Most people know Kristen Johnston as Sally Solomon from TV's 3rd Rock from the Sun.
But in real life, she appears to have more in common with her hard-partying character Lexi Featherston in a 2004 episode of Sex and the City, who ended up being so wasted she fell out of a high-rise window.
In an interview with TV Guide magazine to promote her TV Land sitcom, The Exes, the two-time Emmy winner opened up about her struggles with substance abuse before she got clean and sober six years ago.
"I was a total drug addict and alcoholic for years," Johnston confessed to the magazine.
After addressing her addiction problems head-on last year in her memoir, Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster, the 45-year-old actress revealed she heard from her old 3rd Rock cast mates, many of whom have since lent her their support.
"Joey [Joseph Gordon-Levitt] is loving the book," Johnston said. "Wayne [Knight] loved it. Jane [Curtin] and I had lunch not long ago, and when I told John Lithgow I was sober, he burst into tears and said, 'I knew something was really troubling you, but you never showed it on the set."
The actress, who plays a divorce attorney searching for Mr. Right on The Exes, which costars Knight and Scrubs' Donald Faison, also recounted some highlights from the show's upcoming third season.
One favorite was a rather awkward moment when her character Holly ended up straddling a ledge of an open window while her boyfriend (Diedrich Bader) who was underneath her blew cigar smoke up up her skirt.
"The smoke went up my hoo-ha," she recalled, though adding, "Of course, I didn't feel much because I was actually wearing bicycle shorts underneath my miniskirt."
Another episode finds Holly being introduced to online dating—something Kristen has ruled out as far as her own love life.
"What would I say on my profile: 'Was an alien in the '90s? I just can't! It ain't so easy for us ladies," said the funny lady. "I mean, I'm 45—an old hag—and I haven't had one facelift."
The Exes airs Wednesdays on TV Land at 10:30 p.m.