Elisabeth Harnois picked up on the tension between the Charmed cast during her brief time on the series.
“Alyssa Milano was a sweetheart to me, like she really took me under her wing,” Harnois, 44, said during the Monday, March 4, episode of the “Pod Meets World” podcast. “A lot of my stuff was with her, too, so that was helpful.”
While Harnois ultimately remembered the experience being good for her, she did pick up on the animosity between Milano, 51, and her costars Holly Marie Combs and Shannen Doherty.
“Definitely as a young person, I sensed the tension on the set,” she explained. “The other two were nice to me but not as effusively kind as Alyssa was and they were always off in their own space and [Alyssa] would sit all the way on the other side of the set by herself. There was a major divide on that set.”
Harnois played Brooke on one episode of Charmed in season 3. The actress shared that even back in the show’s earlier seasons, the rift between Milano, Doherty, 52, and Combs, 50, was apparent. The dynamic on set was “interesting” to Harnois, who hadn’t experienced anything like it before. Before snagging her role on Charmed, Harnois also made appearances on Boy Meets World, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and snagged the lead role in the TV movie My Date With the President’s Daughter.
“I was young and I hadn’t witnessed anything like that on a set where people really aren’t hiding not liking each other,” she recalled while admitting she doesn’t know “enough” about what was actually going on there.
Harnois shared that when she had to perform a scene together with the whole cast her stomach was “tight” the whole time.
“That affects the fifth wheel of the scene … it feels icky,” she said. “In terms of how I was treated, it was great but being in that energy was strange and different.”
Milano and Combs played sisters on The WB’s Charmed from 1998 to 2006. Doherty portrayed the eldest Halliwell sibling through the first three seasons until her character was killed off. Doherty and Combs claimed on a December 2023 episode of Doherty’s “Let’s Be Clear” podcast that Milano got Doherty fired. (Rose McGowan was later brought in to replace her.)
Doherty and Combs’ allegations have reignited a feud with Milano, who denied the claims.
“Everything was documented. There was a professional mediator (I was told Holly and Shannen would not participate in any mediation) and an on-set producer/babysitter who were both brought in to investigate all claims,” Milano wrote via Instagram earlier this month. “It was then recommended by this mediator, after collecting testimony from cast AND crew — what changes should be made if the show was going to continue.”
Milano shared that she “did not have the power to get anyone fired” from Charmed and it was up to the studio, creator Aaron Spelling, and network to decide the future of the series.
