Adam Devine (Pitch Perfect, Workaholics, The Righteous Gemstones) isn’t dying, he thinks, even though doctors told him as much last year.
Devine has been dealing with chronic pain that he now believes stems from an accident he had as a child when he was hit by a cement truck, breaking every bone in his legs.
These days, Devine says he’s experiencing “spasms all over,” telling Graham Bensinger in a recent interview: “It’s been a nightmare.”
Things got so bad that Devine’s doctors diagnosed him with Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS), more formally known as Moersch-Woltman Syndrome. SPS is a rare neurological disorder characterized by progressive muscle stiffness and painful spasms that can often be triggered by stimuli like noise or touch.
Devine described the condition this way: “When your muscles get so tight that you can no longer walk, you can no longer move — then your heart will stop beating because your heart is a muscle. It gets too tight to beat, and then you die. And so essentially the average life expectancy is six years.”
It’s scary stuff; singer Celine Dion publicly detailed her struggles with the disorder in 2024 documentary I Am: Celine Dion.
Devine said that “for a while,” doctors “told me I was dying. Literally within this last year they told me that.”
The terrible diagnosis and prognosis by proxy couldn’t have come at a worse time. Devine says his doctors gave him the news a month before his son Beau, Devine’s first child, was born in February 2024.
“Oh great, now I’m gonna die,” Devine recalled thinking. “He’s gonna be 6 years old, he’s only gonna know a crippled father.”
A sense of relief was found when Devine’s doctors sent the actor to the foremost expert in the field of SPS, who assured Devine that he does not have Moersch-Woltman Syndrome — named for the two Mayo Clinic physicians who first identified and described Stiff Person Syndrome — rather his present struggles are the residual effects of Devine’s childhood accident.
“It hurts to sit for too long, it hurts to stand for too long, it hurts to walk for too long,” Devine described his current routine. “I have to foam roll two-three times a day, I have to do stretches two-three times a day.”
Though hip surgeries in 2024 didn’t pay much in the way of health dividends, Devine thinks the stem cell treatment he underwent in Medellín, Colombia “is kind of working,” adding that he now fells “the best” he’s been in about three years.
But he’s not exactly doing cartwheels, let alone Hollywood stunt work. It’s too bad, because Devine said he originally wanted to be “a comedy-action star.” Not anymore.
“Now I’m like, I’m gonna be the comedy guy in the action movie with the action star and he does all the action stuff,” Devine said.
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