Selma Blair Shares Upcoming Documentary & Promising Health Update
Along with sharing the trailer for her upcoming documentary, Introducing, Selma Blair, the actress shared a promising update about her battle with multiple sclerosis
After announcing that she’d been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) back in 2018, Selma Blair has used social media as a way to share her experiences with fans, both giving updates about her health and using her platform to advocate for those living with chronic illness.
Now, she’s telling her story in a more candid way than ever before, starring in a documentary that will chronicle her life since her diagnosis. Introducing, Selma Blair will be released in October. The powerful trailer shows Blair trying out experimental treatments to help manage symptoms of the disease, as well as trying to be there for her 10-year-old son, Arthur, even on her toughest days.
In the trailer for the film, which was directed by filmmaker Rachel Fleit, Blair can be heard telling the camera, “I was told to make plans for dying. Not ’cause I have MS, ’cause I’m fighting MS.”
According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, MS is “an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body.” There are an estimated 2.3 million people living with MS around the world, typically affecting more women than men. Most people are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50.
Since her diagnosis, People reports Blair has tried both a stem cell treatment and chemotherapy to help boost her immune system, and it seems she’s currently doing very well. At a press junket for the documentary on August 16, she gave an update on her health, sharing, “My prognosis is great. I’m in remission. Stem cell put me in remission. It took about a year after stem cell for the inflammation and lesions to really go down.”
It seems she’s wanted to share the news publicly but worried she might take a turn for the worse. “I was reluctant to talk about it because I felt this need to be more healed and more fixed,” she said. “I’ve accrued a lifetime of some baggage in the brain that still needs a little sorting out or accepting. That took me a minute to get to that acceptance. It doesn’t look like this for everyone.”
And the support of those around her has seemingly helped make all the difference in her fight. “People took great care of me. I never really like life. I do now — strange, huh? … I’m having the time of my life.”
She hopes sharing her story helps normalize chronic illness as well as help others feel a little less alone in what they might be going through. “To hear even just me showing up with a cane or sharing something that might be embarrassing, it was a key for a lot of people in finding comfort in themselves and that means everything to me,” she said. “I’m thrilled that I have some platform. In no means am I saying that I’m speaking for all people in this condition or any condition of chronic illness. I’m speaking my story, and if that helps normalize one thing — to open the door for other people to be comfortable in telling their stories — I’m thrilled to have this here.”
Check out Introducing, Selma Blair when it hits select theaters on October 15 and Discovery+ on October 21.
