Alicia Witt's celebrated run as Dandelion on The Masked Singer may be over, but the actress and singer-songwriter says that her time on the competition series has been a life-affirming experience. In a new interview, the Hallmark star revealed that she joined the show after making a full recovery from breast cancer, which she says was "divine timing."
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47-year-old Witt received an invitation to join The Masked Singer at just the right time.
"I had just come out of breast reconstruction surgery that very day," Witt told People in an April 13 interview. "I was coming out of my anesthesia, and I was so groggy I wasn't even quite sure if I had seen the email right. The next day, I was a little bit more coherent. I was like, 'Did I get an email from The Masked Singer last night?' It felt like divine timing."
Witt jumped at the opportunity to go on the show, which she described as a "profound experience." After undergoing chemotherapy and completing reconstructive surgery, the "Witness" singer says that playing Dandelion felt like a celebration of her recovery.
"I was 100 percent healed by the time that I taped these episodes. That was amazing - to celebrate my reconstruction in that way, because it was kind of a tight-fitting costume," Witt said, adding that although she would miss the anonymity of her Dandelion mask, she was ready to unveil her identity. "I did have this sense when the unmasking happened and I got to take it off, I was sad because I also was having such a good time. And I knew I'll never have that experience of connecting with voice without this mask on, without my appearance being seen again. But I also felt like, now I get to show my smile to everyone."
After her identity was guessed by judge Ken Jeong, Witt was eliminated from the show on April 12. The Orange Is the New Black alum, who is also a singer-songwriter, will forever cherish that feeling of connecting with an audience with only her voice.
"We all look at a person and we make snap judgments about who that person must be before they open their mouth. This show is not only entertaining and fun to watch, but it's really profound because it strips all of that away," Witt explained. "It makes me so emotional just thinking about the feeling of connecting with that audience without being able to see them and without them being able to see me. [It] was utterly magical for me. It wouldn't be the same if I were just myself. It was a very emotional experience for me."
Witt will debut her new EP, Witness, at the City Winery in Nashville on May 25. Tickets are on sale now to attend the release.
The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Fox.
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