Alicia Silverstone was born in San Francisco to English parents on October 4th, 1976. Alicia spent many of her early summers in England, during one of which she became interested in theatre. Alicia began with ballet and started modeling at the age of six. Alicia had a very active imagination, often believing that her parents were aliens or that her mother, an airline stewardess, was Olivia Newton John. Alicia made her stage debut in Carol’s Eve, playing a lesbian who overdoses on cocaine. Alicia Silverstone made her television debut in a Domino’s Pizza commercial at the age of fourteen. In 1992, she played Kevin’s dream girl in an episode of The Wonder Years.
Her movie debut came in The Crush. Because Alicia was only fifteen when the movie was filmed, she had to become legally emancipated in order to get around the child labour laws. As well, a stand-in was used in a brief nude scene. In the movie, Silverstone played Darian Forrester, a fourteen-year-old girl who becomes obsessed with the man who has moved into her parent’s garage apartment. Although the movie was a failure both critically and commercially, many of the critics were able to recognise Silverstone as an emerging talent. That year, she won for Best Villain and Best Breakthrough Performance at the MTV Movie Awards.
After appearing in two made-for-TV movies, Torch Song and Scattered Dreams, she made her next big step towards fame by appearing in the video for Aerosmith’s Cryin’. This was the first of three videos that Alicia did for the band. Before Alicia became famous in her own right, she was often referred to as ‘the girl from the Aerosmith videos’.
After turning down an offer to replace Shannen Doherty on Beverly Hills 90210 and appearing in another Aerosmith video (Crazy), she appeared in more big-screen movies. None of them did as much for her career as the Aerosmith video (Amazing) that she appeared in after them. The same could not be said of Clueless. Written and directed by Amy Heckerling, who directed Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless starred Silverstone as Cher Horowitz, a fashion-obsessed high school student. The character was the opposite of who Silverstone really was. Silverstone had gone to Beverly Hills High School, but had been a fashionless loner. She looked down on the clothes-obsessed, oh-so-popular girls that seemed to make up the majority of students at that school. Alicia's parody of these girls went over well with the critics and even better with the audiences. The movie was a hit and Alicia Silverstone was a star.
Alicia Silverstone was not so fortunate with her next movie, Batman & Robin. The star-studded cast of George Clooney, Chris O’Donnel, Silverstone, Uma Thurman, and Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn’t save this movie from its script. The movie was nominated for eleven Razzies, the awards for bad movies. Among the awards it was nominated for were Worst Movie, Worst Screenplay, Worst Director, and Worst Disregard for Human Life and Public Property. Silverstone, who played Batgirl, won Worst Supporting Actress, the only one of the eleven nominations that the movie actually ‘won’. Fortunately, the success of the previous three Batman movies gave the movie enough momentum to make back its $110 million budget.
Alicia Silverstone has established herself as one of Hollywood’s top sex symbols. But instead of exploiting this image, Alicia has fought it by refusing to appear nude and not playing clones of her star-making characters in The Crush and Clueless. Instead, Alicia has branched out into production, avoiding the traps of Hollywood clichés. Her future success will depend on whether audiences and critics can see Alicia for more than just a pretty face.
Alicia Silverstone Filmography
Scorched (2002) .... Sheila
Global Heresy (2001) .... Nat
"Braceface" (2001) TV Series (voice) .... Sharon Spitz
Love's Labour's Lost (2000) .... The Princess... aka Peines d'amour perdues (2001) (France)
Blast from the Past (1999) .... Eve Rustikoff
Junket Whores (1998) .... Herself
Excess Baggage (1997) .... Emily Hope
Batman & Robin (1997) .... Batgirl/Barbara Wilson
True Crime (1995) .... Mary Giordano... aka Dangerous Kiss (1995)... aka True Detective (1995)
Babysitter, The (1995) .... The Babysitter (Jennifer)
Clueless (1995) .... Cher Horowitz... aka I Was a Teenage Teenager (1995)... aka No Worries (1995)
Hideaway (1995) .... Regina
Nouveau monde, Le (1995) .... Trudy... aka New World, The (1995)
Cool and the Crazy (1994) (TV) .... Roslyn
Scattered Dreams (1993) (TV) .... Phyllis Messenger... aka Scattered Dreams: The Kathryn Messenger Story (1993) (TV)
Torch Song (1993) (TV) .... Delphine... aka Judith Krantz's 'Torch Song' (1993) (TV) (USA: complete title)
Crush, The (1993) .... Darian Forrester (Theatrical Version)/Adrian Forrester (T.V. Version)
Television Guest Appearences
"Big Breakfast, The" (1992) playing "Herself" 8/1/2001
"GMTV" (1993) playing "Herself" 7/11/2001
"Friday Night's All Wright" (1998) playing "Herself" 3/11/2000
"Wonder Years, The" (1988) playing "Jessica" in episode: "Road Test" (episode # 5.6) 1/8/1992
|
