Kristin Davis says that she was told not to gain weight while starring on Melrose Place.
Davis, aged 59, was featured on the Fox primetime drama between 1995 and 1996. Later, she became part of the cast of the critically acclaimed HBO series Sex and The City, which is considered the highlight of her acting career.
Before taking on the role of Charlotte York, Davis portrayed the antagonist Brooke Armstrong in Melrose Place and faced challenges related to conforming to unrealistic body expectations.
During an interview released on Wednesday, February 5, Davis shared an unsettling encounter with her co-star Thomas Calabro. He approached her in her makeup trailer with distressing revelations.
“He’s like, ‘Kristin, I’m so happy to see you here,’” she recalled Calabro, 66, saying. “‘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.’”
Davis was confused.
“I just think they shouldn’t, you know, put too much pressure on you,” Calabro reportedly said, to which Davis responded, “What?”
Following their exchange, “I go to the line producer and I’m like, ‘Thomas Calabro just told me that you guys are stressing about my weight. Did someone say something? Did Mr. [Aaron] Spelling say something?’ And he was like, ‘We think you look beautiful,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, and?’ He goes, ‘Just don’t gain any weight,’” Davis remembered.
She said that monitoring actors’ weight on set was “normal for a long time. You could look at it either way. But I mean, there was a lot of stress. If you had hips, it was a situation.”
Besides Calabro, Davis’ Melrose Place costars included Heather Locklear and Courtney Thorne-Smith.
“There was a general vibe on the set though, that was difficult, about the thinness situation,” she revealed in her People interview, adding, “Every single person was gorgeous and super skinny. So I was like, ‘This is what I have to do.’”
According to the outlet, Davis started running with a trainer and took 90-minute spin classes back to back.
“I was frustrated. I was trying to do the thing,” she said. “Of course, I’m sure I wasn’t eating, I have no idea. I don’t remember the eating part.”
Once Davis felt dizzy and “fainted in a parking lot,” and other times she couldn’t remember her name. “It was a lot,” she said.
