Southfield native Selma Blair accepts key to city

SOUTHFIELD — Selma Blair has come a long way from her roots in Southfield to be a Hollywood actress, but she returned to the city in order to accept one of its biggest honors.

Blair, known for her roles in “Legally Blonde,” “Cruel Intentions” and “Hellboy,” was given the key to the city of Southfield by Mayor Kenson Siver during a special luncheon on May 16, which also was proclaimed as “Selma Blair Day.”

“(Southfield has) meant so much to me as the only city I ever lived before I grew up,” she said during the presentation. “It’s the only city I was ever loved in by my mom and my sisters and the city around me.”

Blair, 52, has received a number of honors in her life, including being named one of Time magazine’s People of the Year in 2017, a Glamour’s Women of the Year recipient in 2023, a New York Times bestseller for her memoir “Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up” and the Competition Contestant award from the People’s Choice Awards in 2022. 

Blair told C & G Newspapers that getting a key from her hometown means just as much as any of those honors.

“The People’s Choice Awards was a huge moment to realize, ‘Oh my God, people actually ever think of me,’” she said. “This was my only home before college. I never lived anywhere else. Same house, and I loved this city. … I got to really develop a lot of my foundation here. … It means so much to me.”

Siver said it was exciting to be able to present Blair with the key, something the city doesn’t do often.

“We were very pleased to have her come back to her roots and then not only just come to visit, but to work on our behalf for her championing as an MS survivor and also as a supporter of the arts,” he said. “When we talked to her months ago about this visit, she was very enthusiastic about it.”

Blair spent the first 21 years of her life in Southfield before moving to New York City to attend New York University. She returned to her home state to study, and later graduate, at the University of Michigan. From there, she spent several years auditioning for TV shows and movies before getting her breakthrough role in “Cruel Intentions.”

The luncheon where Blair was presented with the key to the city was for Yoga Moves MS, a nonprofit organization that provides yoga classes and health education for people living with multiple sclerosis, a disease that Blair was diagnosed with in 2018 and for which she has been an advocate ever since. The organization was founded by Mindy Eisenberg, a former neighbor of Blair’s.

“When I came out with my diagnosis, I didn’t realize there were so many of us, I mean, so many people that loved people like us or were sick of people like us and didn’t know how to handle (it),” Blair said to the luncheon attendees. “Coming out and talking about it and hearing people’s stories has been some of the most enriching times of my life connecting with people. I do spend a lot of time isolated at home — in a very lovely way — but it can be a lot.”

Blair said performing yoga has helped keep her attitude in a better place during her MS journey.

“You can do such nonaggressive movements,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be pounding on your joints and things. It’s just about learning to center yourself and to stretch and breathe into it. And I think anybody that can move a little can still practice yoga. It’s a very forgiving practice.”

When Blair was diagnosed, she could have taken her time and stepped away from the public to deal with her MS and the new challenges that awaited. 

Instead, as she self-admittly is someone who is very forthcoming with just about anyone, she decided to become one of the public faces of the disease. 

“It just didn’t sound right to me,” Blair said of keeping her diagnosis quiet. “I wound up telling someone to thank them on Instagram, and people caught wind a bit and it was out there. And I was so heartened by all the people that, kind of, it resonated with them. And there’s so many people that wanted visibility and wanted information too, you know? It was refreshing for some people to see someone they might have known on-screen (with MS) … and to think that I could be any comfort or anything, that just meant so much to me.”

Blair has been relapse-free from MS for a couple of years now, but she stressed that cases of MS are different for everyone. One universal thing that many MS-diagnosed people share, however, is overwhelming fatigue.

It’s something that Blair suffered from since she was a child. She stated she probably has dealt with MS symptoms since 1977.

“You can get really overwhelmed, and that’s kind of how I feel all the time,” she said. “Even though I’m relapse-free and doing really well, that is kind of always there. Like, ‘When will I lie down?’ Because the more tired I am, the more other things will show symptoms, even though I’m doing really well, but there’s just some brain damage left that happens with MS, even when you’re doing better.”

Blair said she wants to continue to advocate for those with MS, especially in her hometown. Later that day, after receiving the key, she hosted the Friends of the Southfield Public Arts’ Art & Vintage Fashion Show fundraiser with students from the Southfield High School for the Arts & Technology dance team modeling over 40 articles of vintage clothing from the 1940s through 1970s. The vintage clothing was provided by the Berkley store Fantoni.

“I really want to champion other people in the place I came from,” she said. “That’s how I learned more about myself, because I was sick for so long that I didn’t really know who I was, and then to realize, ‘Oh, it’s not in my head,’ that was such a change in my life.”