Kirstie Alley talks 'Cheers' reunion and her fit figure
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kirstie Alley said it was “spooky” walking onto the “Cheers” set that was recreated for her new Jenny Craig ad, which features her co-stars from the hit series George Wendt and John Ratzenberger.
“I had considerations that the set wouldn’t look realistic,” she told FOX411. “I thought the only way that commercial would work is if the ‘Cheers’ set really looked like the ‘Cheers’ set, and when we walked on the set it was pretty awesome because it was an exact replica. It was spooky. Once I saw that the set looked the way that it looked, it literally felt like I had just come… to work on ‘Cheers.’”
The actress said she was excited to spend time with Wendt and Ratzenberger.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“We had a great time together and we really just fell right into the rhythm of our characters.”
She said the “Cheers” group has stayed in touch over the years.
“We see each other on and off. I probably see Rhea Pearlman most.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Alley explained it’s tough to get together with her famous friends because of everyone’s busy schedules.
“The thing about actors is they are usually working and they are usually busy,” she said. “With [John] Travolta and those guys… you see people when you can see them and… when you see them it’s like you saw them last week anyway.”
Lately, Alley has been busy promoting Jenny Craig, which helped her drop 50 pounds.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“It took me 9 or 10 months to lose 50 pounds and now I’ve kept it off for a year,” she said proudly.
The actress’ weight has fluctuated over the years. She learned to eat less by observing the way people around her controlled their portions.
“It was hard at first [to change my habits]. I had been consuming too many calories, and I was also out of shape,” she admitted. “At first it was an adjustment... You have to be more disciplined and sometimes that’s not the easiest thing in the world for me.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Though she’s dropped and impressive amount of weight, Alley doesn’t plan on showing too much skin anytime soon.
“This year was funny because I kept getting all these offers to do nude stuff. It was a bit much. And I thought no. Clearly it might be comedic, but I don’t need my laughs to come from my naked body,” she said with a laugh.
The 64-year-old has big plans for 2016, and she is very committed to her New Year’s resolutions. She writes her resolutions down in a journal and follows them “like an outline.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“My resolutions last… Whatever I write in that journal will happen. I don’t just throw things out there… I put things out there that are real goals to achieve but they are challenging.”
This year Alley has a passion project in the works, and she hinted at a few entrepreneurial ventures.
She has no plans to slow down anytime soon.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I don’t like to slow it down very much,” she said. “I’m not a person that will ever retire… I don’t like too much down time. I like creating decorating projects, and refurbishing projects, and charity projects, and work projects. I have two kids so I have kid projects. I’m very project-oriented”
To get everything done, Alley keeps “farmer-ish” hours and gets up around 6 a.m. and tries to get in bed by 9 p.m. to watch TV shows. She’s been hooked on “real forensic shows.”
“They asked me to do a role on ‘Criminal Minds’ but I was filming something else so I couldn’t do it, but I told them I really, really want to be on the show and I want to play a serial killer.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In her free time, she also connects with her fanbase on Twitter.
“With Twitter, sometimes I will say something relevant or poignant… or I just want to say something stupid. Twitter feels a little family-ish to me. It feels very familiar,” she said. “It does give me a little bit of a secure feeling of being in communication with the world, so I like it for that reason. I don’t like it because it apparently unearths all the trolls of the [world].”
The actress said she doesn’t read the headlines about herself, but she clearly reads the news. Alley has been keeping up with the buzz surrounding the 2016 elections.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I am observing the race. I think it’s an exciting race,” she said. “One thing that, I think, [Donald] Trump has done for people is I think he has woken them up. Whether they hate him or they love him, they have something to say. It’s like he energized the community, and I think America needed to wake up because I think we’d gotten complacent and sort of asleep at the wheel.”