Buffy The Vampire Slayer Star Reveals Heartbreaking Diagnosis
Emma Caulfield who starred in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and WandaVision revealed she was diagnosed with MS in 2010.
Emma Caulfield, former star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and WandaVision, recently opened up about her MS diagnosis in an interview with Vanity Fair. She details how she found out that she had multiple sclerosis back in 2010 when she was about to start work on Gigantic. While she initially received a less severe diagnosis of bell palsy, further tests determined that she actually has MS.
Emma Caulfield recalled the jarring moment when her doctor called her after her MRI saying, “And he was like: ‘You have MS.’ Just like that.” The Buffy star’s father was also diagnosed with MS before Caulfield, which means that Caulfield always had a genetic propensity for the condition.
Multiple sclerosis is a condition that causes the immune system to attack the protective covering of the nerves, causing symptoms like pain, fatigue, loss of vision, and loss of coordination. Emma Caulfield talked about some of her struggles with MS, most recently how shooting WandaVision in the Atlanta summer heat caused her to feel fatigued as her symptoms flared up from the increased temperatures. The Buffy star also talked about why she opened up about her condition, saying how she doesn’t want her daughter to feel like she’s hiding it.
Emma Caulfield had her breakout role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer where she played a former vengeance demon named Anya. She initially was an antagonist to Buffy and her friends, but she soon eventually become an ally and a significant character in the Buffy universe. Since her work on Buffy, Caulfield has kept a steady career in various TV roles.
In her Vanity Fair interview, Emma Caulfield also touched on her work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all the recent allegations of toxic behavior against creator Joss Whedon (who has denied the allegations.) Caulfield talked about how everyone on set already knew about how Whedon behaved saying that she doesn’t want to waste her time talking about him anymore because she’s talked about him for so long. However, she did encourage Buffy fans to continue to like and enjoy the show, because there were plenty of other talented people who worked on it and the good parts are still there.
WandaVision was another big role for Emma Caulfield, apart from Buffy, as she joined the expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe. Caulfield played Dottie Jones, who was actually Sarah Proctor — one of the residents of the neighborhood that was under Wanda Maximoff’s spell. While Wanda broke the spell at the end of the season and let the residents of the neighborhood free, it won’t be the last we’ll see of Caulfield in the MCU.
Buffy’s Emma Caulfield will also be reprising her role in the upcoming MCU series Agatha: Coven of Chaos, which stars Kathryn Hahn as the WandaVision antagonist Agatha Harkness. Right now, the plot of Agatha: Coven of Chaos is being kept under wraps, but the series is set to hit Disney+ sometime in 2023. As per usual with Marvel, Caulfield couldn’t reveal much about her part in the series or any future MCU appearances, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens there.
