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Cheryl Ladd Almost Turned Down ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Because She Couldn’t ‘Be The New Farrah Fawcett’
Cheryl Ladd didn’t want to be an Angel.
The actress, 74, initially declined late executive producer Aaron Spelling’s offer to take on her iconic role on Charlie’s Angels after Farrah Fawcett announced she wouldn’t return for the second season of the hit show.
“He called me and said, ‘Cheryl, I want you to replace Farrah. I want you to come in and be on the show,” Ladd revealed in an interview with Woman’s World published on Thursday, March 5. “And I said, ‘Oh, thank you, but no thank you. I appreciate it, but no.’”
“I’m sure he was quite upset with me, because he had given me work before and just didn’t understand,” the former Dancing with the Stars contestant explained. “So he went off and looked at hundreds of girls and finally called me back and said, ‘I can’t find the girl I want. I want you, Cheryl. Just come in and talk to me?’ So I did.”
Ladd immediately explained her reservations to him.
“Nobody can go in there and try to be Farrah Fawcett or try to be the new Farrah Fawcett,” Ladd said she told the legendary TV producer. “What would I play?’”
Fortunately, Spelling was open to brainstorming options.
“He said, ‘What do you mean?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know. Could I be funny?’ And he said, ‘Why couldn’t you be funny?’ That was interesting,” she recalled. “Then I said, ‘If I was a rookie, I could make mistakes.’ And he said, ‘I love that.’”
It was during this conversation that Spelling had an idea for the character that changed everything.
“And this is Aaron’s absolute genius; he said, ‘What if you’re Jill’s little sister, so you’re already part of the family?’ And then I said, ‘You have an actress,’” the Las Vegas alum recounted. “Now I knew who Kris Munroe was going to be and how to play something that wasn’t trying to be Farrah, other than the fact that Kris looked up to her big sister and thought she was wonderful and I got to love her with everyone else.”
Ladd remained on the series until it was finally canceled in 1981 after five seasons.
