Alicia Silverstone on ‘Clueless,’ trend and ‘A Merry Little Ex-Mas’
Once I join with Alicia Silverstone on Zoom, she’s in animal rescue mode.
“Why is your collar so tight?” she says to the off-screen canine who’s materialized at her aspect within the sunny loft the place she’s crashing for her New York keep. Her good friend’s canine declines the help: “He doesn’t need me to,” she says when she reaches right down to loosen his collar. Ah nicely. The Los Angeles-based Silverstone is a longtime canine particular person; at one level, she tells me, she had 11 canines. “It was insane, but it surely was superior,” she says with amusing. Lately, she’s right down to only one: Pinto Bean, a pit bull who often stars in her Instagram posts.
Silverstone, 49, has lengthy been recognized for her animal rights activism, nearly as a lot as she’s recognized for being the “Clueless” queen of the ’90s. These days, although, she’s expanded her vary throughout quite a lot of movie and TV genres, coming into her personal as a girl who can steal a complete film with a small however key position (2023’s “Perpetrator”), pop up within the edgy world of director Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” October launch “Bugonia”) or star in an exciting murder-mystery, as together with her present Acorn TV hit “Irish Blood.”
She’s bringing her signature Silverstone twinkle to the Christmas season now, too: “A Merry Little Ex-Mas,” out now, is a heat, witty addition to Netflix’s rising vacation film assortment. “Once I learn the script, it made me cry, which is at all times signal!” she shares. It’s hardly a tearjerker, although the film undoubtedly has its share of feels. Silverstone stars as a small-town mother {and professional} handywoman who’s given up her big-city desires of inexperienced structure to marry her sweetheart, from whom she is now — hat tip to Gwyneth — “consciously uncoupling.” She and her soon-to-be ex-husband (Oliver Hudson) each discover different love pursuits for the vacations (a really humorous Pierson Fode and Jameela Jamil, respectively) — they’re all thrown collectively and good-natured vacation chaos ensues.
Probably the most IRL-aligned particulars is how eco-conscious Silverstone’s character is. As she’s the manager producer on the venture, was this her doing? “This [character] was already a hardcore environmentalist, so I didn’t need to ask for that,” the actor says, including that she did assist flesh out some character particulars (and, one suspects, the addition of vegan treacle tarts to the film’s parade of seasonal delicacies). “I liked the way it was so environmentally grounded, that this character’s making an attempt so laborious to be good on this planet,” Silverstone says. “She’s type of combating this battle that no one appears to be on board together with her about.”
Silverstone is an skilled in that space: She’s been a loud and proud advocate for going meatless — going vegan again in 1999 — and has periodically appeared in PETA adverts over time.
“I bear in mind being on Jay Leno and David Letterman once I was, like, 21, and each having bits about it. Leno was like, ‘Going vegan? Is that an alien?’ , it was this entire bit. It was humorous, they’re comedians, however the phrase actually was so overseas to individuals,” she says. “And I really feel good that I had a component in bringing it to the mainstream. I’ve pushed this topic for thus lengthy, and I care a lot about it.”
She’s additionally written two books, “The Form Food plan” and “The Form Mama,” and publishes recommendation for constructing a extra eco-friendly, sustainable life-style on her weblog, “The Form Life.”
Her leap into activism got here solely a handful of years after her entry into showbiz. The Northern California native’s first position was in 1992 on “The Marvel Years,” in a one-episode position as Fred Savage’s object of affection. A few yr later, she received the lead within the thriller “The Crush,” through which she performed a 14-year-old lady who’s dangerously obsessive about an writer (Cary Elwes), a “Lolita”-like premise that, one imagines, most likely wouldn’t get greenlit immediately. The movie led to a trio of starry appearances in Aerosmith movies (“Cryin’,” “Superb,” “Loopy”), after which to the actually huge time: Amy Heckerling’s “Clueless,” that indelible 1995 riff on Jane Austen’s “Emma.”
Amongst its many cultural contributions, the movie’s trend sense was a breath of contemporary air within the grunge-soaked ’90s, with Silverstone’s character, Cher Horowitz, carrying designer, candy-colored and tailor-made outfits that had been the polar reverse of the slouchy flannels and denims that dominated the period. Since then, Silverstone has made splashes in actual life in trend; her hanging red-floral Carolina Herrera robe (with pockets, no much less) on the New York “Bugonia” premiere garnered loads of discover.
“My philosophy once I’m on the lookout for garments is to at all times begin with used,” she says. “As a result of then we’re not making new issues, proper? And the second place I might go is eco, as a result of there’s a ton of nice eco manufacturers. These sweatpants I’ve on are by Mate, this glorious [sustainable] model. The footwear I’ve on are vegan, fabricated from environmentally sound supplies. My underwear is all fabricated from natural cotton by Pact.” When she will’t discover used or eco-friendly objects, she’ll go to her third tier, which is new vegan. “Eco could be very laborious with the pink carpet!” she shares. “So, vegan is normally the place I land with that.”
Our Alexa trend editor, Anahita Moussavian, catered the wardrobe to the actor’s values. “The garments had been so stunning, it was a dream!” Silverstone raves. “She had all of the vegan footwear on one aspect and all of the used footwear on the opposite. And all of the classic issues! All the pieces was vegan. I used to be simply blown away. I felt like we had been doing one thing cool.”
Silverstone has made a life out of doing issues her personal method, from sticking to her weapons on animal ethics to taking a extra measured strategy to the leisure trade (as she informed the Guardian, “I ended loving performing for a really very long time”). She rediscovered that spark in doing theater — taking a task in David Mamet’s “Boston Marriage,” which he additionally directed, in 2006 — and started to indicate up in atmospheric, ominous indies like 2019’s “The Lodge” and black comedies like 2012’s “Vamps,” the place she reunited with Heckerling as director. And, after all, Lanthimos’ movies: In “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” she performs the mom to Barry Keoghan’s vengeance-seeking outcast, and in “Bugonia,” she seems in black-and-white flashbacks because the addict mom of Jesse Plemons’ troubled character. Suffice to say, none of it bears a lot resemblance to the wide-eyed, girl-next-door picture initially popularized by these Aerosmith movies.
However Silverstone’s son, Bear (together with her ex, Christopher Jarecki) — who’s now 14 — not too long ago joined his mother to hilariously reenact a beloved “Clueless” scene on Instagram; it ties in with the much-anticipated Peacock sequel collection introduced earlier this yr, through which Silverstone will reportedly return as Cher. Past that, she tells me, “There’s not a lot to say. We’re in early growth. We don’t actually have a shoot date.”
I ask what it’s prefer to look again on the “Clueless” period from this wildly completely different vantage level. The yr 1995, in any case, was peak season for the media taking nasty potshots at well-known younger girls. How does she regard recollections of being within the highlight at 18 from the place she is now? “I feel it does really feel completely different, for a lot of causes,” she says. “I imply, think about being slightly lady, and also you’re nonetheless simply making an attempt to undergo puberty or no matter, and also you’re being stalked and harassed in all places you go by the paparazzi.”
Lately, although, “there’s a punk-rock half to me that doesn’t even care. I don’t learn most issues. I attempt to simply stay my life. I’m busy being a mother.” She additionally feels the leisure media setting has modified for the higher. “Individuals are extra respectful now. And in addition, I’ve a humorousness about it. When individuals ask me silly issues, I simply suppose it’s type of humorous. Whereas once I was youthful, it may need been tougher to say no. Now, it’s identical to, you progress on. I really feel very snug saying ‘no thanks.’”
Photographer: Caitlin Cronenberg; Editor: Serena French; Stylist: Anahita Moussavian; Picture Editor: Jessica Hober; Expertise Booker: Patty Adams Martinez; Make-up: Brittany Leslie at The Wall Group utilizing Uncommon Magnificence; Hair: John D at Ahead Artists; Nails: Stephanie Stone at Ahead Artists utilizing Essie; Trend Assistants: Jena Beck, Gillian Hormel; Digital Tech: Clay Rasmussen; Lighting Tech: Zach Coco, Picture Assistant: Ben Thompson
