Jen Lilley Calls Days of Our Lives Recast ‘Befuddling’ but Says Other Actress ‘Drew the Shortest Straw’ (Exclusive)

Jen Lilley shares her perspective on exactly how she Days of our lives morphing failed.

On Tuesday, the news resonated in that guy days star Emily O’Brien will take on the role of Lilley’s Theresa Donovan, 39.

“Right now, the media is reporting that I thought they were bluffing about the Emily makeover,” Lilley tells PEOPLE. “That’s not true.”

Instead, Lilley says she was a bit blindsided by the network’s sudden reshuffle. PEOPLE reached out to representatives for days for comment.

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Lilley says her way back to the days started when her close friend and co-star John Aniston died last year and she thought Theresa would return to attend his character Victor Kiriaki’s funeral.

“I was personally close to John Aniston as an actress, and also our characters were strangely close in a way that none of the other characters knew,” he explains. “So I thought, okay, that would be a really fun way to come back, kind of shake things up in Salem in a way that would upset other characters and be fun for the show. It would make sense for Theresa, and it would also make sense for Jen Lilley to honor John Aniston.”

‘Days of Our Lives’ stars (from left) John Anison, Mary Beth Evans, Suzanne Rogers and Jen Lilley in LA in 2013.

Vivian Zink/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

So Lilley reached for the then-days producer Albert Alarr on making it happen. “Albert said, ‘Oh my God. Nice to hear you. I think that’s a great idea. We haven’t gotten there yet. Come back early next year, in January, February,’” she recalls.

Lilley did, and at the beginning of 2023, she says days he expressed his interest in returning her for a 12-week period. Unfortunately, due to other scheduling commitments, including running a Christmas INC fundraiser, Lilley was only able to commit to three weeks of filming.

“At this point, my representatives said, ‘No, they haven’t written 12 weeks. We had so many clients days. They’ve never written a 12-week series from the get-go,’ Lilley says of the show’s sharp turnaround. “So we said, ‘Well, we’re sorry. I cannot go back for a 12 week period.’ And they responded and said, ‘Well, at this point, the character is coming back, whether it’s Jen or not, but we want it to be Jen.'”

Lilley understood. “I answered them and said, ‘I completely understand. I’m so sorry you got excited [by my return]. This was not my intention. If you have to change, I really understand,’ she says.

Jen Lilley as Theresa Donovan in Days of Our Lives.

Justin Lubin/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty

It was three days before Lilley said she got back to her, and during that time she came to terms with the fact that her character would likely be changed. “I’m going to the shower, I’m crying about it, I’m thinking, ‘This is bullshit. I just wanted to go back for John, and now they are changing,’ shares the actress.

But then days got in touch again and reportedly asked if Lilley could come for three weeks, and she decided she could actually give them four weeks, under the impression that it would stop filming 12 weeks of episodes in that time. Lilley says she consulted Alarra, 67, about what he had in mind for Theresa’s bow “and I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s really exciting!’” she says.

So Lilley returned to days set up and met O’Brien, 38, on her first day while standing in line for a COVID test.

“I said, ‘Hi, I’m Jen Lilley, I play Theresa. Who are you?” Lilley recalls. “And she’s a sweet British girl, she’s like, ‘I’m Emily O’Brien, nice to meet you.’ I was like, ‘Who are you on the show?’ And she says, ‘I play this character called Gwen,’ and I say, ‘Cool’. Are we cousins? Are you okay? Are you bad?’ We’ll catch up in line. All this time the poor thing knows she’s a changeling. No one else knew at the time.”

At the end of the second week of filming, Lilley began to suspect something fishy with the casting when she received an email informing her that she only had to shoot one day the following week.

“I said, ‘That doesn’t make sense. I’ve got 12 weeks to do it,’ Lilley recalls.

Jen Lilley with Carl Marks in ‘Angel Falls: A Novel Holiday’.

Shane Mahood / Hallmark Channel / Courtesy of Everett

Lilley says she emailed Bob Lambert of the show’s casting department and directly asked if he would recast her, and Lambert reportedly referred her to casting director Marnie Saitta. Instead, Lilley went upstairs to talk to Alarra.

“I say, ‘You told me Theresa was going to do X, Y and Z, but I just got the schedule for Monday, and it’s just this script. Is Theresa still going to do that?’” Lilley claims she asked Alara. “He says, ‘Yes, no, no, no. Theresa will continue to do all that. We’ll just do it with another actress.’ That’s how I found out.”

Lilley asked which actor would replace her, and Alarr told her it would be O’Brien, who had moved on from his role as Gwen Rizczech. The Hallmark Channel vet thought it didn’t make sense because, when she asked before taping if she should dye her hair from blonde to brunette to match Theresa, the show actually told her to go blonde.

“I said, ‘But Emily’s a brunette,'” Lilley says. “He says, ‘We’re just going to throw the wig on her.'”

According to Lilley, Alarr allegedly told her that the show made the decision to bring O’Brien three weeks before Lilley was notified. Lilley says she consulted with O’Brien after she found out and “just gave her a hug.”

“I thought, ‘I’m so sorry. That must have been so embarrassing for you. I didn’t know you knew for three weeks,'” she recalls.

Emily O’Brien as Gwen Rizczech in ‘Days of Our Lives’.

Chris Haston/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Lilley says she offered to give O’Brien her phone number and “support” her makeover. “Because even if you’re a great actor, fans will destroy you because you’re a makeover,” the mother of four continues. “They don’t take modifications well.”

As expected, Lilley says fans have been upset since the news broke. She, however, bears no ill will towards the show.

“I love to work days. I stayed longer than I ever thought because I loved them so much,” Lilley says of her first guest appearance on the show, which ended in 2016. “So I thought it was no love lost. I love you guys.”

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Lilley also notes that Alarr left her a “really nice voicemail” after the taping, letting her know that O’Brien would only be taking over for Theresa for the duration of the 12-week run.

“That’s not cool to do Emily,” says Lilley. “I think Emily drew the shortest straw, honestly. I said, ‘That’s the worst thing you can do to a makeover is you’re going to be like we’re going to put a wig on you and make you just walk through fire for eight weeks.’ I don’t know if it was a budget thing or a scheduling thing where they just couldn’t work out a schedule for everyone to do it. I don’t know their reasoning. It’s a bit confusing, but I’m still very grateful that I got to go back.”

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New episodes Days of our lives air weekdays at 6 a.m. ET on Peacock.

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