Speaker 1: This is let's be clear with Shannon Doherty.
Speaker 2: Hello, let's be clear, listeners. I'm Tory Spelling, and I'm
Speaker 2: Shan's lifelong friend and former co star, and today I'm
Speaker 2: truly honored. It's like quite an honor to do this,
Speaker 2: to be guest hosting Shan's podcast, not only as her friend,
Speaker 2: but also as one of her super fans. And I
Speaker 2: truly was the Academy Awards happened recently. I'm sure all
Speaker 2: of you definitely saw as I saw, as the world
Speaker 2: saw that it was heartbreaking that Shannon was left out
Speaker 2: of the in memoriam segment at the Academy Awards, and
Speaker 2: I have to say it was shocking, truly shocking, because
Speaker 2: to me, I discovered Shannon as a fan on the
Speaker 2: big screen while she was so iconically known for her
Speaker 2: TV roles, which I want to honor her and go
Speaker 2: through her career today, but it's really the big screen
Speaker 2: where her career just thrived and she just like lit
Speaker 2: up the big screen going back to when she was
Speaker 2: a kid. So I know that was heartbreaking. I saw
Speaker 2: the headlines, I saw the fans that were so outraged
Speaker 2: on her behalf. I couldn't believe it my heart. Honestly,
Speaker 2: when the in memoriam stopped and she hadn't been included,
Speaker 2: my heart dropped. It sank, and it sank because I
Speaker 2: was like, what, it's such a miss. And I know,
Speaker 2: I know there's so many people in the entertainment industry
Speaker 2: and they can't quite fit them all in the in memoriam.
Speaker 2: And I don't know what the rules are there, how
Speaker 2: people are picked and not picked, But I just think
Speaker 2: when someone's so iconic to fans across the world passes
Speaker 2: and they're not remembered for their legacy and the great
Speaker 2: work they did, I just I just think it's shocking.
Speaker 2: And it personally felt a little triggering to me because
Speaker 2: this is the third person that I love that has
Speaker 2: been left out of the end memoriam. The year my
Speaker 2: dad passed, I remember he was left out of it,
Speaker 2: and then ironically, the year that Luke Perry passed, he
Speaker 2: was left out of it. But it's not like Shannon
Speaker 2: could have been an oversight. Like I just felt for
Speaker 2: all of us watching that loved her and loved her work,
Speaker 2: it felt like not only was she robbed.
Speaker 1: But like we were robbed. So I felt it with you.
Speaker 2: So today we are going to give Shan the proper
Speaker 2: honoring of her career. So I'm really really excited to
Speaker 2: take you guys through her career because there might be
Speaker 2: things that you didn't even know that she did. There's
Speaker 2: something that surprised me that I totally forgot about. So
Speaker 2: Shannon's love for acting started young, doing children's theater. She
Speaker 2: did commercials, but her first role in a feature film
Speaker 2: was voicing the character Teresa Brigsby in the United Artist's
Speaker 2: animated feature The Secret of Nim in nineteen eighty two. Now,
Speaker 2: when I was prepping and going through all of Shannon's work.
Speaker 3: Which is so like, such a huge body of work,
Speaker 3: I had forgotten that she was a voice in the
Speaker 3: Secret of Nim That was like the animated feature for
Speaker 3: my childhood.
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh my god, she really could
Speaker 2: do it all. She voiced that supporting role in the
Speaker 2: Don Bluth production when she was only eleven years old.
Speaker 4: I read it to Don Bluth at a convention and
Speaker 4: we talked about what that experience was, and Don Bluth
Speaker 4: was amazingly talented and so common. The interesting thing about
Speaker 4: voiceovers is that you're in a booth by yourself recording
Speaker 4: your lines with people staring through recording studio through a
Speaker 4: glass telling you, you know, do it this way, or
Speaker 4: do it that way, or give me five readings in
Speaker 4: a row. And you don't get to hang out with
Speaker 4: the cast that much because you're all in different time schedules.
Speaker 2: Shan would often talk about her friend and mentor Michael Landon.
Speaker 2: He hired her to play Drusilla in the TV show
Speaker 2: Father Murphy and of course as that iconic Jenny Wilder
Speaker 2: and Little House on the Prairie and Little House on
Speaker 2: the Prairie was such a huge hit for NBC. I
Speaker 2: mean it prompted several TV movies including Little House, Look
Speaker 2: Back to Yesterday, The Last Farewell, and Bless All the
Speaker 2: Dear Children.
Speaker 4: It was really the experience on Little House that spurred
Speaker 4: that passion on for being an actor. And it was
Speaker 4: having a min tour like Michael Landon, and I don't
Speaker 4: care what anybody else's experience was, Like I know the
Speaker 4: truth about that man, and he was just unbelievable, so
Speaker 4: so so talented, so kind, so considerate, shaved me in
Speaker 4: so many ways, and it still is the best experience
Speaker 4: of my entire career.
Speaker 2: While her television career was thriving. The big screen came
Speaker 2: a calling, and at age fourteen, Shannon appeared in the
Speaker 2: rom com Girls Just Want to Have Fun, starring Sarah,
Speaker 2: Jessica Parker, and Helen Hunt. The film debuted on Shannon's
Speaker 2: birthday on April twelfth, nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 4: I did a couple of takes, and the director wanted
Speaker 4: me to be more excited and more of a girl
Speaker 4: that age with a crush. How she would react fantastic
Speaker 4: note he was right, but I was so confused on
Speaker 4: how to do that because it was so outside of
Speaker 4: my own personality, and I was not a girl who
Speaker 4: had experienced a crush yet. So it was really digging
Speaker 4: from nowhere essentially to come up with an appropriate reaction
Speaker 4: that would make everybody happy with my performance. So I
Speaker 4: think sarcastically, I jumped up and down and in circles
Speaker 4: and squealed. If you watch it, you'll note the scene
Speaker 4: it's at the dance off.
Speaker 1: When I watched that years.
Speaker 4: And years later, because I don't like watching anything that
Speaker 4: I am in, but people kept on talking about Girls
Speaker 4: Just Want to Have Fun, I thought, Hi, I should
Speaker 4: probably watch it. People really liked it. I cringed when
Speaker 4: that scene came on. My face turned red. I wondered
Speaker 4: how I could buy up every DVD. How I could,
Speaker 4: because that's probably how long ago it was that I
Speaker 4: watched it. I was accumulated and embarrassed by my performance,
Speaker 4: and I deeply apologized to the director Chuck that I
Speaker 4: had that performance.
Speaker 1: It was really bad.
Speaker 2: From that point on, Shannon remained busy on the sets
Speaker 2: of several shows and TV movies and all while receiving
Speaker 2: her education through homeschooling and set teachers. But it was
Speaker 2: one movie in particular that solidified her place in Hollywood,
Speaker 2: and that was the iconic nineteen eighty eight teen drama Heathers.
Speaker 4: I don't think I was eighteen yet, and my mom
Speaker 4: was on set with me.
Speaker 1: I remember thinking that the.
Speaker 4: Other girls were really beautiful and that I was awkward looking,
Speaker 4: and I had a little bit of insecurity about that.
Speaker 4: But I really kind of hung out with my mom because,
Speaker 4: you know, except for Winona, everybody else was older than
Speaker 4: me at that time.
Speaker 2: So it's so interesting because Shan had like such a
Speaker 2: good girl in her the way she was raised, and
Speaker 2: it was hard for her to curse like doing Heathers.
Speaker 2: She had said that it was hard for her to
Speaker 2: have to say curse words, and she felt that way
Speaker 2: in real life too, even though she had the rebellious
Speaker 2: side of her and she could be really fun and
Speaker 2: silly and curse like with her friends. That was always
Speaker 2: something that I guess, in a way just stayed with
Speaker 2: her and was ingrained in her. And she was very
Speaker 2: proper in certain ways, I don't want to say conservative,
Speaker 2: but definitely had really good morals, I would say, and
Speaker 2: at conventions in the past, that's an iconic line in
Speaker 2: the movie Heathers is fucked Me gently with a chainsaw,
Speaker 2: And fans would often come up with posters from Heathers
Speaker 2: at conventions and other things and want her to write it.
Speaker 2: And while she always wanted to please the fans, I
Speaker 2: know that part of it made her uncomfortable just going
Speaker 2: back to even putting a curseword like in writing and
Speaker 2: writing something like that.
Speaker 1: So I just thought that was so sweet.
Speaker 2: And I just remember in high school, like all my
Speaker 2: friends and I this is before I even could have
Speaker 2: dreamt of like working with and being friends with Shan, Like,
Speaker 2: we would all say like, fuck me gently with a chainsawn.
Speaker 2: We thought we were so cool. Like she was the
Speaker 2: coolest heather That's just my personal opinion. In fact, I
Speaker 2: was so obsessed with the movie Heathers that I remember
Speaker 2: telling my dad when he had shown me. Originally it
Speaker 2: was called Class of Beverly Hills. It was the script,
Speaker 2: the pilot script for nine o two and zero, and
Speaker 2: he was looking to cast Brenda and Brandon Walsh, and.
Speaker 1: I brought him.
Speaker 2: A picture of Shannon and I was like, this is
Speaker 2: Brenda Walsh.
Speaker 1: You have to put her in.
Speaker 2: And it was just because I was such a huge fan.
Speaker 2: I just loved her so much.
Speaker 1: I thought she was so great.
Speaker 2: And I mean, my dad would always take my word
Speaker 2: on something. It's not like he would put someone in
Speaker 2: it just to put them in it. Like obviously he
Speaker 2: did his due diligence and had her come in to
Speaker 2: read and everything. But you know, she was it obviously
Speaker 2: because she was amazing and she was supposed to be
Speaker 2: Brenda Walsh always. But it's just so interesting that I
Speaker 2: was like, oh my god, this is the it girl.
Speaker 2: I had the privilege of working with Shannon for four
Speaker 2: seasons on Beverly Hills nine O two and zero, when
Speaker 2: her beloved character Brenda Walsh became a household name.
Speaker 4: I definitely went through a lot of growing pains on
Speaker 4: that show. There was beautiful moments for me, and there
Speaker 4: were really hard moments for me. I recall when tensions
Speaker 4: started happening on the set, and it was always awesome
Speaker 4: to me that the boys got along so well and
Speaker 4: it wasn't necessarily the same with the girls. I was
Speaker 4: pretty exhausted, and I was going through a lot of
Speaker 4: my own growing up and it just seemed that I
Speaker 4: was really getting the brunt of why is the show
Speaker 4: about Brenda and Brandon? Well, because it's about the Washes.
Speaker 4: I didn't write the show, but I think I give
Speaker 4: us more allowance now to forgive ourselves and to forgive
Speaker 4: others for being friggin' kids.
Speaker 2: And it's important to note that when Shannon left nine
Speaker 2: o two and zero, she was literally at the height
Speaker 2: of her career and she could have chosen a number
Speaker 2: of projects at that point, but she definitely was a
Speaker 2: true trail blazer, and she chose to make the indie
Speaker 2: movie Mall Rats with a then up and coming director
Speaker 2: named Kevin Smith.
Speaker 4: They were like, you know, there's this movie, but you
Speaker 4: have to audition. I was like, Okay, let me read it.
Speaker 4: And then I read it and they're like it's Kevin
Speaker 4: Smith and he did Clerics, and I'm like, okay, let
Speaker 4: me watch that.
Speaker 5: And I was like, yeah, okay, a audition. It was
Speaker 5: like the monologue. It was crazy, but I did it.
Speaker 5: The best dialogue I've ever gotten, to say.
Speaker 2: Mal Rats was not a box office success when premiered
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety five. In fact, Shannon felt that the
Speaker 2: indie flick hurt her career in film, but Shannon's loyalty
Speaker 2: to director Kevin Smith never wavered, and with time, mal
Speaker 2: Rats ended up becoming a cult classic. Shannon loved playing
Speaker 2: Renee in the film and hoped to one day reprise
Speaker 2: her role in a mal Rat sequel. Next, Shannon played
Speaker 2: the starring role in a movie based on a true
Speaker 2: story called Gone in the Night.
Speaker 4: I felt a deep responsibility to the family to portray
Speaker 4: their story accurately. There was just a lot of pressure
Speaker 4: that I felt doing that movie. And it's also one
Speaker 4: that I'm really, really really proud of. I think it
Speaker 4: turned out wonderful. The cast was amazing. Yeah, that would
Speaker 4: go down as a piece of work that I'm extremely
Speaker 4: proud of.
Speaker 2: A few years later, we heard Shannon seeing in a
Speaker 2: TV movie called Friends Till the End.
Speaker 4: After that movie came out, I had a couple of
Speaker 4: meetings with some amazing record people, and it was something
Speaker 4: that I discussed. But ultimately, I think I was incredibly
Speaker 4: insecure about my singing voice, and I was also insecure
Speaker 4: about how people would receive that from me because there
Speaker 4: was so much other stuff going on with rumors about
Speaker 4: me that adding to it. I think I just got
Speaker 4: I think I got scared. I chickened out of doing
Speaker 4: anything with singing. I might regret it a little bit,
Speaker 4: but not too much.
Speaker 2: Shannon continued making magic on television when she played prou
Speaker 2: Halliwell in three seasons of Charm, which is also where
Speaker 2: she learned to direct.
Speaker 4: When I direct something, I do a lot of shot
Speaker 4: list and I like to have storyboards done, and I
Speaker 4: usually base the aesthetic the look of it on a
Speaker 4: particular painting. So for instance, the last episode I directed
Speaker 4: of Charmed, it was based on a salvad Or Dolly painting.
Speaker 4: That was the color scheme, the esthetic, the mood, everything else.
Speaker 4: And then I just like to be overly prepared because
Speaker 4: I don't think that people have to work sixteen hours
Speaker 4: on a TV show a day, So I like to
Speaker 4: know how I can condense things, how I can put
Speaker 4: people in two shots, how many cameras can I actually use,
Speaker 4: still be on budget, hopefully come in under budget, and
Speaker 4: get people out at a normal hour so that they
Speaker 4: can go home and have family time.
Speaker 2: Shannon worked with her fair share of major leading men,
Speaker 2: from Mel Gibson to Bruce Willis. She appeared in several
Speaker 2: films from director James Colin Bressick.
Speaker 4: The Bruce Willis movie it was called The Fortress. That
Speaker 4: also was a really kind of fascinating experience for me,
Speaker 4: and I just remember this scene with him that was
Speaker 4: written one way.
Speaker 1: It was written.
Speaker 4: As I'm a general and I'm an actual bad guy
Speaker 4: and he's the good guy hero, as Bruce Willis always is.
Speaker 4: And it was just me sort of saying, you know,
Speaker 4: this is this is how it works, buddy, essentially, And
Speaker 4: in that moment of filming it, Bruce and I had
Speaker 4: a very different connection. For me as an actor, I
Speaker 4: can tell you that I've had a couple of really
Speaker 4: like raw moments, you know, I mean, you hope that
Speaker 4: all of them come across as like raw, honest moments,
Speaker 4: but personally very raw, honest moments that are captured on screen,
Speaker 4: and that was one of them. Those are the moments
Speaker 4: that I always look back and I'm like, oh man,
Speaker 4: that's when I was my best. Is when I'm like
Speaker 4: the most raw and sort of broken down because there's
Speaker 4: no there's no wall, there's no pretense, you're not self conscious,
Speaker 4: you're not any of those things.
Speaker 1: You're just like in the moment. And it's something that
Speaker 1: I strive for as an actor.
Speaker 2: And while I have mentioned some of her biggest career accomplishments,
Speaker 2: Shannon's legacy is so much more than her IMDb page.
Speaker 2: She was a loving friend and a fierce warrior when
Speaker 2: it came to standing up for what she believed in.
Speaker 2: She wasn't afraid of anything or anyone, and yet she
Speaker 2: had such a kind heart. She was sensitive underneath what
Speaker 2: she put front as a tough exterior, and her dignity
Speaker 2: mattered to her more than any career accolade.
Speaker 4: Being my own cheerleader has been a tough one for
Speaker 4: me that I have not mastered. And yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: you hear stories, and I hear this from a lot
Speaker 4: of people, or I used to hear it from a
Speaker 4: lot of people of Oh, I was warned about you,
Speaker 4: and I was told that you're difficult or you're this,
Speaker 4: And it's so hard for me to realize that there's
Speaker 4: a whole like narrative and agenda that's out there about
Speaker 4: me that has almost nothing to do with me. As
Speaker 4: you know, I'm pretty sensitive and I tend to take
Speaker 4: a lot of things personal, and it hurts me that there's,
Speaker 4: you know, something out there about me that is not
Speaker 4: true or isn't one hundred percent of the truth, or
Speaker 4: there's you know, two sides to every story. There's this,
Speaker 4: there's that I can't worry about, like the random ten
Speaker 4: people that are pissed that I'm saying something I've got
Speaker 4: to worry about, Like am I being honest to me?
Speaker 2: She fought constantly for female voices in Hollywood.
Speaker 4: We still obviously a very long way to go, because
Speaker 4: I think that, particularly in my business, I think there's
Speaker 4: still a lot of like massage, Like I think that
Speaker 4: how women are treated in this business. And I think
Speaker 4: I've said it that I don't think that things have
Speaker 4: changed nearly enough, but.
Speaker 1: At least there's some change.
Speaker 2: She fought for cancer thrivers around the world. She fought
Speaker 2: for animal rights with all her passion and soul, and
Speaker 2: I can't think of a better legacy for such a
Speaker 2: beautiful person.
Speaker 1: I'm familiar with Helen Back a couple of times. I've
Speaker 1: been through Helen Back.
Speaker 4: Now, you know, at the end of the day, people
Speaker 4: have to learn their own lessons in life, and shit
Speaker 4: happens in life and it's okay to talk about it,
Speaker 4: and it's.
Speaker 1: Okay to share it.
Speaker 4: All I'm really trying to show all of you is
Speaker 4: who I really am, like who I've always been, and
Speaker 4: who I am deep down.
Speaker 2: Let's be clear, Shannon Doherty deserves recognition for her contributions
Speaker 2: the board. I just want to wrap up this tribute
Speaker 2: by saying thank you. Thank you to all of Shannon's listeners.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for helping me celebrate her incredible career.
Speaker 2: We love you, Shanon, and we miss you every single
Speaker 2: day forever.