‘Parks and Recreation’ star Aubrey Plaza suffered unexplained stroke at age 20: ‘I was paralyzed’

Aubrey Plaza is sharing the “wild” experience of having a sudden stroke at a young age.

During a recent interview on Sirius XM’s “Howard Stern Show,” Plaza shared that she had a stroke at 20 years old, which left her briefly paralyzed and unable to speak. According to the actress, the stroke came on suddenly, saying “It happened mid-sentence.” 

“I took the train to Astoria to have lunch with my friends and I walked into their apartment ― I hadn’t even taken my jacket off ― and it just happened,” she said on the radio show, adding “it was wild.”

She continued: “I was paralyzed, but only really for a minute or something. I lost my motor skills really briefly. The freakiest thing was I forgot how to talk.”

AUBREY PLAZA SHARES WHY SHE STOLE A NOTE FROM BIDEN’S DESK DURING ‘PARKS AND RECREATION’ SHOOT

The actress has opened up about her stroke in the past, telling David Letterman during an appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman” in 2011, “it was kind of a freak thing.”

At the time, the actress was uncertain what caused the stroke, telling the talk show host the doctors had different ideas as to what caused it. Some thought it was due to hormones, while others thought it could be related to her migraines.

“The right side of my body stopped working, and I looked down at my arm, and I was like, ‘whose arm is that? It’s not connected to my body,” she explained. “I kind of blacked out, and then I wasn’t able to talk. I had expressive aphasia for the next couple of days…My friends actually thought I was kidding because I was always doing like weird jokes, and they were like, ‘cut it out.'”

She went on to tell the talk show host the paramedics thought she had been on drugs since she was so young and the possibility of a stroke was not the first thing that crossed their minds. The “Parks and Recreation” star explained feeling terrified on the inside, wondering if she would ever be able to speak again.

Aubrey Plaza attends the “Megalopolis” photocall at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 17, 2024 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

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In a 2017 interview with NPR, Plaza revealed that she continued to have mini strokes at the time called “transient ischemic attacks,” which she referred to as “tiny little strokes.”

According to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, there are two main types of strokes, ischemic and hemorrhagic. An ischemic stroke occurs when part of a blood vessel is blocked, while a hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a blood vessel begins to leak, or burst. 

“I was paralyzed, but only really for a minute or something. I lost my motor skills really briefly. The freakiest thing was I forgot how to talk.”

— Aubrey Plaza

Symptoms of both types of strokes include weakness or numbness of the face and extremities on one side, difficulty speaking, confusion, severe and sudden headaches and others.

Plaza has recently been promoting her upcoming project, “Megalopolis,” which also stars Adam Driver and Shia LaBeouf. The movie follows an architect who can control time and is working to rebuild the destroyed metropolis called New Rome and turn it into a utopia.

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Aubrey Plaza was surprised to have landed an audition with Francis Ford Coppolla. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Deadline via Getty Images)

“I thought, ‘How am I on his radar?'” she told Delaware Online about how shocked she was to land an audition with director Francis Ford Coppola. “And then I never thought I would actually get that part. I was like, ‘Well, I’ll do the meeting, of course,’ but I didn’t think I was going to get the part and I was actually shocked when I got it.”

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