Alicia Silverstone is still one of my all-time favorite actresses. It’s no great stretch to say that her character Cher Horowitz in Clueless was the IT GIRL back in 1995.
The famous MTV movie award winner was such an important part of many people’s childhood, and Alicia seemed poised for bigger things.
But starting out an acting career in such a successful movie as Clueless proved to be difficult. Today many have probably forgotten about her – though lately, she’s picking up small but pretty impressive roles.
Looking at this former teenage star today, I must say she has aged beautifully, and more importantly – Alicia seems to have such a beautiful spirit and personality!
Many probably think of Alicia Silverstone as a pretty, stylish girl with a privileged upbringing – just like her character Cher in Clueless. But if we look more closely at her upbringing and life today, there is more to Alicia than meets the eye.
Alica was born in 1976 in San Francisco, California. Her mother was Scottish and worked at Pan Am as a flight attendant; Alicia’s father came from England and worked as a real estate agent.
Alicia spent a lot of time in England during her childhood, but grew up in Hillsborough, California. She became interested in acting very early on in life. At family get-togethers, Alicia would make up dances and routines for their parents.
Her love for acting came naturally.
”I just knew I always wanted to do it – I didn’t mean movies necessarily. I didn’t even watch movies when I was little. I just wanted to be the word ’actress’, whatever that meant, I think,” she said in 1995.
At one point, someone pushed Alicia’s father to take her to a modeling agency. As a 6-year-old, she landed her first modeling job. According to Alicia, she “hated it more than anything”, but it was an outlet for her acting.
And it worked. Soon, she became a sought-after face for many producers. Her first significant television commercial was with Domino’s Pizza. After that, the wheels kept on turning.
Many people probably think that Clueless was Alicia’s breakthrough movie – but she was actually an acclaimed actress before she got the role of Cher Horowitz. In 1992, Ali
Her film debut came one year later when she starred in The Crush, a psychological thriller. Alicia was just 16 when she took on the leading role of a teenage girl who sets out to destroy an older man after he ignores her feelings.
Felt lonely
It was clear that young Alicia had something very special, and she won two awards at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards for her role interpretation in The Crush; Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Villain.
But even though she was praised and The Crush was a success, Alicia struggled on a personal level when shooting the movie.”Yes, I went to Canada by myself to do the film when I was 15, and I turned 16 on set. I was like, “I can do anything.” But in my heart of hearts, I was lonely. So I trusted everyone, which was a mistake I learned from,” she told Interview Magazine in 2013.
According to Alicia, she still thinks about The Crush now and then.
”I wish I could go back and do the movie again, because it isn’t often that a young girl can be really aggressive and take over the whole movie. I wish I’d had more experience at that time,” she said.
Aerosmith music videos
In any case, her performance in The Crush would eventually lead to her career-defining role in Clueless. After watching her in The Crush, the renowned director Marty Callner knew he wanted Silverstone for a role in a music video he was shooting for Aerosmith.
“He liked what he saw in the movie,” Silverstone told Rolling Stone in 1995 and said: “And what he saw was a good actress, not a pretty girl. It’s about what you have inside.
In the end, Alicia was cast for three music videos with the popular band, and they were all hits.
During an era when music videos were a huge thing, Alicia became a household name. She became known as ”that girl from the Aerosmith videos”.
”In the Aerosmith videos, when Marty [Callner], the director, and I talked about doing Crazy, the one with Liv Tyler, we plotted it out together. Right away I said: “I’m not going to strip. I’ll be the man,” Alica told The Guardian.