When Kristin Davis was on Melrose Place in the ’90s, she was told directly that she shouldn’t gain weight, Davis told PEOPLE in a story published Wednesday.

The encounter followed an odd conversation with costar Thomas Calabro, in which he said that he thought she looked great and didn’t think the “really stressed” producers, which may have included executive producer Aaron Spelling, should put “too much pressure” on her, she recalled. She hadn’t heard a thing.

“I go to the line producer and I’m like, ‘Thomas Calabro just told me that you guys are stressing about my weight,” Davis explained. “Did someone say something? Did Mr. 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, who portrayed the calculating Brooke Armstrong on seasons 3 and 4 from 1995 to 1996, was quite affected by the criticism. She already felt self-conscious.

“Every single person was gorgeous and super skinny,” Davis said of her time on the Beverly Hills, 90210 spin-off. “So I was like, ‘This is what I have to do.'”

The future Sex and the City star — she played the romantic, Charlotte York, on the HBO series, beginning in 1998 — recalled that she would take two spin classes, back-to-back, and work with a coach for running.

“I was frustrated. I was trying to do the thing,” Davis told the magazine. “Of course, I’m sure I wasn’t eating, I have no idea. I don’t remember the eating part.”

She dealt with scary physical effects and remembered that she “fainted in a parking lot one time,” and “sometimes I couldn’t remember my name. It was a lot.”

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The dieting culture was very ’90s.

“It was normal for a long time,” Davis said. “You could look at it either way. But I mean, there was a lot of stress. If you had hips, it was a situation.”

Davis currently hosts a rewatch podcast, Are You a Charlotte? and returns as Charlotte (now Charlotte York Goldenblatt) in the HBO’s show’s sequel series, And Just Like That, when season 3 premieres later this year.