How THE OFFICE Actress’ Former Co-Stars Supported Her Through Cancer
Movieguide® Contributor
When Jenna Fischer got diagnosed with breast cancer last year, her HALL PASS co-star, Christina Applegate, and OFFICE co-star, Angela Kinsey, were there to help her through it.
“I called her, and she answered the phone, and she said, ‘Which one is it?’ And I said, ‘It’s breast cancer.’ And she said, ‘I … knew it.’” Fischer cancer-diagnosis">recalled of her conversation with Applegate.
A breast cancer survivor herself, Applegate helped connect Fischer to other people who’ve fought the disease.
Kinsey, Fischer’s OFFICE co-star, also helped her through her cancer battle.
“From the beginning, she said, ‘Whatever you need. You tell me, I’m here,’” Fischer cancer-diagnosis/">recalled. “And I said, ‘I want to keep working, and I don’t want anyone to know at work. At work, I want that to be a space where we go and we laugh and I’m not a cancer patient. I need that.’ And she said, ‘Okay.’”
When it came time to tell her kids, Fischer and her husband were “very honest with them.”
“They’re 10 and they’re 13, and they were going to be living in the house while I went through this,” she told Hoda Kotb on the TODAY show on Oct. 21. “They’re going to see it. And the biggest thing that I wanted them to know was that any ways that I seemed sick during this process were side effects of treatments.”
“They weren’t cancer making me sick,” she said. “That distinction, I think, really put them at ease. And then we just kind of did it together. And they were amazing.”
“THE OFFICE actress Jenna Fischer revealed this month that she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer last year.”
READ MORE: THE OFFICE ACTRESS REVEALS CANCER DIAGNOSIS, ‘FEELING GREAT’ AFTER TREATMENT
In October 2023, Fischer went in for a routine mammogram.
“Three weeks later, they said, ‘Oh, your mammogram was fine. There were a few spots that were difficult to see. You have very dense tissue. We would recommend that you do another mammogram and maybe follow up with a breast ultrasound,’” she cancer/jenna-fischer-interview-breast-cancer-today-show-rcna175730">said.
“I was like, ‘This is the appointment that won’t end,’” Fischer laughed.
She didn’t feel concerned when she underwent the breast ultrasound, but then the doctors asked her to do a biopsy, reassuring her that there was a 10% chance of cancer.
She was on a solo hike when she got the results. She read the words “ductal, carcinoma” and “malignant” and knew something was wrong.
“I think the word that really got me was when we found out that I was triple-positive and my oncologist said chemotherapy. That was when I really lost it,” she said.
“I started by having just a big bald patch down this side of my head [during chemotherapy]. And I would kind of do a real elaborate comb-over,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I understand why the gentlemen do this now. Yes, I can sort of pretend like that isn’t there for a while.’”
Fischer also underwent radiation therapy and had a lumpectomy. Now she’s cancer-free.
“Humor helped through all of this. And working helped. And staying in the world helped,” she said.
“My oncology nurse, Ron, was an amazing man…When I started chemotherapy, he said to me, ‘Listen, I want you to get up every day, and I want you to walk. Every day. I want you to drink a ton of water. Walking and water. That’s what I want you to do. And I want you to take care of those kids. The women who get up and at it are the women who do better in my experience.’”
Someone else told her she should “live” her “life during this process,” and she did her best to do that.
“I did that,” she cancer/jenna-fischer-interview-breast-cancer-today-show-rcna175730">said. “And some days I just walked circles in my own living room. Some days I walked all around the block. But I did every day get up and do those things. And I think it made a really big difference.”
“So many people took care of me, and my family, and my children, and I am so grateful for it — in so many small ways,” she said. “And the thing is, is that everybody had the right way or the perfect way to do it.”
Some friends sent considerate texts or picked her kids up from school. Her mother-in-law recorded prayers and sent them before Fischer’s treatments.
She was happy that her privacy was maintained in the workspace and that she wasn’t treated differently.
“I liked that people were annoyed if I was late with an email,” she said. “I liked being regarded as my old self, so to speak.”
“All of the most important things became so clear so quickly. And the cool thing is that that focus never leaves. So I will get to carry that with me now…I’ll say I find the world to be such a beautiful place in all of its quirkiness.”
She found herself appreciating life’s little inconveniences.
“Like, you know, just traffic. ‘Oh, look at you, cute traffic. Look at all the people just goin’ places,’” she said. “How great that I get to sit in traffic. How cool.”
Now the actress has a message for all women: “Please don’t skip your mammogram appointment. Please get all the extra screenings that the doctor wants you to get.”
She believes she was able to beat the cancer due to her early diagnosis.
“If I had waited six more months, it could have been much worse. It could have spread. It was a very aggressive form of cancer,” Fischer said. “I’m really lucky that my cancer had not spread into my lymph nodes. It hadn’t spread anywhere else in my body.”
“My tumor was still very small, too small to feel,” she said. “That’s the thing. A self-exam would not have (caught the cancer). It really was that routine mammogram that started all of this. And I’m so grateful that I went to that appointment.”
Fischer later shared her gratitude for the chance to get to talk about her cancer experience on the TODAY show.
“A big thank you to @hodakotb and everyone at the @todayshow for having me on to talk about my journey with breast cancer,” Fischer said on Instagram. “I hope that hearing my story will be comforting to any women out there also on this journey. I’m still walking through this every day. But there are more good days than bad. Being able to put my experience to use somehow helps a lot.”
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