Interview: Kristin Chenoweth on Putting Chronic Migraine 'Center Stage' With AbbVie

Kristin Chenoweth is shedding a spotlight on Chronic Migraine with her new partnership, The Center Stage with Chronic Migraine.

The Tony and Emmy-winning actress has partnered with AbbVie to address the ongoing struggles of the 3.3 million people living with Chronic Migraine.

Through the partnership, they aim to provide an examination of treatment options, including BOTOX® (onabotulinumtoxinA) for Chronic Migraine every three months, to prevent headaches in adults with the condition. Chronic Migraine is classified as 15 or more headache days per month, with each lasting 4 or more hours.

The Tony and Emmy-winning actress is currently filming the second season of the hit musical series Schmigadoon! and will be seen in Billy Eichner's upcoming rom-com BROS.

BroadwayWorld caught up with Chenoweth to discuss how her Chronic Migraine has affected her in the past, how she has found a solution, and what life is like after putting her health "Center Stage."

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When did you first start experiencing Chronic Migraine?

I was 25 years old. You're going to appreciate this, I was at the Virginia Symphony, two acts. By intermission, my symptoms that I get, I call them "kaleidoscope eyes" and "falling elevator." You know when you drink a Slurpee too fast and you get your brain froze? That was happening to me. Like, pound, pound, pound, and I'm singing "Glitter and Be Gay." So I'm like "This isn't funny." Like, what is this? I didn't know what was wrong. So I crawl off at intermission. And then they started. So I was like, "Am I going to have to retire? What what's going to happen?" But it really impacted, not a lot of people know this, my career and my life.

I finally, over years of working with my doctor and just understanding what it was, found a treatment that works for me and it's BOTOX® for Chronic Migraine.

That's one of the reasons that I'm partnering with AbbVie, you know, I do a lot of different things, right. But when something debilitates you so hard and it's something that nobody can see, it doesn't mean it's not there. First of all, nobody wants to hear my problems because I have a great life, right? Well, I do have a great life, but it's not rainbows, unicorns and glitter all the time. And this is something, like if I had flames, as Madeline Kahn says, "Flames, flames, flames, coming from the side of my face," people would know something was wrong, but with Chronic Migraine, there's been this stigma attached to it, like, "Oh, it's just a bad headache." So, I'm here to say that it is not.

With Chronic Migraine, I'm sure the lights on a stage must be so just painful for you.

I'm so glad you brought it up because I told you some of the symptoms and triggers, but like the night I won the Emmy, we had paparazzi, and it happens to me on stage with a spotlight. If I catch a spotlight just right, even with ring lights, I have to be careful. But the paparazzi, especially, that is a big time trigger. I will wear, and I know it looks completely like I'm a wacko, but I will wear sunglasses a lot of times on the red carpet because I literally cannot see and it can trigger. So the night I won the Emmy, I immediately got the Chronic Migraine and I was taken from ambulance to hospital.

It's not just about being a performer. People who are accountants, people in politics, people who run companies that have this, they want to be able to do what they they're passionate about and they want to be able to do their job. I wanted to be able to celebrate something that had happened that to me that night, and I couldn't.

With this Center Stage with Chronic Migraine program with AbbVie, how do you hope that it helps those people who may not really see as much representation about Chronic Migraine in normal media?

I really want to encourage people to speak out because there is this stigma, like I said before, that it's a bad headache. It is not and it's chronic, so it's means more than, you know, more than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Say we work together at your company, at BroadwayWorld, which is one of my faves, and I had [chronic migraine], I would want you to know. I would say, "Just so you know, I have this thing. It may happen, nothing for you to worry about. I'm handling it. I deal with my doctors all the time of how to handle it." That's really important for people to know and to speak out and to let your, your coworkers know, like this might happen.

When I was doing Promises, Promises, so nice they named it twice, with Sean Hayes, there's a scene where I tried to take my life, sorry to go there, but as the character and I'm laying in bed and I whispered to him, "I'm getting Chronic Migraine." And he said, "I've got you. I've got you."

So main thing is speaking out, speaking out, there's no shame in it. We have this thing and more people are speaking out and I like to see that. So that's going to be my contribution to it.

In the past, you've had to walk away from certain projects or delayed them due to Chronic Migraine. Now that you have found this solution and you're speaking out about it, is there anything that you're looking forward to doing in the future that you weren't able to do before?

I'm a big meditator and prayer person. So I say, "Okay, God, you weren't made to do this deal? You better help me out." I've been doing what my doctor says.

I do [BOTOX®] every 12 weeks, so it's a preventative as well. Now, this is me speaking. Everybody's journey is different.

How long did it sort of take you to find the right treatment? Had you gone through several?

Like I said, the symphony is not the place you want to like barf at intermission. I thought, I didn't know what this was. I thought I had a brain tumor. Isn't that weird? How our minds go, "I've got a brain tumor" or whatever.

I want to do what I love to do and encourage and encourage people to do the same. This treatment is working for me and CenterStageWithCM.com is a place where people who do suffer with this can go and find out more about our program, our specific program.

As an actress, we get things that we are offered, let's not pretend, but the reason that I wanted to do this is because I can talk about something that's real. I'm not gonna sit here and go, "I'm an authentic person," but pretty much what you see is what you get. I can talk about it because it, it really has affected my life so, so much, but with this treatment, it has helped me so much, so I'm so grateful and thankful for it.

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For more information, visit CenterStageWithCM.com.