Over the years, Days of Our Lives has done some bizarre casting. Some of it has been fantastic, like in 2005 when the NBC soap opera had Sami pose as Stan to allow Dan Wells to take Alison Sweeney’s place while she was on maternity leave. Some of it has just been strange, like how Stacy Haiduk continued to portray the genuine McCoy on NBC while Eileen Davidson was brought back for Peacock’s Beyond Salem spinoff to play a demonic version of Kristen. Then there is… 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.
We can finally confirm who will take over thanks to the episode’s closing credits on October 2: Since 2020, Emily O’Brien has played Gwen on the program. What is going on? As perplexed as Lilley was, so are we. She became aware that she wasn’t receiving the extensive amount of conversation she had anticipated as her return engagement progressed. A now-fair-haired Lilley claimed that she was told, “Oh yeah, we’re just gonna put her in a wig,” when she was finally informed that her role had been recast with brunette O’Brien.
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.
Lilley was well aware of the drawbacks of being a recast when she spelled Kirsten Storms as Maxie on General Hospital in 2011. She stated, “With the fans, it was awful.” She was worried about O’Brien as a result, especially after learning that Theresa’s planned three-month arc would only be completed by her. Lilley remarked, “You could not do something more unkind to a recast.”
Once the news broke, Lilley shared via an Insta-story that “for the record, I think Emily is a rock star.”