
Selma Blair has recalled filming Hellboy while suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS).
While speaking to British Vogue for an interview published on Thursday, the Hellboy star recounted working on the 2019 film in Prague with MS symptoms.
“I was worried since the beginning of time that a glaring fault would remove me from the workforce. And usually it was my incoordination or getting stuck, too weak or sick, in my trailer – or any time, really,” Selma explained of acting with MS in general. “The vomiting or body issues were terrifying, (and the) baldness or rashes.”
Before speaking out about her experience with the disease, the actress recalled living in “terror” of being “found out”. She said, “I remember being very, very poorly on Hellboy and was diagnosed with cat scratch fever and possible leukaemia in Prague. I couldn’t tell anybody.
“I couldn’t admit alcoholism or (access) treatment in my insurance for fear I’d be deemed an insurance risk. I fell apart once I got back to LA.”
The actress has previously opened up about her alcohol use, saying elsewhere in her Vogue interview, “I took benzos and Klonopin (a medication used to prevent seizures and anxiety disorders). I didn’t abuse those things, just alcohol.”
Hellboy had marked Selma’s return to the industry after she pulled away from film and television following production on the US remake of Kath & Kim, which ran for 17 episodes between 2008 and 2009.
“My autoimmune system was misfiring,” she recalled of filming the series. “I kinda bowed out (after the show). It was a French exit and everybody else stayed at the party.”
Selma continued, “My self-hatred was extreme. I could not manage well and I couldn’t even try to find work.”
– Cover Media