Shannen Doherty reflects on departure from 90210 with co-star Jason Priestley
The actress said a few of her co-stars ‘felt very passionately about not waiting around’ for her as she was often late for work.
Shannen Doherty said she blamed herself for being “fired” from Beverly Hills, 90210, while co-star Jason Priestley said he would have approached the situation with “more compassion and more caring” had he known about her personal struggles.
The US actors played twins Brenda and Brandon Walsh who move to Beverly Hills from middle America in the hit 1990s teenage drama, until Doherty was written out of the show at the end of series four.
Appearing on her podcast Let’s Be Clear With Shannen Doherty, the 52-year-old reflected on the events which contributed to her untimely exit from the show in 1994, admitting to unprofessional behaviour at the time.
“Towards my last season, I was in a really horrible marriage and there were things transpiring in that marriage that made it very hard for me to consistently be on time for work,” she said.
“I know that that became a very big problem for the rest of you, as it should be, because if everybody else is on time and you’re waiting for one person, that sucks.”
Doherty said she wished she had been “sat down” by 90210 producers at the time to explain that her unprofessionalism would have led to her firing.
At times during the conversation, Priestley seemed shocked at what his former co-star was alleging to have been experiencing off-set in her marriage alongside her father who was unwell.
While Doherty said the conversation about writing Brenda out of the show would have been “tough to deal with” for Priestley, particularly because he was deemed “the quarterback”.
“You did have to do some quarterbacking in that area with a cast who, a good majority of them felt very passionately about not waiting around for me,” she said.
Priestley replied: “It was incredibly difficult and I wish that I would have known more about what was happening in your personal life at that time because I could have hopefully managed it with more compassion and more caring.”
The 54-year-old said the hardest part finding out Doherty would be leaving was the uncertainty of the impact to the show.
Doherty said: “I really take the blame for that. I don’t blame anyone else for what transpired and my ultimate firing. I do blame myself, because I should have had my personal life more together, I should have left a relationship earlier, I shouldn’t have been going out.
“I got definitely affected by the attention and then all of a sudden, I could go into a nightclub and it didn’t matter how old I was.
“I found it all very seductive and alluring and I fell into that trap and then you add the personal issues, and I should have been transparent.”
