Alicia Silverstone, (born October 4, 1976) is an American actress and former fashion model. She first came to widespread attention in music videos for Aerosmith and later starred in Hollywood films such as Clueless and Batman & Robin.
Biography
Early life: Alicia Silverstone was born in San Francisco, California to Monty Silverstone, a real-estate investor, and Didi Radford, a former flight attendant. Silverstone's father is English-born and her mother is Scottish. Her father, a native of East London, is Jewish and her mother converted to Judaism upon marrying Silverstone's father. She attended San Mateo High School but did not complete her high school studies. Silverstone is the youngest of three children and also has a half-sister, London rock singer Kezi Silverstone, and a half-brother, David Silverstone, both from her father's previous marriage. Silverstone visited England during the summer during her childhood. When she was six, she began modeling and was subsequently cast in television commercials, the first being for Domino's Pizza. She acquired some early modeling and advertising work and was eventually cast as the 'dream girl' on American TV series The Wonder Years.
Career
1990s: Silverstone won a leading part in the 1993 film The Crush, playing a girl who sets out to ruin an older man after her teenage crush is spurned; she won two awards at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards for the role for Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Villain. Silverstone became legally emancipated at the age of fifteen in order to work the hours required for the shooting schedule of the film. After seeing her in The Crush, Marty Callner decided she'd be perfect for a role in a music video he was directing for the band Aerosmith, called "Cryin", and then the following two videos "Amazing" and "Crazy". These were hugely successful both for the band and Silverstone, making her a household name (and also gaining her the nickname, "the Aerosmith chick"). They also got her noticed by film maker Amy Heckerling, who after seeing them decided to cast her in Clueless.
Clueless became a sleeper hit and critical darling during the summer of 1995. Silverstone's performance was well received, and she was branded the spokeswoman for an emerging young generation. As a result, she signed 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. Silverstone also won "Best Female Performance" and "Most Desirable Female" by the MTV Movie Awards in 1996 for her performance in the film.
Silverstone's next role was as Batgirl in Batman & Robin, which was neither a critical nor a financial success. Silverstone won a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress. She suffered further bad press for allegedly striking a pedestrian with her vehicle in a crosswalk. She also starred in 1997's dark comedy Excess Baggage, which was the first movie to be released by First Kiss Productions. In the film, Silverstone played a chain smoking, underage drinking, rich brat who fakes her own kidnapping in order to get her father's attention. The film was not as critically or commercially embraced as Clueless. After just one film, Columbia-TriStar let their production deal with Silverstone expire.
2000s: Silverstone appeared in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of the Shakespeare play Love's Labour's Lost in 2000, in which she was required to sing and dance.
In 2001, Silverstone provided the voice of Sharon Spitz, the lead character in the Canadian animated television Braceface.
After removing herself from the public eye for a few years, she resurfaced in the 2003 NBC television show Miss Match, which was then cancelled after thirteen episodes. Silverstone's long hiatus was referred to in the pilot episode of the television series Get Real, as an exasperated Kenny remarked, "Why can't I fall off the face of the earth, like Alicia Silverstone?"
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."
After the cancellation of Miss Match in 2003, she did a pilot with FOX called Queen B, in which she would have played a former high school prom queen named Beatrice (Bea), who has found out that the real world is nothing like high school.
In 2005, she co-starred with Queen Latifah in Beauty Shop, a spin-off of the BarberShop films. She played one of the stylists in the beauty shop.
For the pilot season of 2006-2007, she surfaced on a pilot being developed by ABC called Pink Collar, in which she would have worked in a law firm.
Silverstone's most recent movie, Stormbreaker, was released in the UK on July 21, 2006, and in North America on October 13, 2006. Silverstone filmed the role of Jack Starbright (Alex Rider's housekeeper and guardian) in the summer of 2005, several days after her wedding. She took the role because the opportunity to work with co-stars Ewan McGregor and Sophie Okonedo, both of whom she has said she admires.
In November 2006, she starred in the television movie Candles on Bay Street for Hallmark Hall of Fame, based on the book by Cathie Pelletier under the pseudonym of K.C. Mikinnon.
Personal life
Silverstone married longtime boyfriend, rock musician Christopher Jarecki, in a beachfront ceremony at Lake Tahoe on June 11, 2005. The couple had dated for eight years prior to being married, after meeting outside a movie theater in 1997. They got engaged about a year before their marriage and Silverstone's engagement ring belonged to Jarecki's grandmother. They live in an eco-friendly Los Angeles house complete with solar panels and an organic vegetable garden. She bought the house, shared with a "menagerie of rescued dogs," in 1996.
Biography
Early life: Alicia Silverstone was born in San Francisco, California to Monty Silverstone, a real-estate investor, and Didi Radford, a former flight attendant. Silverstone's father is English-born and her mother is Scottish. Her father, a native of East London, is Jewish and her mother converted to Judaism upon marrying Silverstone's father. She attended San Mateo High School but did not complete her high school studies. Silverstone is the youngest of three children and also has a half-sister, London rock singer Kezi Silverstone, and a half-brother, David Silverstone, both from her father's previous marriage. Silverstone visited England during the summer during her childhood. When she was six, she began modeling and was subsequently cast in television commercials, the first being for Domino's Pizza. She acquired some early modeling and advertising work and was eventually cast as the 'dream girl' on American TV series The Wonder Years.
Career
1990s: Silverstone won a leading part in the 1993 film The Crush, playing a girl who sets out to ruin an older man after her teenage crush is spurned; she won two awards at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards for the role for Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Villain. Silverstone became legally emancipated at the age of fifteen in order to work the hours required for the shooting schedule of the film. After seeing her in The Crush, Marty Callner decided she'd be perfect for a role in a music video he was directing for the band Aerosmith, called "Cryin", and then the following two videos "Amazing" and "Crazy". These were hugely successful both for the band and Silverstone, making her a household name (and also gaining her the nickname, "the Aerosmith chick"). They also got her noticed by film maker Amy Heckerling, who after seeing them decided to cast her in Clueless.
Clueless became a sleeper hit and critical darling during the summer of 1995. Silverstone's performance was well received, and she was branded the spokeswoman for an emerging young generation. As a result, she signed 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. Silverstone also won "Best Female Performance" and "Most Desirable Female" by the MTV Movie Awards in 1996 for her performance in the film.
Silverstone's next role was as Batgirl in Batman & Robin, which was neither a critical nor a financial success. Silverstone won a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress. She suffered further bad press for allegedly striking a pedestrian with her vehicle in a crosswalk. She also starred in 1997's dark comedy Excess Baggage, which was the first movie to be released by First Kiss Productions. In the film, Silverstone played a chain smoking, underage drinking, rich brat who fakes her own kidnapping in order to get her father's attention. The film was not as critically or commercially embraced as Clueless. After just one film, Columbia-TriStar let their production deal with Silverstone expire.
2000s: Silverstone appeared in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of the Shakespeare play Love's Labour's Lost in 2000, in which she was required to sing and dance.
In 2001, Silverstone provided the voice of Sharon Spitz, the lead character in the Canadian animated television Braceface.
After removing herself from the public eye for a few years, she resurfaced in the 2003 NBC television show Miss Match, which was then cancelled after thirteen episodes. Silverstone's long hiatus was referred to in the pilot episode of the television series Get Real, as an exasperated Kenny remarked, "Why can't I fall off the face of the earth, like Alicia Silverstone?"
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."
After the cancellation of Miss Match in 2003, she did a pilot with FOX called Queen B, in which she would have played a former high school prom queen named Beatrice (Bea), who has found out that the real world is nothing like high school.
In 2005, she co-starred with Queen Latifah in Beauty Shop, a spin-off of the BarberShop films. She played one of the stylists in the beauty shop.
For the pilot season of 2006-2007, she surfaced on a pilot being developed by ABC called Pink Collar, in which she would have worked in a law firm.
Silverstone's most recent movie, Stormbreaker, was released in the UK on July 21, 2006, and in North America on October 13, 2006. Silverstone filmed the role of Jack Starbright (Alex Rider's housekeeper and guardian) in the summer of 2005, several days after her wedding. She took the role because the opportunity to work with co-stars Ewan McGregor and Sophie Okonedo, both of whom she has said she admires.
In November 2006, she starred in the television movie Candles on Bay Street for Hallmark Hall of Fame, based on the book by Cathie Pelletier under the pseudonym of K.C. Mikinnon.
Personal life
Silverstone married longtime boyfriend, rock musician Christopher Jarecki, in a beachfront ceremony at Lake Tahoe on June 11, 2005. The couple had dated for eight years prior to being married, after meeting outside a movie theater in 1997. They got engaged about a year before their marriage and Silverstone's engagement ring belonged to Jarecki's grandmother. They live in an eco-friendly Los Angeles house complete with solar panels and an organic vegetable garden. She bought the house, shared with a "menagerie of rescued dogs," in 1996.