Breast Cancer Survivor Shannen Doherty to Play a Role in New Lifetime Movie Where Her Diagnosis Is Addressed

Shannen Doherty is set to play a role in a Lifetime film where she’ll star alongside a patient with breast cancer, a diagnosis that she’s currently living with. She shared her reasons for taking on the task.

Shannen Doherty, 50, will be addressing her stage 4 breast cancer battle in an indirect way. During Tuesday’s virtual panel for Lifetime, she talked about her upcoming movie, “List of a Lifetime.”

In the film, the actress will star alongside a character diagnosed with breast cancer, a diagnosis she battles in real life. Doherty felt she had more responsibility in her public life to educating people about cancer.

She informed reporters that she felt it was her duty to let people know that those living with a stage 4 diagnosis were still alive and quite active. Speaking about her personal life, the star revealed:

"My husband says that you would never know that I have cancer."

Doherty and photographer Kurt Iswarienko have been married since 2011. She explained how she never complained, never spoke about her diagnosis, and lived with it like it was a part of her life.

“List of a Lifetime” will also star Sylvia Kwan and Kelly Hu. The latter will play the role of Brenda Lee, a woman whose breast cancer diagnosis leads her to search for the adopted daughter she gave up decades ago.

The “Beverly Hills 90210” star plays Kwan’s adoptive mother in the film, and she also got to direct it. Next month, Lifetime will air special Breast Cancer awareness content as part of its Stop Breast Cancer for Life Campaign.

The star [Shannen Doherty] said she was now embracing herself as she was after surviving cancer and more.

Doherty confessed the new movie was the first acting gig she’s taken on that focuses on cancer since announcing her own diagnosis last year February. She was first diagnosed in March 2015.

The star announced she was finally in remission after a two-year battle before her cancer returned and progressed to stage 4. Speaking about her new movie, Doherty said she was drawn to it after reading the script.

The actress said everyone, including director Roxy Shih, did their own preparations for the movie. She described working on it as a pleasure and that she was blown away by her co-stars.

In June 2021, Doherty tackled a beauty standard that affected her life when she shared a filter-free and no-makeup Instagram selfie. She noted how the movies she watched didn’t have characters she could relate to.

The star said she was now embracing herself as she was after surviving cancer and more. Her upcoming film, “List of a Lifetime,” will premiere on Lifetime on October 10, 2021, at 8/7c.