Aubrey Plaza recalled the “wild” moment when she was briefly paralyzed and unable to speak from a sudden stroke at age 20.
“The craziest thing about it ― and kind the coolest thing about it ― it happened mid-sentence,” the actress, now 40, said Wednesday on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show,” per Delaware Online.
Plaza explained she had taken a train to Astoria, Queens, in New York City for a lunch date with her friends when the unexplained stroke occurred.
“I walked into their apartment ― I hadn’t even taken my jacket off ― and it just happened,” she said.
The “Agatha All Along” actress explained that she was completely paralyzed, but only for a minute or so.
“I lost my motor skills really briefly. The freakiest thing was I forgot how to talk,” she explained.
The “White Lotus” star, who is famously known for her sarcastic humor, recalled her friends thinking she was pulling a prank on them during NPR’s “Fresh Air” segment in 2017.
“But then after a couple of minutes, you know, they kept saying, ‘Do you want us to call an ambulance?’” she explained.
“And I was aware enough to shake my head yes. And I kept just shaking my head yes because I knew something was really, really wrong. But I didn’t know what it was, and I couldn’t talk.”
Eventually, the paramedics showed up and were in disbelief Plaza hadn’t taken any illicit drugs because they thought she was too young to have a stroke.
“I hadn’t really put anything into my body that day … except for birth control,” she continued.
The “Parks and Recreation” alum was then taken to a local hospital where she had to wait in the emergency room for two hours.
“I physically looked fine. But I couldn’t talk, and I was confused. I also couldn’t write,” she added, explaining the doctor later determined she had a stroke after examining her.
Plaza spent a few nights in the stroke unit before being transferred to her native state of Delaware to be close to family.
She attended cognitive therapy sessions for a few weeks before returning to NYC for fall classes at New York University.
