| by
Dennis Hensley
Parked outside
Alicia Silverstone’s trailer on the set of her NBC series
Miss Match is an eco-friendly Toyota Prius hybrid, which is
not surprising, given the 27 year-old Vegan actress’s
well-publicized views on animal rights and the environment.
On the car’s back window, someone has scrawled “Watch
me, please.” This makes sense, for although Miss Match
has been well received by critics—Silverstone was even
nominated for a Golden Globe for her turn divorce attorney-by-day,
matchmaker-by-night Kate Fox--ratings have been less than
spectacular. Oh wait, the window says, “Wash me, please.”
This makes even more sense because the car’s filthy.
Bad auto hygiene.
It’s just one more thing to find adorable about Alicia
Silverstone. Though her 12-year career has had its highs—Clueless,
The Crush, those Aerosmith videos—and lows—Batman
and Robin anyone?—one thing has remained relatively
consistent. People just seem to like her.
Today is the
last day of shooting for the season on Miss Match. Dressed
in her outfit for tonight’s wrap party--jeans, a rocker
T and black Stella McCartney jacket—Silverstone stretches
out on the sofa in her trailer and reflects on this chapter
of her life. “It’s sad and I had weird dreams
about it last night,” admits the actress, who makes
a brief return to the big screen in this month’s Scooby
Doo: Monsters Unleashed, “but I’ve had the best
time. I love playing Kate Fox. She’s like a little Superman
fighting for good. She’s so romantic and excited by
life and those are things that I absolutely relate to. I want
people to feel all gooey inside.”
Mission accomplished.
DENNIS
HENSLEY: Do you hope Miss Match gets renewed for another season
or are you ready to move on?
I’ve
made great relationships here and it would be a shame for
us all not to be together for another season. I love working
with NBC. They sent me to a Radiohead concert so they’re
good in my book.
Did you
go backstage and meet the band?
They’re
too amazing to even want to meet.
What celebrity
would you really want to meet?
Prince. He’s
my big love God. Wasn’t he amazing on the Grammy’s
with Beyonce? She was smokin’ hot. I don’t think
I’ve seen something that hot in like, my fantasies.
So you
have a little crush on Beyonce?
(Laughs) I
guess. She looked like your best fantasy of a Barbie doll,
like when you’re a little girl and you have these ideas
of what a woman is. She is that.
Back to
Miss Match. Has it been fun working on a project that’s
all about love and romance?
I’ve
always been a big sucker for love. It’s what everybody
is searching for, even the angriest, most upset people. So
I feel like I’m in a really cool, ongoing Meg Ryan movie.
You seem
really unjaded, on-screen and off. Given that you were so
successful so young, it seems like you could have turned out
a whole different way.
What way could
I have gone?
You could
have gotten messed up on drugs or alcohol or been sort of
desperate for attention, like turning up on all fours in Maxim.
I was on all
fours in Detour, but that was with David LaChapelle, an artiste.
(Laughs) No, I know what you mean. I feel like I’ve
always had really good ideas of what I wanted and I had my
priorities straight.
Where does
that self-possession come from?
I think intuitively,
when I was younger, love was the most important thing. I really,
really craved deep love with people and I never thought that
I was going to get that from my work. When I was younger,
I think I pushed away success. It was scary. I was a little
girl.
Like, “Sure,
I’ve won a zillion MTV Awards, but what does it all
mean?”
(Laughs) Yeah,
and it was all happening so fast. I was appreciative but I
never was impressed by it. Now, I’m more impressed.
Now, I can be like, “I got nominated for a Golden Globe!”
whereas before I’d be like, “(scoffing) Golden
Globes…it’s not real.” I was very serious
back then, but it wasn’t arrogance. I was just trying
to figure out what was important. Luckily, I had really great
people in my life who really let me be who I was, friends
that I could tell all my darkest feelings to. I could express
how uncomfortable I was about everything and they weren’t
going like, “You’re insane.”
When you
first started, you did a lot of movies right in a row, then
you seemed to disappear for a while. Was that a conscious
decision?
When I was
little, it was like, “I’m going to take every
single job I get. I’m in no business not to.”
But Clueless was so successful that I had to be selective
about what I picked next. And at that point I was taking things
extremely seriously. I felt like, “I’m not just
going to repeat the same thing? I’m an artist!”
Right away, I got offered an amazing opportunity to produce
Excess Baggage. I cared so much and I wanted the movie to
be so good and I was really proud of the compromises and the
end result. I worked on that for two years, like sweat and
blood, and that’s where I really learned some key things
about filmmaking and about myself.
You cast
Benicio Del Toro as your love interest before many people
knew who he was.
He had to
be the guy. But we had to convince people to hire him. I went
in and did the best acting job of my life, convincing the
studio that he looked just like Brad Pitt, that he was brilliant
and that there was no other choice.
Before
Miss Match, did you ever feel a sense of panic, like ‘I’ve
been gone a long time. I need to bounce back big’?
As an actor,
you always have those feelings. You have a to have a balance.
I’d worked so much at such a young age, that I missed
out on things. When all my girlfriends were in school, I was
working every day and we had nothing in common. So it was
really important for me to experience life. I spent time growing
veggies, hanging out with my dogs, reading, doing yoga, being
naked on the beach in Hawaii, and just having fun. It’s
very easy for me to pick roles now because if it’s not
really stimulating, I’m so happy doing other things.
Now you’re
back on the big screen, playing a TV reporter in Scooby Doo:
Monsters Unleashed. Did you base your character on all the
nutty interviewers you’ve had over the years?
I didn’t
use them at all, but she is psychotic. (Laughs) It’s
a cameo part but it was a dream job; go to Vancouver, work
maybe forty-eight hours and have all this great downtime.
I’d go out on romantic dates by myself.
Did you
pull out the chair for yourself and pick up the check?
Yes, I did.
Did you
put out for yourself at the end of the date?
I did. No,
wait. I don’t know if I did. (Laughs) But I would sit
there with my little journal, order a glass of wine and work
on my script. I felt very, very artsy.
When in
the course of making a movie do you know if it’s gonna
turn out good or not?
I never know.
And I never really used to care. I was always so excited about
the process that to me, the end result was just like, “Well,
it’s not my problem.” But now I feel more invested.
I want my movies to do really well and I want to do everything
I can to help promote them because I want to support people
that are supporting me.
What’s
your favorite part of your job?
The most fun
part is being locked in a room for hours, working on my script.
I get so stimulated and really turned on.
Speaking
of turn-ons, some of your early roles, like The Crush, had
a sexuality to them that was beyond their years. Who do you
think of when you look at pictures from that time?
Sometimes
I laugh and I think, ‘I hope I’m going to have
the imagination to do now what I did then.’ I was totally
free as Darian in The Crush. Like where did that come from
when I was fifteen? That scares me. And there’s some
pictures where I look so sad and I’m just like, “Wow.
That’s so neat that I was totally into it.” I
really, really got off on doing The Crush. Maybe there’s
something weird about that, I don’t know. I guess I
got to let out all my angst or something.
Then came
Clueless. What does that movie mean to you looking back?
I loved it
but I was really terrified to do it. That was a character
role for me because I’m nothing like that girl. Then
I started to get into this groove and I felt like I felt like
I was channeling some kind of wonderful thing from the past.
Unlike
Cher in Clueless, you’ve never been much of a clotheshorse.
Has that changed as you’ve gotten older?
Not really.
The fact that I’m wearing this semi-hip outfit right
now is shocking. It’s my wrap party outfit. I’m
just learning to be a woman. I’m just learning about
make-up. I think that all came from becoming healthier, because
once I got healthy, I started wanting to feel pretty. There’s
definitely been moments, like at the Emmy’s or Golden
Globes, where I’ve felt more girly and more like, appreciative
of a good hairdo. It’s so funny to me that I would say
that now, because I would so not admit to anything like that
before.
How hard
was it for you to go Vegan?
I really thought
I was making a huge sacrifice but then the most amazing things
started happening to me. I calmed down emotionally. I don’t
have to exercise, and I still maintain really nice figure
from my diet. My skin got better. My nails got strong. My
eyes got white and bright and I have not been really sick
in five years.
If you
were going to seduce me into Veganism, what would you prepare
for me?
I’d
take you to Real Food Daily, and order the nachos, some tacos,
the Rueben, the club sandwich and some mashed potatoes and
gravy. So yummy. Then for dessert, I would get us coconut
cream pie, chocolate cake, the macaroons, carrot cake and
pecan pie.
I’m
sold. You win. The name of your company is First Kiss Productions.
Do you remember your first kiss?
I was ten
and it was with a guy named Isaac. His brother was encouraging
him and my girlfriend was encouraging me. I don’t know
if it’s because I was embarrassed or because it was
true, but I went to school saying, ‘Don’t ever
French kiss. It’s very disgusting.”
If you
could be a guy for a day, what would you want to experience?
Oh, my mind
goes one place really quick, but that’s weird. (Laughs)
You know what would be really nice? To pee so easily, though
I still do pee easily, just wherever, but a guy can get away
with it a bit easier.
Have you
ever been in a typical movie star situation—like in
a limo—and just snuck away and did your business in
the bushes?
Oh, I’ve
peed everywhere you could possibly imagine. I’ve been
like, “Pull over!” and my friends are like, “No!”
because they don’t want me to get caught but I don’t
care. Whenever I gotta pee, I pee.
You’ve
been involved for several years with musician Christopher
Jarecki. Do you think about getting married?
Yeah, but
I still feel like I’m a little girl. I think when I
was in unhealthy relationships, marriage was a really important
concept. I don’t think it was conscious, but I think
it was like, ‘If they’ll marry me, they really
love me.’ But now, I’m not that interested in
marriage as much. It’s a really romantic, beautiful
concept, but for me, it wouldn’t be so right to have
a traditional wedding. I would want something more like, tribal,
something that was an expression of where I was at, at that
time.
How would
you describe this time in your life?
Insane but
fulfilling. My lifestyle really allows me to feel healthy
as I’m being pulled left and right and up and down and
my brain’s falling out. I feel like as long as you can
get to Yoga, eat really good food, feel healthy, and have
love in your life, it’s all good.
|