Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Emma Caulfield has revealed she has multiple sclerosis in a new interview, also confirming her return to the WandaVision universe in Kathryn Hahn‘s upcoming Marvel series Agatha: Coven of Chaos.
The 49-year-old actress, who appeared opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar on Buffy as the ex-demon Anya between 1998 and 2003, told Vanity Fair she was diagnosed with the neurological condition that disrupts communication between the brain and the body, resulting in the immune system eating at the protective covering of nerves.
“Once upon a time, I had zero health problems,” Caulfield told the publication. “Back in 2010, I was working on [executive producer] Marti Noxon’s Gigantic, and prior to starting that job, I woke up one morning and the left side of my face felt like there were a million ants crawling on it. That feeling when you’ve sat in a position too long? … The feeling’s gone and it’s coming back like a rush of blood. Then it just sort of went, I wouldn’t say completely numb, because I could still scratch it and feel my nails. But it was extremely dull. I went to my acupuncturist, and he was like, ‘I don’t know, man. Maybe you have Bell’s palsy?'”
20th Century Fox Television/Kobal/Shutterstock; Marvel Studios ‘Buffy’ star Emma Caulfield revealed her MS diagnosis and ‘WandaVision’ return.
At the insistence of her acupuncturist, Caulfield went to a neurologist for an MRI. She received the call confirming her MS diagnosis when she returned to set.
“I had five minutes down or whatever. And he was like: ‘You have MS.’ Just like that,” she recalled. “It was like an out-of-body experience. I’m like, ‘No, that’s not possible.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He was very matter-of-fact about it. ‘Well, you can get a second opinion…’ It was literally a kind of nightmare…. It turns out it was something major. Then I was like, ‘I’ve got to go to work now.’ What do I do?”
Caulfield promised she’s feeling “OK right now,” saying, “Truthfully, my attitude is not crumbling under the fear of ‘what if’ or ‘what can,’ or ‘what has’ for other people. I just have to keep going.”
After starring in four episodes of WandaVision as Sarah Proctor (who appears in Wanda Maximoff’s black-and-white fantasy world as her neighbor Dottie Jones) opposite Elizabeth Olsen‘s Scarlet Witch, Caulfield is set to reprise her role in Hahn’s spin-off series centering on her villainous witch, Agatha Harkness.
Speaking to EW for Buffy‘s 20-year reunion in 2017, Caulfield speculated on why the series became such a popular cultural staple among young people throughout its run.
“It just touched on really basic human emotions, like a life blueprint,” she told EW. “‘I don’t have any friends. I feel isolated.’ Those sort of core human emotions.”
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