Alicia Silverstone
Real Name: Alicia Silverstone
Date of Birth: 04 October 1976
Place of birth: San Francisco
Profession: Actress
Alicia’s career began at the tender age of six when her father, took some photos of his young daughter. The photos led to modeling gigs which then led to television commercials. After a guest spot on “The Wonder Years” (1988) as a literal “dream girl” she graduated up to movies. She landed a role in The Crush (1993), a sort of Fatal Attraction for teenagers in which she portrayed a disturbed young girl obsessed with an older man. The nasty little girl role didn’t impress the critical establishment but it certainly caught the attention of its target audience of teenagers. In fact, the role won her the 1994 MTV Movie Award for “Best Villain” and “Breakthrough Performance”. It is interesting to note that during the filming of The Crush (1993), Alicia became an emancipated minor in order to get around child labor laws which would have interfered with her working hours. She was a dedicated actress from early on. The Crush (1993) also caught the attention of Aerosmith, who hired her to appear in a string of their music videos. The first of them, “Cryin’” was voted the number one video of all time on MTV.
Silverstone was definitely a hit with the MTV crowd, but larger commercial success had still eluded her. That all changed when she landed the role of “Cher” in Amy Heckerling’s Clueless (1995). Her character was the antithesis of her role in The Crush (1993). This time around, Silverstone was a naive yet endearing girl from Beverly Hills in search of love. The film was a huge sleeper hit at the box office and impressed both audiences and critics alike. It also demonstrated Silverstone’s strength and bankable. She was hailed as the woman of the hour, and branded the spokeswoman for an emerging young generation. She signed a deal with Columbia Tristar worth $10 million and got the coveted role of Batgirl in the Batman franchise. Also, as part of the package, she got a three-year first-look deal for her own production company, “First Kiss Productions”. The first film released by “First Kiss” was Excess Baggage (1997).
Interesting Facts
She was offered the role of Valerie Malone, on “Beverly Hills, 90210”. Since it was the beginning of her career, Alicia turned it down, and Tiffani Thiessen got the role instead.
In answer to the question ‘Is it true that you like to do gardening naked?’ in Britain’s ‘Radio Times’ magazine she said, ‘Yes, that is something that I enjoy doing. I don’t know how you know about that but it’s ... not untrue. It’s just that if it’s really hot and you’re in LA, and you happen to be doing some gardening—your clothes come off. I also like to swim naked and trampoline naked and do all those kind of things.
Alicia Silverstone refuses to appear nude in any of her movies. She requires a body double in her place for nude scenes. Also, when starring in the stage version of “The Graduate,” she insisted on wearing underwear for the famous nude-scene. The producers were forced to let her do this because, otherwise, she would have resigned from the show.
