Holly Marie Combs Recalls How the Late Shannen Doherty Helped Her Get Her Charmed Role: 'It Was a Negotiation'

Shannen Doherty Enchanted costars remembered her legacy during Con Florida in the 90s.

On Sunday, Sept. 15, stars Holly Marie Combs, Rose McGowan, Brian Krause, Drew Fuller, Jennifer Rhodes and Dorian Gregory sat together on a panel in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Combs, 50, recalled how her late co-star helped get a job Enchanted.

I knew Shannen before the show, we met when I was 19, Combs said. “And we actually networked with another person who was Phoebe and the network didn’t like her. They didn’t like me either. So they wanted to keep Shannen and recast the other two.”

However, “Shannen and [executive producer] Aaron [Spelling] said we’re not really a show without Holly,” Combs continued. “It was a negotiation. I was supposed to audition for Phoebe, which would never work. Shannen was supposed to be Piper. We had to convince Aaron that we were old enough to play older characters – he actually asked for our IDs. He saw [Shannen] even as a girl.”

Doherty ended up playing Prue Halliwell, Combs played Piper Halliwell, and Alyssa Milano played Phoebe Halliwell.

Enchanted Stars react to Shannen Doherty’s death at 53: ‘She had the heart of a lion’, says Rose McGowan

‘Charmed’ stars Shannen Doherty (left) and Holly Marie Combs at MegaCon Orlando 2024 February 4, 2024

Gerardo Mora/Getty

Fuller, 44, explained his journey to Enchantedalso.

“There was an old-school mentality that they liked an actor or an actress and wanted to find a home, a place for them. I was lucky to be in that stable,” Fuller said. “I did a Spelling pilot that didn’t go anywhere, he was crushed by it. Then they moved me to another WB show, a karate show. [Spelling said] ‘We’ve got this show for you, that is Enchanted. We’ve written a role for you, we don’t quite know where it’s going to go yet.’ ”

McGowan admitted she was in disbelief when Spelling, who died in 2006 at the age of 83, called her to work Enchanted.

“The phone rang in my hotel room. I answered and it said, ‘Hi, I’m Aaron Spelling.’ I nailed it,” McGowan said. “The phone rings again and I’m like, ‘No, it’s really me, Aaron Spelling.’ ‘All right.’ ‘Come and meet me in LA’ I was just finishing this project in Romania, I was on the plane going home, I was like, ‘Okay, universe, I don’t know this show, give me a sign if I’m going to do this one.’ show.’ I’ve been on a lot of planes and I’ve never seen them since Enchanted in any plane, let alone in the pilot episode. I’m on like, Romania Air, and the only in-flight entertainment on this flight back to the US was the pilot episode spellbound, and if that is not a sign right there. ”

The Brave the author added: “Since then I’ve been in Romania and never been on a plane again.”

Krause, 55, said he had auditioned for Spelling “a million times before this” and nothing had worked out for him.

“I was in construction, I had a new baby at home, I just wasn’t breaking through,” Krause explained. “I got the audition, I came and did it, asked if I could come back in the afternoon. Come back at 2, come back at 6. I came and did it for Leo and it’s a tender, lovely kind of scene, nice chemistry, possible love stuff .”

“So that’s what I’m doing. I’ve met Aaron a million times. My strategy was to go in and say, ‘Mr. Spelling, it’s good to see you again.’ I walk in… he looks down at my picture ‘Hello, um, Brian, nice to meet you.’ I’m just like, f*ck, this s—,” he continued with a laugh. “I read something angry, finish, look up like: ‘Anything else?’ I came out just angry. I wasn’t even halfway home, they told me, ‘You got it.'”

Holly Marie Combs and Brian Krause at the 2019 Wizard World Comic Con at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on June 14, 2019 in Philadelphia.

Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty

The day before the panel, Enchanted The cast honored Doherty with a special live podcast episode, Halliwell House.

Doherty died on July 13 at the age of 53 after years of living with cancer. The Beverly Hills, 90210 The star was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, and in November 2023, she spoke openly with PEOPLE about her stage 4 breast cancer, which by then had spread to her bones, saying at the time that she didn’t “want to die.”

Rose McGowan talks about her biggest regret in her friendship with the late Shannen Doherty

Shannen Doherty.

Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty

“I’m not done with life. I’m not done with love. I’m not done creating. I’m not done with the hope of changing things for the better,” she told PEOPLE. “I’m just not—I’m not done.”

Shortly after the news of Doherty’s death, Combs shared a heartfelt video on Instagram that featured a bunch of photos of the pair during their decades-long friendship. As photos flashed across the screen in Combs’ video, Faith Hill’s “There You’ll Be” played in the background.

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“It’s been a week and it seems like forever,” Combs wrote in the caption of the post. “I spent all day looking for one particular picture and found almost every picture except that one.”

“Shannen promised me she’d pursue me, but I thought she’d be busy with a few others at first,” she continued. “Alas, I’m sure he’ll show up when and where I least expect it. My rock. 10:18.”

90s Con Florida runs through Sunday, September 15th at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida.

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