As a intercourse image, Jenilee Harrison wasn’t eager on stripping down.
The actress, who changed Suzanne Somers on “Three’s Company,” posed for the June 1987 challenge of Playboy. Whereas she was prepared for her close-up, Harrison was decided to seem within the Hugh Hefner-led journal on her phrases.
Harrison, 67, is the co-host of a brand new podcast, “Stall Talk,” the place ladies of varied ages, from the boomer to Gen Z, share unfiltered tales and knowledge from private experiences.
“It was in my contract that, yes, I’ll do [Playboy], but I have to keep my clothes on,” Harrison informed Fox Information Digital.
“So I show up for this photo shoot in the Playboy building in Beverly Hills, and I go into the changing room to do my makeup and all that,” Harrison recalled.
“And the photographer – a very famous photographer – comes in. He goes, ‘You’re all ready to go?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah, where’s my wardrobe?’ And he looked shocked. He’s like, ‘Your wardrobe? No, we’re doing Playboy.’ And I said, ‘No, my contract says I’m wearing clothes.’ He was just shocked.”
“So everything stopped,” Harrison continued. “He had to get back on the phone. They had to regroup and bring in wardrobe… He didn’t even know. But I had to fight for that.”
Harrison turned a part of a small group of pinups who appeared in Playboy with out going nude, together with Dolly Parton and Barbra Streisand, amongst others.
The self-proclaimed tomboy admitted she struggled with being depicted as a intercourse image in entrance of cameras. She wished to be acknowledged for her onerous work in showbiz, not only for her magnificence.
“I looked at being a sex symbol as just a wardrobe I had to put on to go into Hollywood and do this job,” she defined.
“Your wardrobe is your outside, but it’s not what your core person is, what your soul is. But I had a large wardrobe because your wardrobe is the tool of the trade. I would say at 10 o’clock I had to be a nurse. At 12 o’clock, I had to be a secretary. At 3 o’clock, I had to be a Sports Illustrated model. At 5 o’clock, I had to be a hooker. And at 8 o’clock I had to be a nun. I had to be all those things. But was I uncomfortable? Absolutely, many times I was uncomfortable.”
Harrison clarified that she felt “blessed” to seem in Playboy with out baring every little thing. It’s been one among many stunning moments for her in Hollywood.
“When I was very young – like 19 years old… my agent called me and said, ‘They want to see you – they’re replacing Suzanne Somers on ‘Three’s Company,’” mentioned Harrison. “I thought, ‘Oh geez, why am I even going to the interview? I’m not going to get a role like that.’”
In 1980, after starring in 4 seasons of the hit sitcom, Somers requested for a increase, which she mentioned was equal to what her co-star, John Ritter, was getting paid. The actress was rapidly phased out of the present after which fired.
By then, Harrison, a former Rams cheerleader, had already appeared in commercials, in addition to an episode in “CHiPs.” It solely took her one interview to safe the position of Somers’ on-screen cousin, Cindy Snow.
“When I showed up for the audition… I tripped when I was walking in,” mentioned Harrison. “I fell over things and grabbed something or whatever. They instantly thought, ‘Oh, here’s our klutzy cousin girl’… How lucky I was.”
Harrison insisted she wasn’t fazed that she had large sneakers to fill.
“I just live very much in the present,” mentioned Harrison. “Luckily, I’m extremely disciplined… And whatever job I had, I looked at it in front of me and just did the work… And when I got on ‘Three’s Company,’ I was welcomed with open arms. They treated me lovely. They treated me like a little sister… And the girls [on set], we protected one another, and we supported one another.”
Harrison was ultimately written out of the sitcom, however her luck didn’t finish there. She later appeared in the hit cleaning soap opera “Dallas.”
“’Dallas’ was and is still such a joy,” she beamed. “And I worked with some of the people there… I remember visiting the set and Patrick [Duffy] was there with his boys. His kids started grabbing his shirt, and saying, ‘Dad, dad, that’s Jack Tripper’s maid!’ And Patrick’s going, ‘What are you talking about?’ The boys had been watching ‘Three’s Company’ and they were so excited. That broke the ice.”
In line with Harrison, the forged of “Dallas” was eager to have her be part of their circle. Larry Hagman, who performed ruthless oil tycoon J.R. Ewing, immediately welcomed her along with his humorousness.
She additionally noticed a unique facet to the beloved TV villain.
“He would not go out in public unless he had his hat on,” she mentioned, referring to his character’s signature look.
“He had to have that cowboy hat because he said, ‘When I go out there, the people want to see J.R.’ He loved that character. And that hat was J.R. I remember one time we were all crammed in a limousine [heading] to some event. He left his hat or something, and he freaked out. We had to stop the car and everything. He said, ‘I need my hat!’”
Harrison mentioned one among her favourite recollections of Hagman was that, regardless of being the present’s star, he made certain to remain on set so long as he was wanted to make sure the opposite actors may shoot their scenes with ease.
“Larry would not go home if his lines were needed,” she mentioned. “Larry knew that the show’s success was not just about him. The show’s success was because of all the characters and how they interacted.”
“He had every right to be the number one star, leave the set and just have that air about him,” she continued. “And he didn’t. He was very down-to-earth, and he worked hard with all of us. And he continued to work. His whole life… he’d still do autograph shows and be out in public. He never took his role, his popularity in ‘Dallas,’ for granted… [He taught us] not to take it for granted. It could be gone tomorrow.”
In the present day, Harrison is “living the dream” working a sprawling ranch. However when she’s not tending to her animals, she’s sharing tales on “Stall Talk.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a boomer or Gen Z, we’re sharing the most intimate, honest, relationship issues with ourselves, and we’re giggling, or we’re crying,” mentioned Harrison. “But we’re sharing those stories… All of our guests just share real and honest questions about what women talk about when they go to the bathroom together.”
“The advice I always give [on the podcast] is go for your dreams, go for the opportunities,” Harrison mirrored. “You have to persevere and remember that if you persevere, anything can happen. Anything is possible.”
