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Alicia Silverstone Biography and Movies
Alicia
Silverstone (born October 4, 1976) is an American actress. She
first came to widespread attention in the music video for
Aerosmith's Cryin and later starred in "crazy" and several
Hollywood motion pictures. According to critics, she has
demonstrated a versatile acting talent in a range of parts, from
femme fatale in The Crush to quirky comedy in Clueless. She is
also noted for her strong views on animal welfare and is a
committed vegan. In 2004, Silverstone was voted sexiest female
vegetarian.
Silverstone has continued to make a wide range of movie and
television appearances, appearing mostly in comedy and action
roles (she is still widely known for her role in Clueless),
although proving herself versatile enough to tackle the major
Shakespeare production Love's Labor's Lost. Recently, she has
extended her repertoire by working as both a television and film
producer.
Silverstone reportedly refuses to appear nude in any of her
movies. Because of this, she requires a body double in her place
for nude scenes. When she starred 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.
Silverstone was born in San Francisco, California, to English
Jewish parents Monty Silverstone, real-estate investor, and Didi
Radford, a Scottish-born former flight attendant. She was raised
in Hillsborough, California. Alicia is the youngest of Monty and
Didi's three children but she also has a half-sister, Kezi
Silverstone, who's a rock singer in London from Monty's previous
marriage and a half-brother, David Silverstone. When Alicia was
six, Monty took some photos of his young daughter. The photos
allowed her to get some modeling gigs which then led to
television commercials (the first being for Domino's Pizza).
Alicia
later attended San Mateo High School in San Mateo, California
where she was a cheerleader. During this time she acquired some
early modeling and advertising work and eventually got the part
of the ''dream girl'' on American TV series The Wonder Years.
She won a leading part in the 1993 movie The Crush, playing a
girl who sets out to ruin an older man after her teenage crush
is spurned, for which she won two awards at the 1994 MTV Movie
Awards. Silverstone actually became legally emancipated at the
age of 15 in order to work the hours required for the shooting
schedule of The Crush.
She
went on to star in three Aerosmith music videos, entitled Cryin,
Crazy, and Amazing which were hugely successful both for the
band and Silverstone, making her a household name. Around this
period, Silverstone was offered the role of Valerie Malone, on
Beverly Hills 90210. After she turned it down, the role went to
Tiffani Thiessen.
After
Clueless became a huge sleeper hit and critical darling during
the summer of 1995, Silverstone was hailed as the woman of the
hour, and branded the spokeswoman for an emerging young
generation. As a result, she was able to sign a deal with
Columbia-TriStar worth $10 million. As part of the package, she
got a three-year first-look deal for her own production company,
"First Kiss Productions."
The
first movie to be released by "First Kiss Productions" was a
1997 black comedy called Excess Baggage. Excess Baggage, a movie
in which Silverstone played a chain smoking, underage drinking,
rich brat, who fakes her own kidnapping in order to get her
father's attention was not as critically or commercially
embraced as Clueless. Silverstone also came under fire
(especially by E!) for receiving such a lucrative production
deal so early in her career. Excess Baggage was such a
disappointment, that after just one film, Columbia-TriStar
quietly let their production deal with Silverstone expire.
Around
the time she was featured as Batgirl in Batman and Robin,
Silverstone was lambasted by tabloid media and mainstream press
alike for putting on weight. Though hardly obese by any
standard, Silverstone had obviously put on more weight than the
public was used to seeing her carry, and this started a
whirlwind of rumors which affected her personal life.
Ironically, she was turned down for the lead in 1994''s My
Father the Hero because the producers said that she was too
heavy for the part. The role ultimately went to Katherine Heigl
instead. It didn't help Silverstone's cause that Batman and
Robin was an even bigger critical and commercial failure than
her other movie from 1997, Excess Baggage.
For
some time, Silverstone, despite her young age, gained the
reputation of being a "has-been", who reached her peak with the
Aerosmith videos and Clueless. She effectively removed herself
from the public eye for many years, resurfacing in the
critically acclaimed television show Miss Match, which was
cancelled after thirteen episodes. Silverstone later
acknowledged that she hates the trappings of fame, insisting
that being a celebrity is a horrific ordeal that she wouldn't
want her worst enemy to suffer. According to Silverstone "Fame
is not anything I wish on anyone. You start acting because you
love it. Then success arrives, and suddenly you're on show."
Silverstone married her longtime boyfriend Christopher Jarecki,
lead singer of the band S.T.U.N., at a beach front ceremony at
Lake Tahoe on June 11, 2005. The pair dated for eight years
before the wedding. |
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