"I knew that I wanted to be a film actress and I never watched TV. I was always too busy."
Alicia Silverstone (born October 4, 1976) is an American actress and author.
She got her start appearing in several music videos for Aerosmith. She is best known for her roles in Clueless and Batman & Robin.
Film Roles
- 1993 The Crush as Adrian Forrester
- 1995 Hideaway as Regina Harrison
- 1995 Clueless as Cher Horowitz
- 1997 Batman & Robin as Barbara Wilson / Batgirl
- 1997 Excess Baggage as Emily Hope
- 1999 Blast from the Past as Eve Rustikoff
- 2000 Love's Labour's Lost as the Princess of France
- 2002 Global Heresy as Nat
- 2003 Scorched as Sheila Rilo
- 2004 Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed as Heather-Jasper Howe (also voiced the character in the video game tie-in)
- 2005 Beauty Shop as Lynn
- 2006 Stormbreaker as Jack Starbright
- 2008 Tropic Thunder as Herself
- 2011 Butter as Jill Emmet
- 2016 Catfight as Lisa
- 2017 The Killing of a Sacred Deer as Martin's mother
- 2019 The Lodge as Laura
Television Roles
- 1992 The Wonder Years as Jessica Thomas
- 2001-2003 Braceface as Sharon Spitz
- 2011 Childrens Hospital as Kelly
- 2012 Suburgatory as Eden
- 2017 Jeff & Some Aliens as Allison
- 2020 The Baby-Sitters Club (2020) as Elizabeth Thomas-Brewer
Music Video Roles
Tropes:
- God Never Said That: A journalist once quoted her as saying "chocolate is better than sex". She later set the record straight that she never said it."I was interviewed when I was 17 and I didn't actually say that. It was the worst piece of journalism that I've ever been involved with."
- Hollywood Hype Machine: One of the most notable examples in the 90s. She became a Teen Idol thanks to Clueless and three Aerosmith videos, and got her own production company and high profile roles like Batman & Robin. It didn't really take, and she took time away from the spotlight to focus on indie films and theatre.
- Magnum Opus Dissonance: Love's Labour's Lost is actually her favourite role."I think - in Box Office terms - barely one person saw it. But I still think it's the greatest movie and I don't care if anybody doesn't like it. I saw it in seven different countries and the audience would leave the theatre dancing. I think that's a pretty incredible thing."
- Ms. Fanservice: She is a vegan and has appeared nude in various ads for PETA, one of which showed her emerging from a pool.
- Old Shame: Batman & Robin, which she viewed as an exercise in basically doing actions as opposed to creating a character - not to mention the suit was uncomfortable to move in, and she was having burnout from being in the public eye so young. She did however say good things about working with George Clooney and Michael Gough. She also said she would "do it all over again".
- Production Posse: She appeared in three music videos for Aerosmith ("Cryin'","Amazing", and "Crazy").
- Star-Derailing Role: A combination of Batman & Robin and Excess Baggage dented a lot of the goodwill she'd built up from Clueless. She did however choose to spend the 2000s focusing on smaller indie films and theatre. She did still show up in some big roles - notably Braceface and Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed - but the poor critical reception of Beauty Shop, her attempted comeback in Stormbreaker becoming a Stillborn Franchise and several cancelled pilots didn't help.
- Throw It In!: Cher mispronouncing "Haitians" in Clueless was how Alicia actually thought the word was pronounced. Amy Heckerling realised how funnier it was and told the other crew members not to correct her until the scene was done.
- Wag the Director: She refuses to do nudity and so uses body doubles for those scenes. When she agreed to do a theatre version of The Graduate, it was under the condition she wear underwear for the famous nude scene.
- Weight Woe: She was attacked by journalists for gaining weight in Batman & Robin that allegedly meant her costumes had to be altered. To his credit, Joel Schumacher fired back at them for focusing so much on a young woman's weight. Some of this was caused by a mean-spirited storyboard artist who drew a joke picture of Alicia struggling to fit into the costume, and the drawing ended up getting leaked.
- What Could Have Been:
- Was offered the role of Valerie Malone on Beverly Hills, 90210. Since it was the beginning of her career, she turned it down, and Tiffani Thiessen got the role instead.
- Her Batgirl costume was originally designed to cover her whole head, and some toys were even designed with this in mind. They decided instead to let her hair flow freely.
- Was turned down for the lead in My Father the Hero due to being
"too heavy" for the part. The role went to Katherine Heigl. - Auditioned for Scream 3. She was also going to be offered the role of Casey Becker in the first film, but Drew Barrymore really wanted to play it.
- She was originally cast as Stella Zinman in How I Met Your Mother but backed out at the last minute for unknown reasonsnote . Sarah Chalke replaced her.
