Trivia / Clueless

• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Cher has a tic of constantly flipping her hair out of her eyes, which is something Alicia Silverstone does a lot herself.
  • Paul Rudd based Josh's activism and aborted attempt at growing a beard on his own college experiences.
• Cast the Expert: Wallace Shawn has a small role as a debate teacher. He had been a teacher prior to acting.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Paul Rudd auditioned for the roles of Murray, Christian and Elton. Rudd assumed that the character of Murray was a white teenager trying to act like a rapper.
• Dawson Casting: To varying degrees.
  • Brittany Murphy was 17, slightly older than her character Tai (15, turning 16), but she was still the only one who was actually in high school and because of her age, she required a parent or guardian with her during filming.
  • Alicia Silverstone was 18, playing Cher at 15 to 16.
  • The oldest among the "high school" cast was Stacey Dash, who was 27 and playing someone more than a decade younger than herself. She was actually older than Paul Rudd, who himself provided a case of this (he was 25 and playing someone who's 18 or 19).
• Dueling Shows: Of a sort. The TV adaptation had something of a rivarly with Sabrina the Teenage Witch, with ABC having more faith in the former show and giving it more promotion, only for the show with the adolescent sorceress to turn out to be a Sleeper Hit. Notably, three actors from the TV show transitioned onto Sabrina: Elisa Donovan, David Lascher, and Donald Faison.
• Executive Meddling: Subverted. 20th Century Fox tried to reduce the amount of female characters, but Amy Heckerling put the project in turnaround, and Paramount picked it up.
• Genre Relaunch:
  • The movie was arguably responsible for (at least temporarily) reviving the "Teen Movie" genre, after it had faded in relevancy during the first half of the '90s^note Dazed and Confused notwithstanding. Can't Hardly Wait, Never Been Kissed, American Pie, and more all more or less owe their existence to this movie.
  • The film also popularized a short-lived, bizarrely specific trend of teen movies loosely adapted from classic literature and given a Setting Update to a contemporary high school. In Clueless' wake, 10 Things I Hate About You is based on The Taming of the Shrew; "O" is based on Othello; She's All That is based on Shaw's Pygmalion; Whatever It Takes is based on Cyrano de Bergerac; Cruel Intentions is based on Dangerous Liaisons; She's the Man is based on Twelfth Night; and of course, there's Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Easy A's homages to The Scarlet Letter could also be seen as a tribute to this sort of movies.
• Irony as She Is Cast:
  • Alicia Silverstone described herself as extremely anti-materialistic at the time, and wearing the same casual outfit to every audition - and found it a little surprising that she was cast as The Fashionista like Cher.
  • Tai derisively calls Cher a "virgin who can't drive". At the time, Brittany Murphy really was a virgin who didn't know how to drive.
• Missing Trailer Scene: Some of the trailers had a scene with Cher, Dionne, and Amber in the girl's room. While Amber is checking out her '50s style hairdo in the mirror, Cher asks, "Did I miss something? Is big hair back?" causing Dionne to mockingly laugh at Amber.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Alicia Silverstone did not return for the tv series, leading to Cher being recast with Rachel Blanchard.
  • Mel Horowitz was recast twice, going from Dan Hedaya in the film to Michael Lerner in the first season of the show before Doug Sheehan took over for subsequent seasons.
  • Josh, who only appeared in the first season, went from Paul Rudd to David Lascher.
  • Tai was recast from Brittany Murphy to Heather Gottlieb before also being dropped after the first season.
• Playing Against Type: Alicia Silverstone had only done dramas before, and this was her first comedy.
• Production Posse: Amy Heckerling directed Alicia Silverstone and Wallace Shawn in Vamps, and Stacy Dash and Paul Rudd in I Could Never Be Your Woman.
  • Twink Caplan has appeared in every Amy Heckerling film since they first worked together on George Burns Comedy Week. Caplan even played a teacher in Heckerling's Fast Times, the TV show based on Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: According to Donald Faison, his character Murray gets his head shaved because his hair was already receding at 18.
• Real Life Writes the Plot:
  • Breckin Meyer sprained his ankle rehearsing the half-pipe stunt, so many of his scenes had to be reworked to minimise his walking.
  • The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones's performance was supposed to be outdoor, but had to be moved indoors because of heavy rain fall.
• Recycled: The Series: Clueless, obviously.
• Star-Making Role: For Alicia Silverstone, Paul Rudd, Brittany Murphy, and Breckin Meyer.
• Technology Marches On: An odd example: Cher and her friends all have cell phones... which was meant to show how ridiculously wealthy and privileged they were. Since nowadays every teenager regardless of social class has a cell phone, anyone watching the film today would simply comment on how dated the phones look. Likewise, the scene where the girls are talking to each other on the phone while walking side-by-side isn't quite so hilarious because, even if they're overwhelmingly texting each other rather than talking nowadays, it's entirely possible to see people doing this in real life.
• Throw It In!: Reportedly, Alicia Silverstone genuinely didn't know how to pronounce "Haitians", but the misread was so good that Amy Heckerling instructed her assistant director to discreetly inform the crew that if anyone corrected her, they'd be fired. One hopes that at least once the scene was completed she was informed.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The concept was originally to be developed as a TV pilot but, when Amy Heckerling switched agents, she was convinced to turn it into a film. What's more is that it wasn't originally planned as an Emma retelling; Amy just realised the similarities between Cher and Emma, and opted to make it a full-on Setting Update.
  • Amy Heckerling met with Alicia Witt, Reese Witherspoon, Tiffani Thiessen, and Keri Russell for the role of Cher. Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow were both considered for the role, but neither auditioned.
  • Ben Affleck and Zach Braff both auditioned for Josh.
  • Seth Green and Owen Wilson both auditioned for Travis.
  • Dave Chappelle and Terrence Howard both auditioned for Murray.
  • Jeremy Renner auditioned for Christian.
  • Lauryn Hill auditioned for Dionne.
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar was offered the role of Amber, but had to turn it down when All My Children refused to allow her time away, while Zooey Deschanel was considered the role.
  • Jerry Orbach was offered the role of Mel Horowitz, but similarly could not get time away from Law & Order, while Harvey Keitel was deemed too expensive to be cast in the part.
• Working Title: As Amy Heckerling is said to come up with a new title with each new draft, potential titles included No Worries and I Was A Teenage Teenager.
• Write What You Know: Amy Heckerling's grandparents had actually been step siblings, and she incorporated that into the Cher and Josh attraction.
• Writer Revolt: Amy Heckerling was told by 20th Century Fox that they wanted her to make something about "the in-crowd". She was sick of doing things about teenagers, so she only agreed with the intention of making fun of the culture.

---