MovieChat Forums > Batman & Robin (1997) Discussion > What went wrong with Alicia Silverstone?

What went wrong with Alicia Silverstone?

posted 6 years ago by TMC-4 (20494)
15 replies | jump to latest

https://www.quora.com/What-went-wrong-with-Alicia-Silverstone

The Batman curse — the movie she had a key role in bombed at the box office.

She would rather save the world. She never really wanted to be a movie star. At the end of the day, she was more of an indie girl done good and all that peripheral showbiz pressure just wasn't her thing.

She's left of center, even for Hollywood. She was widely ridiculed for a video that showed her feeding pre-chewed food to her son, Bear.

She was never a celebutante. Alicia Silverstone never cultivated a reputation as a celebutante who partied and put hedonistic pursuits ahead of her career endeavors. That kept her name out of the headlines, which can be both a blessing and a curse. It indicated that she was mature and serious, but it also meant she flew under the radar, which isn't helpful when competing with so many peers and up-and-comers for quality roles.

https://lebeauleblog.com/2011/06/23/what-the-hell-happened-to-alicia-silverstone/

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/23741214-why-did-alicia-silverstone-s-career-go-straight-down-the-shitter-

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Outside of Clueless, was she ever that good an actor?

I shouldn't criticise too harshly because she's clearly a very good person, and I commend her animal rights work and lifestyle.

But I was never especially taken with her as an actor or even as a pin-up girl.

[–] TMC-4 (20494) 6 years ago

I think that Alicia Silverstone didn't have much to fall back on once the Batman backlash hit. I mean, Arnold Schwarzenegger had his future political career and Uma Thurman still had Quentin Tarantino to count on. George Clooney was at least, smart enough to realize that he can't just take any job for the money, and proceeded to surround himself with quality filmmakers. Plus, Clooney was still doing ER at the time, which provided a nice little security blanket.

With Alicia, she didn't make enough "good" movies for the general public to be able to look past Batman & Robin. Outside of Clueless, can you think of any other movie that Alicia Silverstone appeared in that is worth watching, on a unironic level (so The Crush doesn't count)? Also, Alicia probably didn't have a lot of good-will and support in the industry at the time stemming from her production deal with Columbia Pictures. I suspect that most people within the industry felt that she didn't deserve gaining so much power so early in her career. And of course, it turned out that Alicia Silverstone was over her head when her first and only production job, Excess Baggage, was a major bomb.

Plus, I'm guessing that Alicia is another one of those actresses who got the "difficult to work with" label. It didn't help that she was facing competition at the time from actresses like Drew Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon, and Kate Hudson.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Plus, Arnie, Uma, and Clooney already had proven track records. Outside of Clueless, Silverstone had no other big hits, and like Chris O'Donnell whose career also faltered post-Batman, she wasn't that great an actor.

Plus, Drew Barrymore is like Silverstone's better-looking sister, and is only a year older, and so it stood to reason that all the parts that could have gone to Silverstone ended up going to Barrymore.

[–] TMC-4 (20494) 6 years ago

I think that when Alicia Silverstone was up and coming, she was seen as a Drew Barrymore-type (cute, quirky, coquettish, down to earth) albeit without the familial Hollywood Dynasty connections. Heck, Never Been Kissed is pretty much Drew Barrymore's Clueless (that sort of seminal, '90s teen movie that has become kind of a cult classic). Drew like Alicia, arguably isn't the most versatile actress in the world, but it's undeniable that Drew is extremely charismatic and charming. I'm not sure if Alicia Silverstone was the type of actress who was capable for elevating decidedly mediocre material.

https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/8tikuv/holy_shit_american_woman_is_awful_and_alicia/

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/17683976-alicia-silverstone

https://web.archive.org/web/20160323220944/https://lebeauleblog.com/2016/03/20/alicia-silverstone-the-crown-princess-of-young-hollywood/

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

After the raging success of "Clueless" Alicia faltered quite quickly. She was the hottest young thing in Hollywood for a little while, but she followed that with two failures - "Batman and Robin" and "Excess Baggage", so Hollywood decided she wasn't a box-office draw almost immediately. And when she gained a little weight and no longer quite fit their idea of what a movie star should look like, they dumped her like a toddler dumps a toy when they see a new one. "Blast from the Past" in 1999 was a bit of a comeback for her, her star fell that quickly.

I've never heard anything about Silverstone being difficult, not a thing, I suspect she just isn't as ambitious and career-focused as some. She's kept acting on and off, but she hasn't had a career like Drew Barrymore's, and am not convinced that she wants one. Barrymore is in it for the long haul as an actor and producer, she's been a big deal in Hollywood for thirty-odd years now and apparently intends to stay a big deal for a few more decades. Who knows, Silverstone grew up a few miles from me, but I don't know anything about her but what I read in the news.

[–] TMC-4 (20494) 6 years ago

As far as wither or not Silverstone was difficult, well there is what allegedly went on during the production of Excess Baggage:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TroubledProduction/Film0ToL

https://lebeauleblog.com/2011/06/23/what-the-hell-happened-to-alicia-silverstone/5/

The LA Times reported that Silverstone clashed with director Marco Brambilla. They quoted an unnamed source from the set:

The fights were totally in their faces. It was in front of the entire cast and crew. They fought over dialogue, scenes, script and even wardrobe. The director would say, ‘I’m the director! What are you doing? You have to do this!’ She’d be like, ‘You don’t know anything! You should have read the script before you signed on to it!’ Then they would go to their trailers and call their agents. Nicholas Turturro had a stretch limo idling outside the set door for eight hours waiting for the moment he could wrap so he could flee.

Silverstone also backed out a guest starring arc on How I Met Your Mother at the last minute because she was upset that she would have to share screen time with Britney Spears (likely out of fear of Spears outshining her). She was subsequently replaced by Sarah Chalke.

[–] mikethemartian (7003) 6 years ago

I enjoyed Blast from the Past.

[–] TMC-4 (20494) 6 years ago

All that Alicia Silverstone had going for herself besides Clueless, was the fact that she was "that girl from the Aerosmith videos". I think that after Clueless, Alicia really needed one or two more movies to truly solidify herself as an A-list player. Batman & Robin and Excess Baggage, I suppose, were supposed to be those movies, but after they tanked, Hollywood soon figured that they didn't want to invest in the Alicia Silverstone business anymore. Blast from the Past was really the last thing that she did from what could be considered her "prime period" (meaning that she was looked at as a bankable star and not a working actress, which she is more or less is today) and even that flopped.

[–] TalkinPikchorBox (2250) 6 years ago

Blast from the Past is a classic! She also starred in the movie with Christopher walken and benincio del toro which is worth a watch.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

She was great in Clueless, but just didn't have much of a range as an actor. You can only play so many of those kinds of parts before you grow out of them.

[–] TMC-4 (20494) 5 years ago

I don't entirely know how to explain it, but in Batman & Robin, Alicia Silverstone seemed incredibly out of her element. I'll give you an example of I mean. There's a scene in which she and Chris O'Donnell are free falling. O'Donnell is selling the scene like crazy, saying "I got you!" And then a second or so later, Alicia shoots out her own grappling hook and very nonchalantly and without much passion says, "No, I got you!" There's another occasion in which she sounds like a complete ditz and bimbo when she says about the whereabouts of Mr. Freeze "Maybe he melted!" You have to see and listen to the scene to really get what I'm talking about. It's the way that she delivered it (I'm assuming that it was meant as a sarcastic type of line) and the tone of her voice.

With Clueless, I once heard the argument that it was one of those movies, where you can tell that lead actress isn't a seasoned professional, but a lot of better elements in her performance was based on instinct. Plus, it was when you get right down to it, a movie that was perfectly tailored for her skill set and range at that time.

I think that ultimately, Alicia is one of those performers who when you get right down to it, is a very specific type of character actress. You can't just place her in any type of role and expect her to make sense of it. When played under the umbrella of a big budget, effects heavy blockbuster like Batman & Robin, Alicia Silverstone somehow doesn't exude any sort of charisma or confidence in her acting.

[–] jekporkins (1985) 6 years ago

She was a very attractive woman when she was young, but as she rolled into her later 20s and 30s that baby face faded. She didn't have the talent to act her way out of it.

[–] TMC-4 (20494) 5 years ago

Alicia Silverstone was arguably, the '90s version of Chloe Grace-Mortez.

https://moviechat.org/tt0112697/Clueless/5bd54ba4efa7ad38fee155e4/Would-Chloe-Grace-Moretz-make-a-good-Cher-in-the-planned-Clueless-remake

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Yes. Her claim to fame was her unbearable cuteness as a teen. Once she grew into adulthood, that was it for her. Her cuteness was both a blessing and a curse.

[–] B1cKsurN (17837) 5 years ago

She gained too much weight.