“Charmed” Guest Star Recalls 'Major Divide' on Set with Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano
"Definitely as a young person, I sensed the tension on the set," said 'CSI' star Elisabeth Hernois, who guest-starred on the season 3 episode "Magic Hour" when she was 20 years old
Rifts on the set of Charmed were noticeable from the show’s early stages, and they didn’t only affect the show’s leads, as one former guest star is now revealing.
On Monday’s episode of Pod Meets World, CSI star Elisabeth Hernois recalled the “strange” energy she felt on the set of Charmed when she guest-starred for an episode on season 3.
The dynamic on set was “interesting,” she said, as she “hadn’t really ever witnessed anything like that on a set — where people really aren’t hiding not liking each other.”
“Definitely as a young person, I sensed the tension on the set,” Harnois, 44, said, noting that her overall experience was “actually really good” as she shouted out Alyssa Milano, who she said “was a sweetheart to me.”
“She really took me under her wing, and a lot of my stuff was with her too, so that was helpful,” she recalled.
Shannen Doherty and Holly Marie Combs, who made up the other ⅔ of the sister witches who led the show, “were nice to me but not as effusively kind as Alyssa was,” Harnois said.
“And they were always off in their own space and [Alyssa] would sit all the way on the other side of the set by herself," she continued. “There was a major divide on that set, even back then, and I don’t think that was that long into the show.”
Harnois’ observations about the dynamic on the set of Charmed comes after Doherty, 52, claimed that she felt constant “competitiveness” and a “lack of female support” with Milano, 51.
She recalled a memory from season 1 of the WB series when Combs, now 50, underwent surgery to deal with a growing uterine tumor “the size of a baseball,” and she wasn’t allowed in to visit her.
“I waited 24 hours after your surgery to go, and then it wasn't even easy for me to get in. I was like, being told I couldn't even get in by Alyssa and her mom,” Doherty said on a December episode of her podcast Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty. “They were blocking people from seeing you, and at the time, you didn't know.”
“I remembered you texted me and were like, ‘Dude, are you going to come and see me?’ And I can feel like your pain of feeling like I'd abandoned you," she continued. “But I also felt like my anger at the situation of not being allowed to come see you, and like how sort of family had like swooped in and caused like this sort of weird divide between the two of us that then continued throughout season 2 where I think I cried every single night of season 2.”
Related: Shannen Doherty Defends 'Charmed' Reboot After Fan Boos New Series at 90s Con: 'Not Cool'
Combs then joined in on the discussion as she said that the show’s producer told her he was forced to pick between Doherty and Milano to stay on the show prior to Doherty’s departure after season 3.
On an episode of Doherty’s podcast, Combs said the producer allegedly told her Milano had “threatened to sue us for a hostile workplace environment" and she was “documenting every time she felt uncomfortable on set.”
In response, Doherty said, “I don't ever remember being mean to her on set."
Last month, Milano weighed in on the claim as she said she was “sad that we all can’t just celebrate the success of a show that meant so much to all of us.” On Instagram the next day, she clarified, “I did not have the power to get anyone fired.”
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Combs then responded, saying her and Doherty's recollection is “not revisionist history,” which Milano previously referred to their versions as. "This is just the history [Milano] didn't want people to know about it. And the history Shannen wasn't ready to talk about until one month ago,” said Combs. “No one should have to lie about their own life for the comfort of another.”
The actress also explained how “ironic” it was that Milano claimed she did not “have the power to fire anyone" when “this was actually all about power."
“Let me explain what she did have the power to do," Combs wrote. "She had the power to stop the process at any time. She had the power to not talk to the mediator/therapist brought on to protect profits. And when producers said, 'Ok, we will let Shannen go,' Alyssa also had the power to say, 'No, I don't want that.' But she did not ... Even now this pains me to write. It was heartbreaking then and still now.”
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