Christina Applegate has opened up about her career, health, and personal life in a new tell-all memoir, You With The Sad Eyes, discussing the book in a recent appearance on The View.
What the memoir covers
The 54-year-old's memoir touches on her childhood as the daughter of a mother struggling with addiction, revealing that acting "saved" her, alongside her own struggles with anorexia as a teenager, an abusive relationship, and her later diagnoses of breast cancer and multiple sclerosis. Host Whoopi Goldberg called the book "stunning," and Applegate said she felt nervous making it all public, given the memoir includes journal entries dating back to when she was just 10 years old, but felt it was important to share in case it helped others going through similar experiences.
What Will Ferrell and Adam McKay did
Discussing her role as Veronica Corningstone in 2004's Anchorman, Applegate revealed that the salary she was initially offered fell well below what she considered fair, and below what her male co-stars were being paid. She said: "When they came in with the initial offer, it was, you know, a little offensive. And I said I can't. I know my worth, and I can't do that." She explained that because the production wanted her badly enough for the role, Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay both agreed to take a pay cut, transferring a portion of their own salaries to bring her offer up to a fair level. Reflecting on the outcome, she said: "Thank God they did because it was one of the best experiences of my entire life."
Applegate went on to describe the experience of filming as a formative one for her career, crediting the cast's improv work, developed under Adam McKay and taught in part by Steve Carell, as an invaluable, career-shaping experience.
Other similar stories in Hollywood
Applegate's account joins a small number of similar stories where actors have taken pay cuts to support co-stars. Chadwick Boseman reportedly donated part of his own salary on 21 Bridges to help Sienna Miller reach the number she'd asked for, saying it was what she deserved to be paid. Will Smith similarly used his own money to cover bonuses for his King Richard co-stars, including his on-screen daughters Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton, after a distribution change reduced the cast's expected earnings.
Her MS diagnosis and the symptom to watch for
Applegate has spoken previously about living with multiple sclerosis, a chronic autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the protective coating around nerves in the brain and spinal cord, disrupting communication between the brain and body. She's described the earliest sign she experienced as a small, easy-to-dismiss tingling sensation in her toes, which appeared and disappeared over months before her eventual diagnosis in 2021. Doctors note that this kind of intermittent tingling in the hands or feet is one of the most commonly overlooked early symptoms of MS, often mistaken for poor circulation, and say persistence over weeks or months, especially alongside changes in balance, coordination, vision, or fatigue, is worth raising with a doctor rather than dismissing.
