Rose McGowan Recalls Feeling Pressured To Badmouth Shannen Doherty
Rose McGowan has nothing but love for her late friend, Shannen Doherty.
The “Jawbreaker” star guest-hosted an episode of Doherty’s podcast, “Let’s Be Clear,” last week.
Although the “Beverly Hills: 90210” star died last month from stage 4 cancer, her podcast team decided to keep the show going in Doherty’s memory. Since Dohery’s passing, the show has been guest-hosted by those who were closest to her, including Doherty’s mom, Rosa, and her friend, model Anne Marie Kortright.
Last week, McGowan hosted an episode and spoke about her and Doherty’s unlikely friendship.
McGowan was hired to replace Doherty on “Charmed,” after Doherty was fired from the show after its third season in 2001. McGowan said on last week’s episode that she found it “weird” that after she replaced Doherty, the show’s production and the media expected her to talk negatively about Doherty publicly.
“From the get-go, every question was like, ‘Do you think Shannen Doherty hates you?’ ‘Do you think she’s jealous of you?’” McGowan recalled, about 18 minutes into the episode.
“I refused to take the bait,” she went on. “They wanted me to start a war with her, and I was like, absolutely not. And to her credit, she absolutely did not do that either.”
McGowan said that Doherty’s decision to not partake in the pettiness is emblematic of her “world-class character.”
Elsewhere in the episode, McGowan also spoke about the way it felt to work on “Charmed,” saying people expected her to fail.
“I was told over and over: ‘No show survives a major cast change,’” McGowan recalled 15 minutes into the episode. “You only have like 200-something jobs on the line, and far more behind the scenes, of people you can’t see in administration — but no worries, if everybody loses their jobs because you joining is going to tank the show.”
McGowan said that being relentlessly told that she would likely ruin “Charmed,” made her determined to succeed. McGowan remained on the former WB series until it wrapped in 2006, four seasons later.
McGowan also didn’t shy away from speaking about how after Doherty was fired from “Charmed,” there were rumors that she was a difficult person.
“It’s extremely hard to get out from under the dominant narrative,” McGowan said 26 minutes into the episode. “And I am so proud that our girl did that.”
McGowan credited Doherty’s podcast, saying it gave Doherty the opportunity to share her side of the many media narratives about her and let her show her more vulnerable side by sharing her struggles with cancer with her fans.
“She did that in the end, on her own terms,” McGowan said of Doherty’s work on her podcast. “And by doing that, she helped so many people. … The bravery it took her to share her health journey, … the bravery it took for her to be real and raw, ... [it] didn’t take that much, because that is who she is.”