There are people who have never left us, but fly so low that it seems that way. It is the case of Alicia Silverstone, who made a name for herself thanks to ‘Out of Wave’ and then seemed to fall off the radar after playing the first modern Batgirl in ‘Batman & Robin’. Her failure was such that she won a Razzie and she disappeared from the collective consciousness as soon as she arrived. But the reality is that there was a reason for it… and that she has never stopped being there for three decades. But it’s time to ask ourselves, what happened to Alicia Silverstone?
in the wave
Alicia Silverstone was born on October 4, 1976 (so you don’t do the math, 46 years ago) in San Francisco. Her parents, a flight attendant and a real estate agent, They were convinced of his future career and he started modeling at the age of six. Soon after, he starred in his first ad for Domino’s Pizza, followed by others. At 15 she already declared herself an emancipated minor. She didn’t do it to show her power or to make her parents angry, but rather to be able to participate in the filming of an erotic thriller (‘Poison on the skin’) more hours than those dictated by American laws for the protection of minors. At that time, in his first interviews, he declared that he “wanted everyone to be happy”. Little did she know that the world didn’t want the same for her.
That film brought her two MTV Awards in 1994 (Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Villain) and Rocked her up in her career as the lead in three Aerosmith music videos, something that may seem small to us now but in the 90s it was quite an achievement: ‘Cryin’, ‘Amazing’ and ‘Crazy’. In the latter, she shared the screen with Steve Tyler’s daughter, a certain Liv, where they both stopped going to class to get in a car, participate in an American bar tournament, skinny-dip with a farmer and end up leaving with him on the road. towards an uncertain destination. Limits were not a problem for her.
His life was on the right but not memorable path until Amy Heckerling entered his life. If you don’t know her, is one of the basic names of American eighties comedy: his are ‘That exciting course’, ‘The European vacation of a crazy American family’ and ‘Look who’s talking’. In 1995, she was ready to give high school cinema a twist with ‘Out of Wave’, a project that began as a television pilot and ended up being one of the best teen movies ever. Heckerling needed a leading lady who was willing to laugh at herself while still being charismatic. Watching MTV he found exactly what he was looking for, and Silverstone outcast Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow or Angelina Jolie. I was 18 years old and a star was born.
the batgirl
Alicia Silverstone’s best friend at age 18 was her agent, Carolyn Kesslerand had dropped out to become an actress, selling her duality very well: she was an innocent girl and at the same time spicy. “I’m always working so I don’t have time for dates. I’m always around adults”, he commented in an interview in 1995, a few months after the premiere of ‘Fuera de onda’. The film was such a hit that she signed a million-dollar deal with Columbia that made her participate in films where she was not entirely comfortable (including some direct-to-video tape).
Nothing happens: he kept winning awards for ‘Out of the Wave’ and his new role promised to be everything in 1997: the fourth part of ‘Batman’, a saga that was always a box office hit. But we all know what happened with ‘Batman and Robin’. Although she was the only possible choice as Batgirl, she did not have a good time during filming and promotion: she had to lose ten pounds before shooting and, despite everything, put up with jokes about her weight continuously during the campaign. For example, Entertainment Weekly compared her to Babe, a spunky little pig, with the headline “A Weight Problem”.
And part of his retirement from the front row had to do with it. As she announced in 2020: “My body was laughed at when I was younger. I wasn’t confused. I knew it wasn’t right to laugh at someone’s body shape.it doesn’t seem like the right thing to do to a human being”. Silverstone won a Razzie (and a YoGa, that in Spain we are as “funny” as in America), he endured laughter at his expense and decided that his leap into the world had come as far as mainstream. Her next film was produced by herself and her company, but ‘Excess Baggage’ was a critical and box office flop. The good reviews for her performance in ‘Finding Eve’, alongside Brendan Fraser, they weren’t enough to prevent their disappearance into the Hollywood ether.
Smaller roles, greater happiness
In 2000, the actress decided she didn’t want to be part of the Hollywood game or fight for the best headlines, and stepped aside, landing supporting roles in films like ‘Love’s labor lost’, ‘A rocker to watch out for’ or ‘This is not a robbery’, along with John Cleese, Rachael Leigh Cook and Woody Harrelson. Hollywood, now freed from that almost murderous pink press of the late 90s, he learned to live with her and forgot the wrongs he did to him in his day.
Since then, the actress he has not worried about the prizes again: She was the villain of ‘Scooby Doo 2’, had a cameo in ‘Tropic Thunder’, starred in ‘Catfight’ with Sandra Oh and Anne Heche, appeared briefly in ‘The Sacrifice of a Sacred Deer’ and even voiced the Queen Marlena from ‘Masters of the Universe: Revelation’. And in the end, it was her role in a small Netflix series, ‘The Babysitter Club’, which made him known again for a whole generation.
But the most important: Alicia Silverstone lives happy-go-lucky in an eco-friendly house in Los Angeles, which she bought next to a sanctuary for abandoned dogs in 1996, is one of the leading voices for animal rights and has become a vegan. In fact, In 2004, she was voted the Sexiest Vegetarian in the World by PETA. and has even appeared nude in various anti-wool campaigns.
This lifestyle, added to the lack of control of Hollywood, has not avoided its eccentric controversies: it was known that she gave food to her son after she chewed ittook a position against vaccines and even wrote to Vladimir Putin asking him to Give vegetarian option in prisons after the arrest of the group Pussy Riot. In the end, living in the mecca of cinema is what it has: even leaving the spotlight, you can’t lose track of yourself.