Days of Our Lives has done some weird casting [bleep] over the years. Some of it has been brilliant, like when the then-NBC soap had Sami masquerade as a man named Stan so that Dan Wells could replace Alison Sweeney during her maternity leave in 2005. Some of it has just been bizarre, like when Peacock’s Beyond Salem spinoff brought back Eileen Davidson to play a devilish incarnation of Kristen even though Stacy Haiduk was still playing the real McCoy on NBC. And then there’s… this.
As Jen Lilley told Soaps.com in August, when she reprised her role of Theresa so that the character could attend Victor’s memorial service, she found out that the storyline that had been planned for Shane and Kimberly’s daughter was still going to happen… It was just going to happen with a different actress.
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At last, thanks to the closing credits on the October 2 episode, we can confirm who’s been tapped to take over: Emily O’Brien, who since 2020 has played Gwen on the show. What the what? We’re as mystified as Lilley was. As her return engagement went on, she realized that she wasn’t getting the massive quantity of dialogue that she anticipated. When finally she was informed that her role had been recast with brunette O’Brien, a now-fair-haired Lilley said that she was told, “Oh yeah, we’re just gonna put her in a wig.”
To her credit, Lilley expressed nothing but empathy for her replacement. Heck, she had understood that the role might need to be recast. But being brought back, only to be kept in the dark about being recast… eesh. That was a head-spinner. What’s more, she noted, “That poor girl has had to have conversations with me. How horrible she must have felt!”
Once Lilley was made aware of what was really going on, she said she ran right to O’Brien and hugged her. “That must be so awkward for you,” she told Theresa 2.0.
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Lilley, who spelled Kirsten Storms as Maxie on General Hospital in 2011, was well aware of the pitfalls of being a recast. “It was horrible with the fans,” she said. So she was concerned for O’Brien, especially after finding out that she’d only be finishing out the three-month arc that had been mapped out for Theresa. “You could not do something more unkind to a recast,” Lilley marveled.
Once the news broke, Lilley shared via an Insta-story that “for the record, I think Emily is a rock star.” Here here!
Watch Lilley’s whole interview on the video above. Then hit the photo gallery below to check out more of soaps’ best and worst temporary recasts.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHY
