Charmed star Rose McGowan reflects on her casting in the series. McGowan played Paige Matthews in Charmed, beginning in season 4 in 2001. Paige came in as a character in the show following Charmed season 3’s loss of Prue, who was played by Shannen Doherty in the series for the first three seasons. Doherty’s departure from Charmed was controversial, and it is something that she spoke about as recently as this year, before her tragic death from cancer in July.
Speaking on the Let’s Be Clear podcast, McGowan reflects on what it was like to replace Doherty on the show. The actor explained that when she arrived at the set of Charmed, she “did not understand the backstory” surrounding the conditions of Doherty’s departure from the show, and was just “told she was fired and nobody talked about her.” McGowan went on to explain the media storm that ensued afterward, wherein various outlets tried to pit Doherty and McGowan against each other, asking questions like “Do you think Shannen Doherty hates you?” Check out the full quote from McGowan below:
At the time I joined Charmed I did not understand the backstory. I was just told she was fired and nobody talked about her. [I was] just trying to keep my head above water at that point. I was very famous at that point, but I was persona non grata, non-hirable. I caused disruptions everywhere I went. This is something that Shannen [and I] later talked about that she related to: the weight of what it’s like to have the media machine lie about you.
It was just strange. I was told over and over: ‘No show survives a major cast change.’ You only have like 200 something jobs on the line and far more behind the scenes of people you can’t see in administration, but no worries if everybody loses their jobs because you joining is going to tank the show.
I was in a very vulnerable position. The thing in Hollywood is if you got fired as a woman from a job, you didn’t get a second chance, so it was already a miracle that Shannen was there in the first place. I think that’s certainly what made her vulnerable to the operation behind the scenes that took her out. . . she was preyed upon in that way. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with someone wanting things to be better. They made it sound like she was difficult.
From the get go, every question was like, ‘Do you think Shannen Doherty hates you?’ ‘Do you think she’s jealous of you?’ ‘What do you think? And I refused to take the bait. They wanted me to start a war with her, and I was like, absolutely not. And to her credit, she absolutely did not do that either.
The Backstory Behind Shannen Doherty’s Departure From Charmed
Shannen Doherty’s Firing Resulted from Set Drama
While the specifics of the firing were seemingly not discussed on the set of Charmed itself, Doherty’s departure came after a series of on-set drama. According to Doherty and co-star Holly Marie Combs, the first three seasons of Charmed were riddled with on-set drama involving fellow Charmed actor Alyssa Milano. By season 3, Milano began “documenting every time she felt uncomfortable on set” and later threatened to “sue” Combs and Doherty for creating “a hostile workplace environment.” This put the Charmed team in a position where they had to decide between Milano and Doherty.
As evidenced by her firing, Charmed ended up choosing Milano to stay on the show, ousting Doherty. On the Let’s Be Clear podcast, which Doherty hosted prior to her passing, Doherty has discussed how this firing affected her, clearly feeling hurt by it. After years, the actor accepted that “the situation happened,” yet drew the distinction that “moving on with your life does not equate to forgiveness.”
Following Doherty’s story on the Let’s Be Clear podcast, Milano spoke out and said that she is “sad people can’t move past” Doherty’s firing, but did not apologize directly for her alleged actions on set. Doherty later countered Milano’s claim, noting that she would stand by the “truth” of what happened on the Charmed set. Especially given this contentious background, it is good that McGowan refused to “take the bait” when it came to speaking about Doherty’s firing. It put the actor in a challenging position, but she would not be adding fuel to the fire.
Source: Let’s Be Clear Podcast
