Former Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Emma Caulfield Ford revealed her multiple sclerosis diagnosis
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the 49-year-old actor opened up about her MS diagnosis, which she kept private for over a decade. "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," Caulfield Ford said. The WandaVision star consulted her acupuncturist due to her unexpected symptoms and underwent an MRI to determine the cause. Caulfield Ford's neurologist initially diagnosed her with Bell's palsy, a weakening of the facial muscles that tends to resolve with time.
Caulfield Ford's doctor called her during hair and makeup for Gigantic to deliver the MRI results. "And he was like: 'You have MS.' Just like that," the actor 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?'" Multiple sclerosis is a medical condition that attacks the body's central nervous system, causing various symptoms like vision loss, fatigue and impaired coordination.
Before Caulfield Ford's own diagnosis, doctors diagnosed her father with the same condition. Children of parents with multiple sclerosis are more likely to inherit the condition. In 2017, the actor married actor Mark Leslie Ford, and the couple have a 6-year-old daughter together. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum cited her daughter as the reason she decided to go public with her MS diagnosis. "I know that she has a 30% greater chance of coming down with this, just luck of the draw for her," she said. "It got me thinking about her and how full of joy and active she is, and she's just such a remarkable little creature."
Working on WandaVision Was a Challenge
Caulfield Ford explained how the summer heat and stress can cause her MS to flare up. However, the actor managed to make it through filming the outdoor scenes of WandaVision in Atlanta's sweltering heat. "We were never supposed to be shooting any of these outdoor, big costume scenes [in late summer]," she said. "All that was supposed to happen in spring, but it didn’t. It got pushed."
The actor will reprise her WandaVision character of Sarah Proctor/Dottie Jones on Agatha: Coven of Chaos. The upcoming spinoff focuses on Agatha Harkness, following the powerful witch's role in WandaVision. "That is super fun," Caulfield Ford said of her involvement in the upcoming series. "There's a couple of things actually. There's another thing which I also can't really say."
Agatha: Coven of Chaos is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ in Winter 2023.
Source: Vanity Fair