Alicia Silverstone

Early life

Silverstone was born in San Francisco, California, the daughter of British parents Deirdre "Didi" (née Radford), a Scottish former Pan Am flight attendant, and Monty Silverstone, an English real estate agent. She grew up in Hillsborough, California. Her father was born to a Jewish family and her mother converted to Conservative Judaism before marriage; Silverstone had a bat mitzvah ceremony. Silverstone began modeling when she was six years old, and was subsequently cast in television commercials, the first being for Domino's Pizza. She attended Crocker Middle School and then San Mateo High School.

1990s

Her first credited acting role was on The Wonder Years, starring Fred Savage, in the January 8, 1992 episode "Road Test", as Savage's character's high school "dream girl". Silverstone made her film debut when she obtained the leading role in the erotic thriller The Crush (1993), playing a teenaged girl who sets out to ruin an older man after he spurns her affections; she became legally emancipated at the age of 15 to work the hours required for the shooting schedule of the film. She won two awards at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards for the role—Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Villain. Silverstone made some television movies in her early career, including Torch Song, Cool and the Crazy, and Scattered Dreams.

After seeing her in The Crush, Marty Callner decided Silverstone would be perfect for a role in a music video he was directing for the band Aerosmith, called "Cryin'"; she was subsequently cast in two more videos, "Amazing" and "Crazy." These were hugely successful for both the band and Silverstone, making her a household name (and also gaining her the nickname, "the Aerosmith chick"). After seeing Silverstone in the three videos, filmmaker Amy Heckerling decided to cast her in the coming-of-age comedy Clueless, in the role of Cherilyn "Cher" Horowitz, a sweet but spoiled girl living in Beverly Hills. Clueless became a hit and critical darling during the summer of 1995, and as a result, she signed a deal with Columbia-TriStar valued between $8 and $10 million. As part of the package, she got a three-year first look deal for her own production company, First Kiss Productions. Silverstone also won Best Female Performance and Most Desirable Female at the 1996 MTV Movie Awards, plus awards from Blockbuster Entertainment Award, Kids' Choice Awards, National Board of Review, and an American Comedy Award for her performance in the film.

Silverstone had other three film releases in 1995—Le Nouveau monde, Hideaway and The Babysitter. The French drama about Americans Le Nouveau monde saw her play the love interest of a French boy. In the film adaptation of the novel by Dean Koontz, Hideaway, she took on the role of the daughter of a man who dies in a car accident and is revived two hours later, and the film The Babysitter was a B erotic thriller directed by Guy Ferland based on the eponymous short story by Robert Coover in his 1969 collection Pricksongs and Descants.

In 1996, she starred in the direct-to-video thriller True Crime as a Catholic school student searching for a murderer of teenage girls. Her next role was Batgirl in Batman & Robin (1997). Budgeted at over US$125 million, the film grossed a modest $238,207,122 worldwide, and her turn as Batgirl was widely panned by critics, who also considered the film to be one of the worst films of all time. Silverstone won a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress, but received a Blimp Award at the Kid's Choice Awards for the role.

Also in 1997, the first movie by Silverstone's production company, Excess Baggage, was released. In the crime-comedy, she played a neglected young woman who stages her own kidnapping to get her father's attention, only to be actually kidnapped by a car thief. The film only grossed US$14.5 million in North America, and received mediocre reviews from critics; Roger Ebert mentioned that she was "no better than OK" as he felt that she was miscast. Silverstone starred as the female lead in the romantic comedy Blast from the Past (1999), directed by Hugh Wilson and co-starring Brendan Fraser, Christopher Walken, and Sissy Spacek. Critical response towards the film was mixed, while it made a modest US$40 million globally. The New York Post noted in its review that Silverstone "proves wrong anyone who gave up on her because of her ill-fated turn in the awful Batman and Robin. She’s quite believable as a tough chick who's seen enough of life to give up on romance".

2000s

In Love's Labour's Lost (2000), a film adaptation of the William Shakespeare eponymous play directed by Kenneth Branagh, Silverstone played the Princess of France, a role which required her to sing and dance. A lukewarm and critical reception greeted the film upon its release, but film critic James Berardinelli felt that Silverstone, "while not completely at ease with all of her dialogue, is surprisingly credible" in her portrayal. She provided the voice of Sharon Spitz, the lead part in the Canadian animated television Braceface, from 2001 to 2003, and during this time, she played the bassist of a rock band in Global Heresy (2002), and made her Broadway debut alongside Kathleen Turner and Jason Biggs in The Graduate (also 2002). She also starred as one of several disgruntled bank employees trying to rob the same bank in the independent comedy Scorched (2003), co-starring Rachael Leigh Cook, Woody Harrelson, and John Cleese.

Silverstone signed on to headline the 2003 NBC television series Miss Match, as Kate Fox, a Los Angeles matrimonial attorney who doubles as a high-end matchmaker. The show was cancelled after only 11 episodes had aired, and Variety in its review for the show, wrote: "It's a shame that she's stuck with such wafer-thin material here, because Silverstone is undoubtedly a fun, perky presence on the small screen". Nevertheless, she earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. In 2004, she played a news reporter in Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze, Jr.. Despite a negative critical response, the film grossed US$181 million at the international box office.

Silverstone appeared with Queen Latifah as one of the stylists in the comedy Beauty Shop (2005), a spinoff of the Barbershop film franchise. She next starred in the dramatic thriller Silence Becomes You, which received a DVD release in October 2005. Silverstone did a pilot episode in 2005 with FOX called Queen B, in which she played a former high school prom queen who has discovered that the real world is nothing like high school, but it was not picked up for production. In 2006, she starred in an ABC pilot called Pink Collar as a woman working in a law firm, but like Queen B, this pilot was not picked up to series.

Silverstone portrayed the close friend of a teenager turned secret agent in the action-spy film Stormbreaker (2006), directed by Geoffrey Sax and co-starring Alex Pettyfer, Ewan McGregor and Mickey Rourke. Despite a US$40 million budget, the film made US$23 million worldwide and was largely dismissed by critics. USA Today described Silverstone as "simply ghastly" in her role, while View London remarked that there was "strong support" from the actress. She obtained the role of a single mother returning to her hometown after a lengthy absence in the made-for-Hallmark Hall of Fame television film Candles on Bay Street, based on the book by Cathie Pelletier.

Silverstone continued her theatre work, next appearing in David Mamet's Boston Marriage (2007), a play exploring the relationship between two upper-class women, where the actress played what was described by Los Angeles Times as the "clueless and hyper-emotional Scottish maid" of one of them. The production was presented at the Geffen Playhouse theater in Los Angeles, with Variety writing that Silverstone "steals the show [in her role]. Her Scottish accent is good, her comic delivery is fresh, and she gets the maximum laugh value from each wobbly curtsey. Her character is the one thing in the show that Mamet gets absolutely right, although she is used a bit repetitively." In the same year, she starred as a secretary in the theater production Speed-the-Plow, a satire on Hollywood executives and their monetary decisions. The production, presented at Geffen Playhouse, was directed by Randall Arney and penned by David Mamet. The Hollywood Reporter concluded the play was "fueled" by "a spectacular tour de force" from Silverstone.

In 2008, Silverstone filmed another unaired ABC pilot alongside Megan Mullally called Bad Mother's Handbook and made a cameo appearance in the action-comedy Tropic Thunder. In the following year, she starred in the world premiere of Donald Margulies's Time Stands Still at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. The play focuses on a longtime couple and journalistic team who returns to New York from an extended stint in the war-torn Middle East. She also starred in the music video for Rob Thomas's single "Her Diamonds" (2009).

2010s

Most of Silverstone's acting credits in the 2010s have been in theater and independent productions. In 2010, she reprised her role in Time Stands Still, alongside Laura Linney in the NYC production of the play on Broadway. Daniel Sullivan, who described Silverstone as "a breath of fresh air", directed the play, which had a general positive reception among critics, with The New York Times writing that the actress "brings warmth, actorly [sic] intelligence, and delicate humor." Silverstone filmed a small segment in the independent comedy sequel Elektra Luxx (2010), but her part was not included in the final cut of the film.

Silverstone was cast in the role of the teacher of a Manhattan private-school senior in the teen romance drama The Art of Getting By (2011), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The ensemble comedy Butter (2011) saw her play the adoptive mother of a 12-year-old African American girl who enters a local butter sculpturing competition in a small Iowa town. The film screened on the film festival circuit and was distributed for a limited release in certain parts of the United States only. She reunited with Clueless director Amy Heckerling in the independent film Vamps (2012), playing one of two vampires who fall in love and face a choice that could jeopardize their immortality. She was offered the role after Heckerling came to see her in Time Stands Still. Despite a very limited release, Variety found the film to be "a refreshing change of pace [...] with an irresistible cast".

She guest-starred in Childrens Hospital (2011) and obtained a four-episode role in the first season of Suburgatory (2012), reuniting with her Clueless castmate Jeremy Sisto. Silverstone returned to Broadway in the production of The Performers (2012). In 2013, she filmed the television pilot HR, which was not picked up, and appeared in the Sundance comedy Ass Backwards, released for VOD and selected theaters. In the coming-of-age drama Angels in Stardust (2014), Silverstone took on the role of a self-absorbed mother in the rural environment.

In 2015, Silverstone starred in the New York production of Of Good Stock, a play revolving around three sisters who gather at their family home for a summer weekend. Entertainment Weekly remarked that she was "magnetic even as an engaged narcissist, ditzy" sister, however The New York Times felt that her role was "the most cartoonish of the characters and a thankless part for [Silverstone], who tips into comic shrillness here". She appeared in the romantic comedy Who Gets the Dog? (2016), opposite Ryan Kwanten portraying a divorcing couple fighting over custody of their beloved dog. The production went straight-to-DVD. Her next film appearance was in the independent biographical drama King Cobra (2016), as the mother of gay film actor Brent Corrigan.

In 2016's Catfight, she played the love interest of Anne Heche's character, an outsider artist having a bitter lifetime rivalry with a wealthy housewife (Sandra Oh). The black comedy was released for VOD and selected theaters, to largely positive reviews. Silverstone co-starred in the 2017 films Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul and The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

Silverstone will next star in American Woman, a series for TV Land, along with upcoming movies The Tribes of Palos Verdes and Book Club.

Family

Silverstone has two older siblings, a half-sister from her father's previous marriage, Kezi Silverstone, and a brother, David Silverstone. She married her longtime boyfriend, rock musician Christopher Jarecki, in a beachfront ceremony at Lake Tahoe on June 11, 2005. After meeting outside a movie theater in 1997, the couple dated for eight years prior to their marriage. They got engaged about a year before their marriage, and Jarecki presented Silverstone with an engagement ring that had belonged to his grandmother. They live in an eco-friendly Los Angeles house, complete with solar panels and an organic vegetable garden. Silverstone bought the house, shared with a "menagerie of rescued dogs", in 1996.

In 2009, Silverstone released The Kind Diet, a guide to vegan nutrition, and launched its associated website The Kind Life. The Kind Diet has topped the Hardcover Advice & Misc. category of the New York Times bestseller list. In 2014, her follow-up book The Kind Mama was published. She plans to write a third, The Kind Diet Cookbook.

In May 2011, Silverstone gave birth to a boy. In March 2012, she received media attention for uploading a video of herself feeding chewed food to her son from her own mouth.

Activism

Silverstone is noted for being an animal rights and environmental activist. She became a vegan in 1998 after attending an animal rights meeting, saying "I realized that I was the problem … I was an animal lover who was eating animals." She has stated she struggled with childhood vegetarianism, stating "at eight years old it's hard to stick to your guns – and so through the years I was always starting and stopping trying to be a vegetarian."

In 2004, Alicia Silverstone was named "Sexiest Female Vegetarian" by PETA. She promoted vegetarianism in 2007 through a nude appearance in both a print advertisement and a 30-second television commercial for PETA; however, the commercial was removed from the Houston, Texas market by Comcast Cable. In 2016, she participated in PETA's "I'd Rather Go Naked" campaign against wool by posing nude once again. Silverstone is also known for establishing a sanctuary for rescued animals in Los Angeles. Furthermore, during the 2012 trial of the Russian band Pussy Riot, she appealed to Vladimir Putin in a letter, advocating for the provision of vegan meals to all prisoners in Russia.

Federal campaign contribution records list Silverstone contributing US$500 to Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign. She supported Barack Obama's presidential candidacy.

In 2009, she appeared in "A Gaythering Storm", a Funny or Die spoof Internet video parodying anti-same-sex marriage commercial "Gathering Storm". She appeared in "My Mother's Red Hat" with Alanis Morissette parodying indie movies.

Awards and nominations

She was awarded a Heart Of Green Award in 2009, which "recognizes individuals, organizations or companies who have helped green go mainstream." In 2010, she was awarded a Voice Of Compassion Award by the Physician's Committee For Responsible Medicine for "shining a spotlight on the powerful health benefits of a vegan diet."