Shortly before losing her battle with cancer, Shannen Doherty praised Alyssa Milano’s work on Charmed.
Fans of The WB show know Milano, now 51, played the role of Phoebe Halliwell, but may not be aware that Lori Rom filmed an unaired pilot as Phoebe alongside Doherty and Holly Marie Combs as Prue and Piper Halliwell, respectively.
“Lori and Alyssa are very, very, very different people. So, Lori’s performance was different than Alyssa’s. Lori was a lot like Holly and I in the sense of [being] very grounded in drama,” Doherty recalled during an episode of “The House of Halliwell” podcast, released on Tuesday, July 16. “The presentation was much more serious, and it was way darker, which was my style. So, I loved the presentation, and I thought everybody was great.”
This podcast episode was recorded before Doherty’s sudden death and cohosts Combs, Brian Krause and Drew Fuller confirmed they would be releasing the first five installments to honor the late star. Us Weekly confirmed on Sunday, July 14, that the actress had died at age 53 following a long battle with cancer.
“When Alyssa came in, it provided a levity that I think the show ended up needing,” Doherty said. “She came in and she did a great job. And yeah, just brought, like, a slightly different flavor to the show.”
Doherty starred alongside Milano until season 3, when Doherty left the show amid tension with Milano. Milano and Combs, now 50, continued to star in the series until Charmed came to an end following eight seasons in 2006.
Late last year, Combs claimed on the “Let’s Be Clear” podcast that Milano was behind Doherty’s firing from the show. Milano later denied the claims.
Doherty later got emotional during a MegaCon Orlando panel this past February.
“What I will say is that what somebody else may call ‘drama’ is an actual trauma for me, that I have been living through it for an extremely long time,” she said at the time. “And it is only through my battle with cancer that I decided to address this trauma and be open and honest about it so that I can actually heal from a livelihood that was taken from me, a livelihood that was taken away from my family, because someone else wanted to be No. 1 on the call sheet. That is the truth.”
Doherty was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. After being told she was in remission, the cancer returned in 2017. Years later, the actress revealed that the disease had spread to her bones and eventually her brain.
“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty. On Saturday, July 13, she lost her battle with cancer after many years of fighting the disease,” Doherty’s publicist, Leslie Sloane, shared in a statement to Us on Sunday. “The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie. The family asks for their privacy at this time so they can grieve in peace.”
Milano reacted to the news of Doherty’s death with her own statement to Us.
“It’s no secret that Shannen and I had a complicated relationship, but at its core was someone I deeply respected and was in awe of,” she shared. “She was a talented actress, beloved by many and the world is less without her. My condolences to all who loved her.”
