It was not all [Mel]roses for Kristin Davis when she starred on Melrose Place.
The actress opened up to People about her time on the ’90s drama, acknowledging an overall “difficult” vibe on set “about the thinness situation.”
“Every single person was gorgeous and super skinny,” she recalled. “So I was like, ‘This is what I have to do.'”
Created by Sex and the City‘s Darren Star and executive produced by Aaron Spelling, the series was spawned from Beverly Hills, 90210, and followed a group of friends living in none other than Melrose Place, California.
In her interview with People, Davis pointed out an instance with her co-star Thomas Calabro, who starred as Dr. Michael Mancini in all seven seasons of the series.
“He’s like, ‘Kristin, I’m so happy to see you here,'” she remembered him telling her in her makeup trailer. “‘I just wanna tell you, you know, I think you look great,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, thank you. What are you talking about? What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Oh, I know that the producers are really stressed, you know, but I just think it’s amazing that we have a woman who has curves.'”
Calabro had allegedly urged her to not “put too much pressure” on herself, prompting Davis to approach the show’s line producer.
“I’m like, ‘Thomas Calabro just told me that you guys are stressing about my weight. Did someone say something? Did Mr. Spelling say something?'” she shared. And he was like, ‘We think you look beautiful,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, and?’ He goes, ‘Just don’t gain any weight.'”
While Davis explained that these interactions were “just normal then” and were “normal for a long time,” she said that she was “frustrated,” having enlisted the help of a running coach and taking on back-to-back spin classes at the time.
“I was trying to do the thing,” she continued. “Of course, I’m sure I wasn’t eating, I have no idea. I don’t remember the eating part.”
In fact, Davis said she once “fainted in a parking lot” from feeling light-headed, admitting to People, “Sometimes I couldn’t remember my name. It was a lot.”
While the soap opera has already been rebooted at The CW, the series is reportedly being revamped once again at CBS, with series alums Heather Locklear, Laura Leighton and Daphne Zuniga set to return. The three stars appeared on a ’90s Con Florida panel in November 2024 with Grant Show, Josie Bissett, and Brooke Langton, where Zuniga said that the reboot “is in talks,” per Deadline.
As for Davis, who is reprising her iconic Sex and the City role of Charlotte in Season 3 of And Just Like That…, she also recently launched an iHeart podcast about the flagship series titled Are You A Charlotte?
The original Melrose Place is streaming on Paramount+.