Alicia
Silverstone (born October 4, 1976) is a Jewish-American
actress. She first came to widespread attention in the
music video for Aerosmith's Cryin and later starred
in 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 Labour'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, real-estate
investor, and Didi, a 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 during this time she acquired some early modelling
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
criticially 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 rumours 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.
Selected Filmography
Stormbreaker (2006)
Beauty Shop (2005)
Anchorman (2005)
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
Braceface (2001) (TV Series) (voice)
Love's Labour's Lost (2000)
Blast from the Past (1999)
Batman & Robin (1997)
Clueless (1995)
True Crime (1996)
The Crush (1993)
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
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