Trivia / Shannen Doherty

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• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • She came up with the idea in Mallrats that Renee would be seen wearing everything she bought on her shopping trip. Apparently she had it in her contract that she could keep whatever Renee wore in the movie.
  • When Eilish Zebrasky was hired as wardrobe mistress on Charmed, and the costume budget was increased to $20,000 per episode, she would accompany her on shopping trips and pick out her own wardrobe. She even admitted to stealing a few clothes when filming was done.
• Approval of God: She was the only Charmed cast member to give the 2018 reboot her approval.
• Blooper: In the Heathers trailer, her name is mistakenly spelled 'Shannon'.
• The Cast Showoff: She sings on the Made-for-TV Movie Friends Til The End.
• Corpsing: In Heathers she can be seen grinning as she says "Veronica, why are you pulling my dick?" - this is apparently due to Shannen's conservative upbringing. She had problems keeping a straight face saying other curse words throughout filming.
• Creator Breakdown: Claims she suffered it on 90210 due to fans assuming she was just like Brenda.
• Creator's Favourite Episode:
  • Heathers is actually the project she's proudest of, saying she'll give fans who approach her about that "a little more time".
  • In the 2020s, she started admitting that Charmed was "the best job". Within the show, her favourite episodes are "All Hell Breaks Loose" and "The Good, the Bad and the Cursed".
• Dawson Casting:
  • Not at first, as she was nineteen when the first season of 90210 aired, but continued to play a teenager across four seasons.
  • She was however the same age as her character in Heathers.
• Directed by Cast Member: She directed the Charmed episodes "Be Careful What You Witch For", "The Good, the Bad and the Cursed" and "All Hell Breaks Loose".
• Enforced Method Acting: The Actor Allusion in Mallrats mentioned above was quickly thought up before the scene. Ethan Suplee however was not told that Shannen would respond, so that's his genuine reaction.
• Friendship on the Set: She and Holly Marie Combs were already best friends by the time they were cast in Charmed, and have stayed friends twenty years later.
• Hostility on the Set:
  • Her Heathers co-stars had little good to say about her, Lisanne Falk describing her as "so bitchy" and Christian Slater agreeing. Director Michael Lehman called her "a bit of a handful", although he attributed it to her Stage Mom insisting that she was the real star of the film.
  • History Repeats on 90210, where she frequently got into fights with her co-stars, resulting in her firing. She and Jennie Garth famously once got into a fight, but patched things up enough to work together in 2019.
  • The press fuelled rumours of a feud between her and Alyssa Milano on the Charmed set. They had initially been good friends, enough that she and Holly Marie Combs were bridesmaids at Alyssa's 1999 wedding, but disagreed due to creative frustration over the show's Troubled Production, Alyssa later admitting that she didn't realise the network was trying to pit them against each other. They too smoothed things out in the 2010s in light of Shannen's cancer diagnosis.
• I Am Not Spock:
  • Given Charmed's enduring popularity, it's safe to say she is best remembered as Prue Halliwell rather than Brenda Walsh.
  • Heathers getting a resurgence in the 2010s means she has a significant fan base remembering her as Heather Duke too.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine:
  • Significantly, when Fred Andrews had to be killed off on Riverdale due to Luke Perry's real life passing, they had Shannen play a woman Fred sacrificed himself to save.
  • In a weird way, Rose McGowan being cast as the half-sister to replace Prue on Charmed. The two actresses had been friends for years, even appearing together in the film Nowhere.
• Killed by Request: She claims she was pushing for Prue to be killed off by Season 3 of Charmed, feeling the character had run her course. Uniquely for this, the higher-ups told her she had to stay by contract, and then fired her between seasons. She however maintains that she knew she was leaving, and even directed her final episode with the knowledge that it would be Prue's death.
• Life Imitates Art: Prue and Phoebe were initially at odds but mended their sisterly relationship over Prue's three seasons on Charmed. Shannen and Alyssa Milano reconciled after the former was diagnosed with breast cancer.
• Money, Dear Boy: She was paid seven figures to appear in Playboy.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: She has red hair in Heathers because the producers wanted her to go blonde - to match Kimberly Walker and Lisanne Falk and have all the Heathers be blonde. She refused, but compromised at going redhead to distinguish Heather Duke from Veronica.
• Reality Subtext:
  • She and Holly Marie Combs were best friends - and it was Shannen who recommended Holly for the part of Piper on Charmed. This is reflected in how Prue and Piper are closer to each other than with Phoebe.
  • She had a huge crush on Jason Priestly and has said that fans picked up on it - often getting questions about Incest Subtext between Brenda and Brandon. Her response is usually "you better believe it".
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor:
  • Fired from Beverly Hills, 90210 due to clashing with her co-stars and being frequently late to the set.
  • And from Charmed due to a heated rivalry with Alyssa Milano and other clashes with crew members. Rumour has her saying "either she goes or I do", and she confirmed them in 2023, stating that she was told she had to be fired because the latter was building a case for a lawsuit over a toxic work environment.
• Romance on the Set:
  • She dated Julian McMahon on Charmed, which explains the tension between Prue and Cole.
  • Got engaged to Judd Nelson after working with him on the TV movie Blindfold: Acts of Obsession.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Emmalee Thompson plays Prue's younger self on three episodes of Charmed, and has a striking resemblance to her. She also looks like she could be related to her on-screen grandmother Jennifer Rhodes.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Inverted. She appeared on Dancing with the Stars because her father was a fan of it.
• Star-Making Role: Brenda on Beverly Hills, 90210 made her a star.
• What Could Have Been:
  • For Heathers Shannen really wanted to play Veronica, but Winona Ryder had already been cast. Producers wanted her as Heather Chandler, but she refused, and ended up cast as Heather Duke instead.
  • Among the actresses considered to replace her on Beverly Hills, 90210 were Drew Barrymore, Alicia Silverstone and her future on-screen sister Alyssa Milano. Tiffani Thiessen was ultimately cast.
  • Around the time Charmed's fifth season was airing, producers were in talks with Shannen about using her image on the show, creating an action figure based off Prue and allowing archive footage of her to be shown. They fell through and Prue's image was never seen on the show again, infamously not even in the finale, where it would have apparently cost $8000 to use her picture.

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