Interview: Alicia Silverstone on "Clueless"
ALICIA SILVERSTONE was kicked off her freshman cheerleading squad for refusing to wear "that stupid outfit."
In spite of that potentially tragic real-life decision, she has become the top teen babe in the land.
In "Clueless," the surprisingly satirical treatise of rich kids at the mall, she gets top billing. The movies naughty treatise on wealthy teens unveils Alicia, the star -- so appealing that she even gains sympathy for her character, Cher, a Beverly Hills mall brat who spends most of her time accessorizing her outfits and talking on her cellular phone. Cher is the kind of girl who has a snazzy sports car, even though she sees no point in learning to drive because "after all, they have valet parking everywhere you go."
In the opening scene of "Clueless," opening today, Cher announces that she has "a way normal life, for a teenage girl."
The real-life Alicia cant really say the same. Her long blond hair frames a perfect face with blue eyes as she takes a surprisingly serious attitude toward the interview. "I mock Cher in a way, but I really liked her," she said. "Shes a stuck-up mall rat, but I dont think shes dumb. She doesnt know what she wants in life yet, but she knows how to manipulate people. I dont really think shes a bad role model but shes not like me. Really?
"Well, NO. Shes loud and Im quiet."
She may be quiet, but Silverstone gets noticed. Esquire magazine, in the current issue, proclaimed her as "the woman were most willing to wait for."
She won two MTV Awards for her movie debut in The Crush, for most promising newcomer and best villain. She was manipulative jail bait in the film -- a pouting Lolita who gave no rest to the older guy (Cary Elwes) who was the object of her attention. Im not aware of all that talk about teenage boys, she said, at an interview at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. "I never ACTED sexy in a movie. I'm not trying to be sexy, and I don't think Cher is either. It's not Cher's fault that she looks good in theclothes.
``I'm just a little girl. I think I have a good head on my shoulders and I'm not going to act like a fool, but, after all, I AM just a little girl. I don't claim to have any sophisticated ideas about sex. What can I do about what `they' think anyway? I mean my image is something someone else sees -- not me.''
Silverstone, now 18, rose to fame when she bungee-jumped off a bridge for the Aerosmith video ``Cryin,'' a work that the ever-diligent MTV subsequently named as ``The Best Video of All Time.'' She appeared in two other videos with the rock group but, demurely says ``I never met Aerosmith and I didn't get rich from it.''
She claims that she's not terribly ambitious and ``never really aspired to become a movie star. Things just happened. When I was growing up, I didn't go to the movies a lot. I saw `16 Candles' and `Fast Times at Ridgemont High.' Being in movies was not really a goal.''
She's made nine movies in the past two years and says ``I just feel lonely. I mean, it seems I work all the time.''
She claims that ``I don't drink, swear or do drugs and I won't do a nude scene. No way. They know that.''
For ``The Crush,'' the brief shots of nudity were done by a double. She subsequently turned down several big movies because they had nude scenes and only agreed to do the upcoming ``The Babysitter'' after it was rewritten to cut such scenes. ``Nudity is not necessary -- pure and simply.''
Of her personal life she states, ``I've kissed a few boys -- not much.''
Silverstone grew up in an upscale community south of San Francisco. Her mom was an ex-airline stewardess, and her dad is a real estate developer. She spent summers in England, the native home of her parents. She performed a routine to the theme song from ``Flashdance'' in a local talent show in San Francisco and promptly got a modeling agent. She hated modeling (``too dumb'') and subsequently hired an acting agent. The family moved south from San Francisco and enrolled her in Beverly Hills High School for her sophomore year. (Tori Spelling of ``Beverly Hills 90210'' is a good friend.)She was cast as the dream girl of the character played by Fred Savage in the TV series ``The Wonder Years'' as well as Raquel Welch's daughter in a TV movie. ``The Crush'' was the surprise breakthrough.
Amy Heckerling, who wrote and directed ``Clueless,'' spotted her in an Aerosmith video.
``I saw a sexy and pretty girl on the verge of womanhood,'' the director said, ``but I also saw something childlike. Alicia has a real vulnerability. Then, I saw `The Crush' and I said, `She's great, but can she be funny?'''
After tests, Heckerling, who rose to fame directing ``Fast Times at Ridgemont High,'' was sold on Silverstone's comic timing.
Audiences like Cher, Silverstone said, in spite of the fact that she is the most material of all material girls. ``She really means well,'' Silverstone said. ``She thinks she's helping girls by giving them a makeover and by making matches and manipulating people. Cher has a lot of imagination, although she doesn't know yet what she wants to do with her own life. I like her a lot. I make fun of her, but I'm not really mocking her.''
As for her own career, Silverstone claims that ``I don't think I have a sexpot image at all. I feel pretty normal. It's only when I do interviews that people want me to evaluate my life in five minutes. It's too early to evaluate it. All I can say is that I'm not crazy. In this business, that's saying something. Actually, it's saying a lot.''
