Elizabeth Berkley Says Jessie's Saved by the Bell Wardrobe Drove Her to Risqué Showgirls Role

Elizabeth Berkley wasn't a huge fan of Jessie Spano's wardrobe.

Berkley appeared with fellow members of the Saved by the Bell cast — Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Mario Lopez — alongside Sweet Valley High's Brittany Daniel on a panel at 90s Con 2025 in Hartford, Conn., to look back at defining a generation's expectation of what their teenage years might be like.

The panel, moderated by PEOPLE's Dory Jackson, featured a fan question for the Saved by the Bell cast about if anyone ever stole any of their characters' outfits from the set.

Berkley said she was never guilty of that, looking forward to her time away from "Jessie clothes." The actress played Jessie Spano on the series until its May 1993 finale.

"I was so happy I had six other days of the week to not have to wear Jessie clothes," the 52-year-old shared. "I didn't want to wear, as an adolescent girl, Z. Cavaricci jeans. I'm a dancer, so for me, I was like, 'Don't put me in weird balloon-y pants with like a weird print shirt.' "

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"I know you really hated the style of that time," Gosselaar, 51, acknowledged.

"It was neutering me. I had to break out," she said. Laughing, she added, "No wonder I did Showgirls. No wonder. Like, get these clothes off of me."

The crowd roared as Berkley added, "That's a whole other panel."

Returning to the question, she said, "Once in a while, I would steal Lisa's [Lisa Turtle, played by Lark Voorhies] stuff. She had some cool — I remember this jacket with fringe. We had Liz Bass as our wardrobe designer and I would say, 'Can I just steal this for the weekend?' and they would let us from time to time."

Though 1995's Showgirls is now a cult classic, Berkley told PEOPLE in 2020 that the once-controversial erotic thriller made her a "pariah" in the industry for a time.

"Saved by the Bell was a beautiful first rite of passage for me," she told PEOPLE. "But as an artist, I was excited to dive a little deeper and explore."

"I wasn't looking for shock value," Berkley added. "That wasn't my intention. When I first read about the role, it was a visceral moment. I thought, 'that's mine.' "