Holly Marie Combs began her career working in commercials and print advertising when she was ten and was cast in her first movie role, Sweet Hearts Dance, by age thirteen. Her breakthrough role, however, came at age eighteen, when she was cast in the critically acclaimed television drama Picket Fences.

During the eight years that Charmed was in production, Holly continued working outside the series in TV and film, appearing as herself in the film Ocean’s Eleven and in the ABC Family telefilm See Jane Date (along with Charisma Carpenter, who later played Kira the Seer on Charmed). The sole cast member from the original Charmed pilot to work throughout the entire series (Alyssa Milano appeared in the scenes reshot from the original pilot), Holly became a producer during the show’s fourth season. However, she experienced much larger changes in her life outside the show.

HOLLY MARIE COMBS: Working on a show for eight years, for the majority of my twenties… I’ve grown up here. I met my husband here and I had my child here. Focusing on the relationships between the family and the girls’ romantic relationships is always the fun stuff for me, and it’s stuff I find more interesting play. But don’t get me wrong – I still love doing the stunts and I love doing all the stuff that’s exciting. And that’s what’s great about the show, is that that you can do so many different things in one day.

Our crew is great, and we have a lot of fun, and it’s an easy show to make. Even though it’s technically difficult, it’s easy to be here and it’s easy to make, because doing this kind of stuff, you end up spending a large portion of your life here, and it’s got to be the first place you want to be.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF EPISODES

Sword And the City: That’s actually one of my favorite episodes. It was funny – well, it wasn’t so funny, but it was kind of creepy – that we did that episode while I was pregnant, even though I got stabbed in the gut. It was one that I’ll always remember for that. But that one was fun and our guest star, Edward Atterton [Mordaunt], was really, really good, which makes our jobs so much easier than they are.

Used Karma: The good thing about Charmed is anything can be possible, and the sky’s the limit when it came to hiding my pregnancy. At first we covered it up where I sat a lot with pillows in front of me and I wore a lot of ponchos and big coats and was shot in tighter shots rather than wide shots. Then shortly later, when we couldn’t hide it anymore, we had to get creative and episodes like “The Legend of the Sleepy Halliwell” worked until Piper’s pregnancy happened, and then we fast-forwarded to several months later and I could show onscreen.

The Courtship of Wyatt’s father: Like any couple, Piper and Leo went from the liking to dating to loving stage and then got married and had children. The fact that they both have supernatural powers didn’t really change that. Piper and Leo are soul mates, and I think that shows through when it comes down to it, and I know the fans really like to see them together.

Closing the door on season seven: That was something I was kind of in denial about, in a good way. Because, you know, I remember we were shooting our last shot, the three of us together, and one of the producers is rolling a video camera, and I'm, like “OK, that's not a good sign! He thinks we're dead in the water!” You know, like “Oh, this is our last shot!”
And then one of my favorite directors, Mel Damski – who we used a lot and have used for years – came by to say good-bye and watch the last shot from another show he was doing. I saw him walk through the door and I went, “Oh God, yeah, now you're going to show up? You've never shown up at any other season wrap that we've had.” I was, like, “We're dead in the water! You're killing us!” And he's, like, “Oh, God, don't say that!”
The girls were very emotional, and we did our last shot and everybody started clapping, and the girls just started bawling. And I, for some reason, wasn't crying. I was just, "Nope." You know what, for some reason I had some feeling that it wasn't the end. And it could have been straight denial, but it worked for me at the time. We owe it to the fans to do it right and so, in a way, we have the luxury of being able to do that here, and we have the responsibility of tying it up in a way that will make everybody kind of happy. So we’ll see. It’s bittersweet, definitely.

Desperate Housewitches (on how motherhood has affected her acting): I definitely think that there’s a little bit more method in my acting these days. It's like when I need the last scene of “Desperate Housewitches,” when Wyatt is doing his school play. I actually started getting a little teary-eyed when I was reading it, because I realized that I was going to have that experience myself, and I was, like, "Oh my God." It's just hard to… you know you want them to grow up and be happy and be on their own and be individuals, but at the same time you're, like, "Please don't grow up! That's my baby!" So I realized the moment Finley walking – at nine and a half months, by the way, which was horrifying – that as soon as he started walking, he was walking away from me. It's like they take those first few steps away from you, and you're, like, “Kill me. Kill me now.”

Forever Charmed: In getting older, just like the character, we’ve both definitely evolved. Piper has gone from a rather nervous middle sister and peacekeeper between the other two sisters, to the capable oldest sister who got married and is raising two young sons virtually by herself, since her husband Leo was out of the picture for a while.

Source: The Book of Three (Volume 2) by Diana G. Gallagher and Paul Ruditis and Phyllis Ungerleider, published on November 6th, 2006