Christina Applegate admits she's been leaning into her comedic chops more often lately.
In a recent interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, the Dead to Me actress, 51, got candid about using humor to make people feel more comfortable when they're around her following her multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
"My humor shield keeps me OK, but of course, down on the insides, you feel the things," Applegate said. "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 disabled person, I want them to feel comfortable," she added. "That we can laugh about it."
She even joked to host Kelly Clarkson, 40, that she wrote a holiday song called "Disabey Baby" and gave the audience a preview. "Hurry down the chimney tonight… I can't 'cause my wheelchair won't fit down it," she sang.
Applegate — who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in August 2021 while filming the third season of her Netflix show Dead to Me — explained to Clarkson that returning to the show gave her an outlet to express her emotions.
"To be honest, being diagnosed with MS last year and what happened to my body, to my mind, to my spirit, to my everything, of course, I didn't want to be around anyone or talk about it, but I had to go to work," she said, adding that things have been "incredibly hard" following her diagnosis.
She told Clarkson that she often uses her job as an actress to distract her from real-life problems she has faced, including breakups, trauma and even breast cancer, and shooting the show was no different.
"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," Applegate explained. "And it was, like, me. It was my soul actually falling apart, unfortunately, in front of the world, but it was cathartic in a beautiful way."
Applegate made her first public appearance since her MS diagnosis at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, where she received a coveted star for her acting work.
The actress noted during her speech that she wasn't able to stand for long due to her condition and even teased, "Oh, by the way, I have a disease. Did you not notice? I'm not wearing shoes! Anywho, you're supposed to laugh at that."
But she teared up discussing what the honor meant to her and the significance of the event.
"I've had a really interesting life, but the life started as a little girl waiting in line to see the first Star Wars on this very street at that very theater. And looking at these things [the stars] and going, 'Who are these people? What are these things? Did they do something right? Did they do something wrong? Whatever it is, I want one. I effing want one,' " she said.
"And I was 5 years old, so this day means more to me than you can possibly imagine," Applegate added.
