Thankfully, as the ever-forthright Philipps states, she rushed her doctors to take out what turned out to be a grade 2 oligodendroglioma (a malignant but slow-growing tumor) in time to accept an offer to costar in Cupertino, the new legal drama from The Good Wife and spinoff Elsbeth creators Robert and Michelle King. With filming set to begin just six weeks after her diagnosis, Philipps, being Philipps, still found it in her to joke/not joke about whether her surgeon could do a little eyebrow work while he was in there. (Sadly, he declined.)
For Philipps, the cancer diagnosis came just as she was mourning the February 11 death from colorectal cancer of her Dawson Creek costar and friend James Van Der Beek. While Philipps had been wavering about getting a planned preventative whole-body scan at the time, Van Der Beek’s death (and a second opinion) convinced her to ignore her primary doctor’s assurance that the test was unnecessary.
“Knowledge is power,” she recalls the second doctor telling her, and that knowledge likely saved her life, as the 2.6 centimeter tumor was removed without incident. As for now, Philipps says she will not need chemotherapy or radiation (just careful monitoring, since it’s the brain and all), and she’s excited to star alongside Mike Colter, Rachel Keller and her Girls5eva costar Renée Elise Goldsberry in Cupertino, where she’ll play the scored ex-wife of an A.I. billionaire who bankrolls Colter’s underdog law firm as they go after Silicon Valley tech giants. The brash role sounds like a great fit for the Freaks & Geeks star, who urges women to speak up when their health concerns are dismissed. “We are frequently told by doctors that there is nothing to worry about,” Philipps told People, adding, “There’s nothing to be afraid of in having information. It’s only empowering.”
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