INTERVIEW WITH SHANNEN DOHERTY

Shannen Doherty has a riding helmet which she is firmly convinced is jinxed.

"Twice I've been out riding in it and twice I've had bad falls," says the Charmed star. "So now I don't wear it and I'm going to destroy it. I'm convinced it brings me bad luck." Bad luck? That depends on how you look at it. Shannen may have had a couple of bad falls, while wearing her "jinxed helmet," but she survived them both, despite hitting the ground with parts of her anatomy which weren't protected by her headgear.

One fall left her with a split tailbone, which requires her to wear a backbrace for the rest of her life. A fraction harder a fall, and a blow suffered a fraction further up her back, and she could have been paralysed for life. So maybe the helmet was lucky after all.

Good luck is something that Shannen concedes has played a part in her life. "I was fortunate with my parents, who are wonderful, and with my brother, Sean. And with my best friend, my ex-boyfriend Rob. He's such a great guy."

But what about her career? Has that been lucky too? "I've always accepted that there are better, sexier actresses than me, but I also believe that I have a gift for acting and that's why I've worked as much as I have done. But I'm lucky, maybe, to have been given the gift in the first place."

Her four years in the hit American teen soap Beverly Hills 90210, were much troubled. She gained a reputation as being talented, but volatile.

How much this was to do with her character in 90210, the feisty Brenda, isn't clear. But there must have been some crossover. When a "I hate Brenda" fan club started in America, it was Shannen who received the letters and Shannen, quite possibly, who was the target for abuse.

The actress, now 30, is quick to put her hand up to having made mistakes while on 90210. "I got bored playing the part and didn't have the ability to keep on challenging myself artistically in the way I would do now. And, crucially, I saw a distinction between actor and character, when it came to being a role model. I thought that the character should be a role model, but not the actress playing her.
"Now, I realise that actors have to set examples - that there are millions of children looking up to you when you play a part on TV."

Shannen points to her tender years as another reason for her problems. "I'd been in Little House On The Prairie, when I was 10, but, at 18, I wasn't ready for the attention of 90210. I didn't expect everyone in the world - and it really did seem like that, on occasions - to recognise me and know me. I just wasn't ready for that kind of pressure."

So how did she survive the fall out from 90210? Her bad girl image can't exactly have endeared her to casting directors. "I may have lost some parts, but nothing that I had really set my heart on. The longest I've ever been out of work was six months, and that was when I was 18, just before 90210 started. I guess that people know I can act well and know, as a workaholic, that I will always work hard on the show they are doing. And I've always put my hand up to mistakes. I guess there's something honourable about that and I am proud to have done so. Maybe people in the business have admired me for doing so."