Is This Days of Our Lives’ Most Insane Recasting Ever? Exiting Actress Calls It a ‘Horrible Situation’ in New Interview
The only thing wilder than Days of Our Lives‘ latest recast is the story behind it.
The role of Theresa Donovan, which has been portrayed by Jen Lilley on and off since 2013, is being taken over by a new-yet-familiar actress — one who’s already playing another character on the show. As confirmed in the credits for the Peacock soap’s Oct. 2 episode, the new Theresa is none other than Emily O’Brien, whom viewers have known as Gwen Rizczech (now von Leuschner) since 2020.
If that isn’t enough to blow your mind, you might want to buckle up. Lilley tells Soaps.com that she learned about the recast on set, calling it a “horrible situation. Top to bottom, it was just not handled the right way. … Everybody was mad, because everybody was kind of lied to.”
According to Lilley, she had reached out to Days‘ former co-executive producer Albert Alarr — who has since been fired following a separate misconduct investigation — about bringing Theresa back to Salem for Victor Kiriakis’ funeral. Following a bit of back and forth, Lilley says an agreement was made for her to shoot 12 weeks’ worth of scenes in the four weeks she was available.
So imagine Lilley’s surprise when her four weeks on set came to a close, yet Theresa’s storyline remained unfinished. Lilley recalls confronting Alarr in his office, at which point he finally admitted, “Theresa’s still going to do all of that… it’s just we’re going to do it with a different Theresa.”
Lilley previously suspected that her 12-week arc hadn’t actually been fully written when she signed on (“I think they were bluffing at the time”), and this seemed to confirm those suspicions.
For what it’s worth, Lilley has “no hard feelings” towards O’Brien, to whom she was happy to provide pointers about playing “the funniest, sassiest character in daytime.” In fact, as she expresses in her interview, “That poor girl has had to have conversations with me [on set, knowing she was going to replace me]. How horrible she must have felt!”
Days fans, how are you feeling about this wild recast? Are you excited to see what O’Brien does with the character? Drop a comment with your thoughts below. (And click here to watch Lilley’s full interview with Soaps.com.)
🤣🤣🤣 Days wants to get canceled, right!? What a stupid move… not to mention that Gwen is in a current storyline.
So messed up. You don’t do that to your actors AND you don’t do that to your audience. Days is full of actors who’ve played multiple roles already. Rob Wilson is still Ben to me while he’s playing Alex now… Hard to get invested in this show anymore.
“Days” hasn’t been the same since it moved to Peacock…On the other hand, this doesn’t top Marlena possessed by Satan…Still love “Days”…
Yes, my occupancy of Marlena was one of Days’ higher points. Both times!
Days has been renewed until September 2025. Why would they cancel it because so called fans complain about temporary recasting
Emily O’Brien is a fantastic actress so I have no doubt she will be great in anything she is given. I also prefer to hold out judgement on recasts until I see for myself. None of this “she will be terrible in the role” nonsense from me. As far as how it was handled, well, horrible. Alarr is gone and I think we all know that the way he handled himself and the business has suffered at his hand. I am hopeful that now that he is gone and once we’ve exhausted already filmed episodes that he was involved in, the show will definitely be and do better.
MAGA Lilley can portray the victim to her heart’s content… when she’s not otherwise preoccupied with shilling for GAC/GAF and proselytizing her extremist religious beliefs. Good for Days and best wishes to Emily O’Brien.
TVLine commenters coming in with the real tea, you love to see it 😂
Somebody calling Jen Lilley and her garden variety Christianity “extremist,” is the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.
Another Biden bigot.
She’s a Republican.
I believe SHR was referring to Allison as a Biden bigot. Not Jen Lilley.
If she’s a part of the MAGA movement then I’m glad she’s gone!
Albert Alarr has proven his incompetence yet again.
Kudos to these 2 actresses for handling a bad situation with grace.
It was a bit jarring but made sense when they did something similar with Robert Scott Wilson – they turned him from Ben Weston into Alek Kiriakis when Victoria Konefal wanted out but RSW wanted to stay. DOOL got to keep a talented actor and took a storyline in a whole new direction.
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For the Theresa recast, though – it’s dumb, it’s insane, and it’s insensitive to the actors involved. AND IT’S ASKING A LOT OF FANS, TOO. While this producer’s head was on the chopping block (under investigation), he decided to lie to Jenn Lilley and then put Emily O’Brien on the spot. I hope O’Brien is getting paid a lot more.
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This is bizarre.
I’m not sure if talented goes with RSW. Even though he play Alex he acts like Ben. The only difference is the wardrobe change LOL. They’re rumors Victoria K wanted out because her and RSW don’t get along no more but she got tired of playing second fiddle to him. Its obvious that head writer Ron Carlivati shows favortism toward RSW. All she did as Ciara was being clingy and constantly proclaim than Ben supposedly changed. Not to mention Victoria probably one the actors who spoke out against Albert Alarr. No wonder she quit.
Robert Scott Wilson “talented”? lmao
I cannot wait bc this time around Jen was not cutting it at all as Teresa. Everyone who has watched Emily play Gwen knows she can be one heck of a Teresa! I’ve been waiting on Leo to get his from his bf and it was finally a pay off on todays show. BRING HER ON, I’M READY FOR THE SPITFIRE OF A REAL TERESA!!!! I HOPE THEY GIVE EMILY A CONTRACT!!!!
This show is a shell of its’ former self.
And has been for years.
DUMB. Just dumb, dumb, dumb.
Lilley was only available for a short time. Days wanted the character longer. What’s the problem? She sounds like a pill.
The problem is that they lied to her. And there was no good reason for it. I’m no longer a fan of hers since she joined the bigoted GAC crowd, but they didn’t treat her professionally at all.
The problem is that there is no good reason why someone who’s already playing one role on the show needs to be playing another totally unrelated character at the same time. They could have cast another actor to play Theresa and by not doing so it only creates more work for Emily O’Brien (who I can barely stomach as Gwen).
Pretty sure Gwen will be gone so Emily will only be playing one role.
It’s stupid. Do they think we won’t notice Gwen Is now Theresa? Or afe they too cheap to hire a real replacement?
Of course they’re too cheap to hire someone else to play Theresa. Otherwise, they would have done it.
Or maybe the role of Gwen is over and they wanted to keep the talent so they cast O’Brien in another role. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened with RSW switching roles from Ben to Alex. Ben and Ciara were leaving because of backstage dramatics so VK wanted out. Ron wanted to keep Rob so he cast him in a different character. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to keep your employees on the payroll.
It is a problem because reusing the same actors for different, unrelated characters on the same show is lazy and it takes away opportunities from other perfectly capable actors. In this case, with Emily being so associated with the role of Gwen, it would have made more sense for the show to replace Jen with another actress because as much as Emily can change her hair, wardrobe and accent the audience will very likely still associate her with the role of Gwen.
People were very resistant to RSW switching from Ben to Alex but most have been able to accept it with time. Change is hard, harder for some more than others, clearly, but there is nothing lazy about it. Quite the opposite, it gives the actor the opportunity to try a new role and the writers the opportunity to mold this character and new actor together. As far as taking away opportunities from other perfectly capable actors, doesn’t that also include O’Brien?
Quit using one person to play two different people. It’s confusing especially when you bring someone back that they originally played. I hate it.
I hate it too. There’s no reason for any show to do that unless they’re playing twins. Otherwise, it’s just ridiculous.
I think it makes fiscal sense at least. They’re choosing to go with an actor that they know can show up and deliver their lines over someone new that audiences have to warm up to and might hate. With that being said, I wish they would’ve chosen a new actor for the role too.
No, they’re choosing between EOB, a known quantity, and Jen Lilly, another known quantity. The difference is that we are right now comfortable with JL!
So, no accent for nu Theresa, I’m guessing.
Google says, Emily O’Brien was born in England, moved to California as a child, worked to lose the accent, but her Gwen character speaks with an English accent.
This seems like a dumb, weird decision, a distraction from the show, but I do like her portrayal of Gwen so who knows?
I read she’s loosing her accent. Can’t be Theresa with an English accent.
Oh great, An another Kristen/Susan situation on our hands. We have this coming since after Wilson played Ben, although now playing Alex, who now assumes to succeed Victor… As, Titan goes to Alex… according to Victor’s new will. I watched as the will was revealed that Alex takes half of Victor’s estate and even the claim to lead Titan is Alex’s.
Except that Theresa probably fudged the letter and it’s Alexandros (Xander) not Alexander (Alex) who is really Victor’s son.
Personally, I can’t stand Lilley or Theresa, so I wish they’d both leave. But Emily has proven herself as a actress & it should be fun to watch her as Theresa. Still, I wish Gwen would stay & reconcile with Leo. They were perfect together. Either way, Lilley made her choice so she should just leave & mind her own business. She really has no place asking to come back, dictating for how long & then whining about what’s going to happen afterwards.
As for Robert Scott Wilson, I always liked the actor but could never take to Ben, who hadn’t really changed, but his behavior was under control only because of his meds. Ciara never had the brains to figure that out. I like him as Alex. It should be interesting IF he truly is Victor’s son or if the rumor about what Theresa may have done is true.
Utterly INSANE!!! Is the new Theresa hoingy to have an accent? Or is she taking dialect lessons? Never should’ve let Jen Lilley go!!! Shame. On. You!!
Emily O’Brien is English but has spoken with an American accent for years so I doubt she’ll be using an accent for Theresa.
No fault of O’Brien’s but Gwen never worked as a character. She came in for a short story arc as Claire’s roommate in the mental hospital and just stayed. Clearly someone liked her, and shoved the character down viewers throats by making her Jack’s daughter and putting her into multiple storylines. The character did such horrible things, yet was written as a heroine we were supposed to root for. Most viewers never did. They should have cut their losses, and let O’Brien go.
I hate seeing anyone lose a job, but it would have opened one for another actress to play Theresa. Why the hang on to actors and characters like Gwen and Leo that don’t work is beyond me. My interest in the show has been going down for months and this is just the news to finally take the show off the Tivo recording list.
This is absolutely ridiculous and I detest it. Emily has a British accent, how are they going to handle that? They are just destroying the character and I am disappointed because Jen Lilley/Theresa is one of my top 3 favorites on Days.
Actors with British accents play American roles all the time. It’s not that hard.
Not happy about it at all. I’m 73 and have been watching days since the beginning. I just wonder sometimes what the writers are thinking. Do they all think we are stupid and won’t notice. Why bring her back at all if you were going to do this
This is as bad as GH recasting Roger Howarth from Franco Baldwin to Austin Gatlin-Holt … with not even a hint of side-eye from ANY of the characters that there was ANY resemblance whatsoever. All within a month or so. Even Franco’s WIDOW – who WORKS with Austin – just accepted the new guy without so much as a double-take. It was INSANE!
Actually the mistake there was trying to pass him off as “Franco” in the first place. Basically he was playing Todd Manning under a different name because of legal red tape, which is why I called the character “Frodd”.
The actual Franco was a psychotic serial killer who was properly disposed of when Jason Morgan emptied a clip into him and then burned down the building his body was in, just to make sure. There was never a need to bring Franco back from that in ANY form, but certainly not to turn Frodd into a “family man” or an “art therapist” who worked with children, using a “brain tumor” to excuse him from all the crimes committed by the actual Franco.
I think DAYS “Powers that be” have lost their minds. Who’s idea is it to switch actors playing parts of their own, to play Theresa. That is insane, I have watched DAYS since the beginning and they have not done anything like this. We may have different actors come on when the original actors are not available but both of these actors are active. It is always anounced that the actor will be playing the part of “so&so temporarily. The story lines are crazy as it is. It is not that Emily won’t do a good job it is because we like the characters to stay in one story line.
To me this is DAYS making a huge mistake. They just whetted our appetites for Jen Lilly as Teresa Donovan. Now we are completely comfortable & enjoying Jen Lilly & they pull the rug out from under us. And, what’s worse is they’re doing it with EOB who will be Gwen one day & Teresa the next. That dog just won’t hunt!
Totally ridiculous, They did it with Ben and Alex too! Not enough budget??? Please, I beg of you, do not mess up this monumental show that I’ve watched from the beginning as a child with my mother
Again, another FU by Alarr to Jen Lilley, Emily O’Brien, the show and the fans. What an awful awful thing to do. I’m sure O’Brien felt pressured to say yes when approached to play Teresa, and for Alarr to have an actress ALREADY there, play another character as if no one would notice or care is preposterous. Days is not a grade school play!! Not to mention that Jen Lilley as Teresa is so fantastic and luminous and has great chemistry with Eric Martsolf as Brady. What an SOB Alarr is.
i think it is a dumb decision. why change it if it isn’t broken. things work well as they are. same with change from ben to alex. the viewers are not deaf, dumb and blind. one other thing….for more than 50 years i have watched days on NBC. changed it exclusively to peacock…..mistake. all the loyals followers without cable have been screwed. also, now i have to pay to watch it. BAD DECISION.