Listen to Shannen Doherty discuss ‘Charmed’ just before her death

Shannen Doherty spent some of her final days thinking about one of her most famous roles, Prue Halliwell on Charmed.

The actress, who died of cancer July 13, recorded a guest appearance on the rewatch podcast, iHeartRadio’s The House of Halliwell, which is hosted by her former costar and close friend Holly Marie Combs, as well as cast members Drew Fuller and Brian Krause.

Doherty sounded strong as they discussed topics including Alyssa Milano having joined the WB series to replace another actress, Lori Rom, after they had made a presentation, an example of what the show would look like, ahead of the pilot. Though Doherty and Milano clashed at times, Doherty was complimentary of Milano’s work as Phoebe Halliwell.

The show, which aired for eight seasons between 1998 and 2006, centered on the witchy Halliwell sisters — Prue, Phoebe, and Combs’ Piper — who use their powers for good.

“I don’t think it felt drastically different, but it definitely felt different,” Doherty said about 21 minutes into the conversation, in the video below. “You know, I will say that Lori Rom, who played [Prue’s sister] Phoebe for the presentation, was really great. She was a great actress. And, you know, 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. And… the presentation was much more serious and it was way darker, which was my style. Right? So I loved the presentation, and I thought, like, everybody was great.”

She continued, “But when Alyssa came in, you know, it provided like a levity that I think the show ended up needing. And she came in and she did a great job. And yeah, just brought like a slightly different flavor to the show.”

She cited a specific moment when Phoebe’s more lighthearted nature was a help.

“When I when I watched it, I was like, God, you know, they accept that they’re witches so easily, like, especially Phoebe. She’s like, ‘Oh, I’m a witch.’ I’m like, Who thinks like that? Like that part sort of threw me off. It could never have worked with Lori, because she was so grounded and so serious that it would have felt fake. But with Alyssa, you were like, of course, she believes she’s a witch immediately.”

Doherty was fired from the show after the third season — something she and Combs have both said was instigated by Milano. For her part, the Melrose Place alum said in October 2021 that she felt “guilt” for any tensions they had on the set and that they had become “cordial.”

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After Doherty’s death, Milano issued a statement to EW: “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 was a talented actress, beloved by many, and the world is less without her. My condolences to all who loved her.”

On the same podcast, Doherty noted that she had originally squinted her eyes when casting a spell, but she quickly changed that.

“It was like, ‘guys, I’m going to have so many wrinkles around my eyes.’ Like, this is not good.”

Doherty even had to exaggerate the movement to make it big enough for the audience to see.

Eventually, she began making a particular motion with her hand when using her powers.