No, Christine Ebersole – the actress who portrays Dottie — did not have a stroke in real life. But according to the New York Post, Ebersole did draw on some real experience to authentically portray the aftereffects of such a life-threatening emergency.
Speaking to the publication, Ebersole revealed that her husband Bill Moloney suffered an acoustic neuroma two years into their marriage. He was left "kind-of paralyzed" by the process of removing the tumor. "He was a drummer and that really ended his career. He had to learn how to walk all over again. He couldn't blink his eye. He couldn't smile. He still has a lot of facial pain because of nerve damage," she said.
Ebersole used this experience to inform her acting while portraying Dottie during the character's stroke storyline. "It was all on his left side," she continued. "So I chose the left side. I could relate to that. What I imagined was what Bill went through." Her careful work has clearly paid off.
