was way more into drama; I was not into comedy. And I refused to audition for it. Refused!”
“I was an edgy person. I was not fun to be around! I was not funny. They went ahead and shot the pilot with two other Kellys and Buds. They weren’t the fit that they wanted. They came back to me, and I said no. And they’re like, ‘Can we just send you the pilot? And if you like it, come in and read with a couple of other kids?'”
Applegate continues; “My mom and I were like, uccch! — like that. Literally, like we were, like, ‘Ucch, toilet humor!’ We were seriously such snobs about it. When we put it on, we did not want to laugh. And we ended up cracking up from the first scene on. I went in, and the first person I read with was Dave [Faustino]. And that was it.”
This is ironic, because comedies such as Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Mars Attacks!, Anchorman, Bad Moms, and now Dead to Me are what Applegate has become best-known for. She also played one of Rachel’s sisters on Friends, alongside Reese Witherspoon.
Dead to Me season 3 will premiere on November 17, 2022 on Netflix. While you wait, check out our guide to the best Netflix series.