As an actor, it can be hard to break out of the amber of an iconic character—to prove you’re more than the Halloween costume they still wear, inspired by the movie they still quote.
And two decades ago, after charming audiences as Cher Horowitz in Clueless, Alicia Silverstone hardly had the opportunity to enjoy her time atop the world. Just months after the Amy Heckerling comedy premiered in 1995, Silverstone—then 19 years old—presented at the 1996 Academy Awards; immediately, tabloids, TV presenters, and paparazzi began ridiculing her for gaining weight.
“It was a real turnoff for me because I was a rebellious teenager,” Silverstone told Vanity Fair recently by phone. “When I was having my crazy moments post-Clueless, I was being called ‘Fat Girl’”—a cruel play on her role as Batgirl in 1997 Batman & Robin. “It didn’t make me think, Oh yes, I’m going to try really hard to be [what you think I should be]. My response was, ‘Hell no.’ I had no interest in being famous or maintaining any kind of fame. If you told me that acting meant I was going to be called fat and have to do things a certain way, then I was like, ‘F off.’”
She was so disillusioned so quickly, she admitted, “I also gave a lot of my deciding power away to my team because it was all so complicated and hard.”
After a string of forgettable roles, the actress found a healthy distraction from the industry: she devoted her time and energy to writing the New York Times best-selling cookbook The Kind Diet, another book called The Kind Mama, and creating a line of organic, non-G.M.O. vitamins. She also got used to turning down film and television roles. As a kid growing up in San Francisco, Silverstone was a self-described theater nerd; as an adult, she turned her attention back to her first love, a medium that also keeps its audience at a safe distance. Silverstone got positive reviews for runs on Broadway—including for Time Stands Still, a drama from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies, in which she played opposite Laura Linney. Working with David Mamet for a Geffen Playhouse run of Boston Marriage she said, was one of the most gratifying experiences of her career.
These days, though, Silverstone is experiencing what the kids might call a bit of a Silverstonaissance. Last year she appeared in three films, including Yorgos Lanthimos’s disturbing psycho-horror The Killing of a Sacred Deer and, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the children’s film Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul. This year, Silverstone has juggled multiple projects in genres just as far-ranging: a “disturbing, beautiful, and nutso” horror movie from Austrian filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala; the recent Book Club, where she played Diane Keaton’s daughter; and indie comedy Judy Small, in which a couples therapist played by Michaela Watkins ruins the lives of her patients (Rob Corddry plays the husband to Silverstone’s wife). Silverstone, who is decidedly not Type A when it comes to acting, credits her surge of interesting, across-the-map roles to acclaimed casting director Francine Maisler (12 Years a Slave, The Revenant, The Big Short), who saw Silverstone onstage and made it her personal mission to get the actress back on-screen—bringing her in to read for Killing of a Sacred Deer and Judy Small.
On Thursday, Silverstone attempts another genre entirely—period drama—in Paramount’s new series American Woman. (The title alone seems to underscore how Silverstone has transformed since playing one of the 20th century’s most beloved California teenagers.) Silverstone plays Bonnie Nolan—a fabulously manicured Beverly Hills mother of two who, in the premiere, kicks her cheating husband to the curb even though she has no way to earn money herself. Silverstone’s Bonnie—empowered yet irresponsible—is loosely based on the mother of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member Kyle Richards, a co-executive producer on the series. Though they are generating most of American Woman’s publicity, Richards and Silverstone are both quick to note that the comedy was created by Emmy-winning 30 Rock writer John Riggi and executive produced by 24-time Emmy-nominated John Wells, the show-runner behind E.R., The West Wing, and Shameless.
Riggi and Wells have such intimidating résumés that Richards said she had to build up the courage to approach both creatives with notes. Richards—who, like her sister Kim Richards, is a former child star—said that her background is partly to blame for that: “I have the child actor in me—that you do as you’re told on set. [As co-executive producer] all of a sudden I had to realize that I’m a lot more capable than I had thought. . . . It was so weird to be, all of a sudden, behind the camera and not in front of it. I had to keep reminding myself I’m not a cast member. Once I felt comfortable, it felt more natural to [give my input], and I think everybody really respected my decisions . . . and quickly forgot about The Real Housewives.”
The moments ripped from Richards’s own childhood make for the most compelling moments in the season premiere. In one such scene, Bonnie stops her car—with her daughters in tow—to brazenly confronts two male strangers who have been trailing her since noticing her glistening jewelry.
“Kim was driving, and maybe 16, and I was 11,” remembered Richards. Her mom told Kim to pull the car over, and instructed her daughters to stay in their seats. “She went up and knocked on the window and [these men] were just staring at her. She said, ‘You see something you like?’ And put her ring up to their faces. I mean, I was hiding on the floor of the car. And my mom turned around, walked back, and said to us, ‘Let that be a lesson, girls. Don’t ever allow yourself to be intimidated by a man, ever. You always have to speak up for yourself and look after yourself.”
“I just got chills hearing the stories of Kyle’s mom,” said Silverstone, recalling her first meeting with Richards and Wells. “And then hearing what John wanted to do with the story . . . Bonnie’s so relatable and she’s brave. She’s so determined and independent and full of contradictions—scared and so liberated. She’s so fiercely protective of her kids while being really irresponsible. [Watching her is almost] like watching a car wreck. You’re like, ‘No! Don’t do that!’”
Beyond stories from Richards’s childhood, Silverstone said that she also invoked her own mother’s mannered way of speaking and made-up appearance as to play Bonnie: “My mom was a flight attendant for Pan Am and so beautiful—very feminine, girly, glamorous type of woman. So it was fun to feel like her.”
As interesting as the role has been, though, Silverstone seems most thrilled just to be playing a woman who’s so empowered.
“I really [admire] her bravery, [because] it’s hard to admit that certain aspects of our lives fall short than what we’d hoped for. We all get stuck, right? And there’s no guarantee that she’s going to find this new version of herself [after dumping her husband]. She just goes completely ballistic when she learns she’s been crossed, and she just lights the house on fire. She’s reckless. She’s not thinking, like, ‘I don’t have any skills. I don’t know how to survive. I have no money. This is 1975. I can’t even get a loan.’ She’s just like, ‘Rah!’ But it’s such a risk.”
“I can relate and I’m sure that we all can relate to liberating ourselves as women and as people,” she added. “Bonnie’s doing it at a time when it’s pretty unheard of, which is what makes it so exciting. But everyone’s doing that now, right? We’re all just trying to speak our truths, be ourselves, and break free of the things that we get used to and comfortable being stuck in.”
