Alicia Silverstone Alicia Silverstone was born October 4, 1976, in San Francisco, California. The daughter of a real estate investor and a flight attendant, Silverstone’s acting career blossomed from an early age. Prompted by photos her father took of her, Silverstone landed several commercial roles. She then graduated to television series, where she appeared in one episode of The Wonder Years in 1988. Silverstone didn’t make her big-screen debut until five years later, in the 1993 drama-thriller The Crush. In this film, Silverstone played a fourteen year old teenager dangerously obsessed with an older journalist. When he refused her illicit and illegal advances, Silverstone’ character proceeded to make more than trouble in his life. While critics remained unenthused about Silverstone’s scandalous debut, the audiences loved it. Silverstone came home with two MTV Movie Awards to her credit—Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Villain. She was also nominated for the Young Artist Award in the category of Lead Youth Actress. With the backing of her fellow teen community behind her, Silverstone worked steadily in the years following The Crush. In fact, she worked so steadily she needed to be declared an emancipated minor in order to skirt child labor laws concerning the number of hours she could work in a day. Her performance caught the attention of wildly popular band Aerosmith, who cast her in several of their music videos including “Amazing” and “Cryin’,” both 1993. “Cryin’” in particular, captured the MTV crowd, and they voted it the #1 music video of all time.
TV movies become Silverstone’s next project, and she tackled three in the next year. In 1993 Torch Song paired her with Racquel Welch, and in Scattered Dream she acted with Tyne Daly of TV’s Cagney & Lace and Judging Amy. 1994 matched her with up-and-coming star Jared Leto in Cool and the Crazy. Silverstone and Leto played a discontent married couple, unhappily trapped and forced to separate affairs, which led to disastrous results. The film was widely panned, but Silverstone continued to do what she knew best—make movies. In 1995, she had a bit part in the film Le Nouveau Monde (or The New World). Dealing with the post World War II occupation of by the Americans, its portrayal was extremely unflattering. This probably lends insight into why the film was never released in an American theater. Silverstone had many adoring fans thanks to her MTV popularity, but real commercial and critical success still eluded her. However, all that changed in 1995 when she starred in the modern day adaptation of Emma by Jane Austen. Soon after this, Amy Heckerling’s Clueless made a superstar out of Alicia Silverstone, who played the beautiful, good-hearted, if not slightly ditzy lead, Cher. Other stars-before-they-were-stars in the movie included Donald Faison, Paul Rudd, Breckin Meyer, and Brittany Murphy. Finally Silverstone had the kind of success she had dreamed about. She won the American Comedy Award for Funniest Lead Actress, Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Newcomer, MTV Award for Best Female Performance and Most Desirable Female, and the National Board of Review’s Best Breakthrough Performer.
Signing a lucrative deal with Colombia Tristar, Silverstone went on the play the highly sought after role of Batgirl in Batman & Robin in 1997, opposite George Clooney’s Batman and Chris O’Donnell’s Robin. She also starred in Excess Baggage in 1997 with Benicio Del Toro, and Blast from the Past in 1999 with Brendan Fraser, Christopher Walken, and Sissy Spacek.
Silverstone continues to work steadily both on the big screen and television. Throughout the early millennium, she starred in Love’s Labour’s Lost in 2000 and Scorched in 2003. In the world of television, she starred in Miss Match in 2003, a comedy about a divorce lawyer by day, matchmaker by night. Despite a Golden Globe nomination for Silverstone’s lead character, the show was still canceled after only one season. Silverstone has currently completed filming the TV movie Pink Collar.
Breaking all the hearts of those MTV teen boys who voted her Most Desirable Female, Silverstone and long time boyfriend Christopher Jarecki (lead singer of band S.T.U.N.) married on June 11, 2005. The couple had dated for eight years prior to their marriage. Silverstone is also a devoted and avid vegan and is strongly involved in animal welfare. YUDDY |
