Reappearing
Act
by Janet Weeks
The Girl who hit the top with Clueless is
long gone. Now Alicia Silverstone gets animated about
emerging from teen angst for her new tween series,
Braceface.
How many ways are there to say "Whatever"? Let
Alicia Silverstone count them for you. After all, she
popularized the teen exclamation as sweetly hip Cher
Horowitz in 1995's Clueless and takes it out for another
spin in her animated Fox Family Channel series,
Braceface.
"When I was doing the voice for Sharon, I kept
going, 'what...ever'" she says referring to Sharon
Spitz, Braceface's central character. "Then I'd go,
'No, no, no. I don't want it to sound like Cher.' I'd
have to try and go back and say 'Whatever' in a different
way. Like (almost mumbling), 'whatever.' Or (cheer-
fully), 'Whatever!' It's pretty funny."
Silverstone, 24, had a good reason for getting it right.
She not only voices Sharon, but is executive producer for
the half-hour series about an eighth grader with magical
braces on her teeth. What exactly is the series like?
Says Silverstone: "This show is really like a
live-action sitcom reality-based animated show. It's Ally
McBeal meets Clueless meets My So-Called Life."
Whatever.
Braceface is the first TV series to be produced by
Silverstone, whose First Kiss Productions made the 1997
film Excess Baggage starring Silverstone and Oscar-winner
Benicio Del Toro. Silverstone says she wasn't looking for
a TV show to produce but decided to get involved after
meeting with series creator Melissa Clark, who formerly
wrote for the syndicated teen show Sweet Valley High and
the Disney Channel's Rolie Polie Olie. "I thought
the character (Sharon) that Melissa drew was
hysterical," says Silverstone. "Sharon was just
so dorky and cute and goofy. I was like, 'I want to be
like her!'" Clark remembers Silverstone's reaction
to the concept. "She was very passionate about it.
Her passion matched mine, and it was a sigh of
relief."
Silverstone herself never wore braces and likely wasn't
much of a dork. Born in San Francisco to British-born
parents Monty, a real estate agent, and Didi, a former
flight attendant (Silverstone also has an older brother,
David), she was raised in Hillsborough, an affluent
suburb, and spent summers in England. She attended her
first play in London at age three and by seven was
modeling professionally for companies such as Levi's and
Yves St. Laurent. She started taking acting lessons at
age 12 and, at 15, legally emancipated herself from her
parents to pursue a career in Los Angeles. But even with
a busy schedule to keep her occupied, Silverstone says,
adolescence wasn't exactly fun.
"That was the hardest time in my life," she
says of ages 11 through 14. Being braces-free and blonde
didn't help. "That can be worse because everybody is
mean to you because they don't like that you are
[pretty]. And you don't know that you are because you
don't feel like you are. I mean, the thing about being a
pretty girl is that most of the time you don't know
you're pretty. It's a hard thing to own."
She may have been oblivious to her sexy-sweet appeal, but
casting agents noticed it. Not long after arriving in
Hollywood, Silverstone won the lead as an unstable girl
obsessed with an older man (Cary Elwes) in 1993's The
Crush, a Fatal Attraction for teens. Then a trilogy of
Aerosmith videos--"Cryin'," "Amazing"
and "Crazy" (1993-94) --put her smack in the
middle of the pop culture radar.
But it was Clueless, a modern retelling of Jane Austen's
classic novel Emma, that made her a star. Silverstone's
Cher added phrases and fashion to the American landscape
and promoted the virtues of doing good deeds. A huge hit,
the movie propelled Silverstone to teen film queen
status. She was so popular that Columbia Pictures signed
her to produce and star in two movies in a deal worth a
reported $7 million. But her first producing effort,
Excess Baggage, fizzled at the box office. And her next
big role, as Batgirl in director Joel Schumacher's
overblown Batman & Robin, won her no fans among film
critics. She somewhat bounced back with 1999's Blast From
the Past, which was more warmly received, then switched
gears completely last year by singing and dancing her way
through Love's Labour's Lost, the Kenneth
Branagh-directed musical based on Shakespeare's romantic
comedy.
But Cher Horowitz remains her best role. "Cher was
really endearing," Silverstone says of her signature
character. "And really good-hearted and good
spirited." Braceface's Sharon, she says, is
similarly well-intentioned, "but in a geekier
way." One big difference: While Cher lived for
clothes and shoes and shopping, Sharon is too goofy to
care about such things. "I want kids to start loving
themselves for being funny, or silly, or smart. For being
everything but in style," says Silverstone. When she
was a child, she says, she idolized Madonna--not exactly
the kind of role model she hopes today's kids will find.
"I used to sing 'Like A Virgin' when I was five
years old. And I was singing it sexy, too. It's adorable,
but then you've got kids saying, 'Mommy, what does virgin
mean?'"
She also hopes Braceface encourages kids to question what
they see and hear on--ahem--television. "Most
commercials are lying to you on TV," Silverstone
says. "I want to give kids an opportunity to relearn
some things, like that yoga and acupuncture are great
alternatives to medicine." And since Silverstone is
a vegan (no meat, no dairy) expect that few cheeseburgers
will get caught on Sharon Spitz's braces. But she won't
get huffy about her values, Silverstone says. "It's
absolutely the farthest thing from preachy," she
says. "It's a really hip show. If a kid sneezes,
another kid might say, 'Why don't you get off the dairy?'
I mean, I can get really preachy, but it doesn't
help." She laughs and then adds: "I have to
tone myself down. 'Not everybody wants to recycle, so
shut up,Alicia.'"
Silverstone worked on the show, which has a 26-episode
commitment from Fox Family Channel, at the same time she
was making her next movie, currently titled Global
Heresy, which costars the legendary Peter O'Toole.
"I didn't realize Braceface would take up so much
time," she says. "It is not a project for me to
make money on. Believe me, there's no money in children's
television. But it takes sometimes four hours a day. I'm
like, 'I'm trying to make a movie and it's too
hard!'"
She wanted to make the cartoon, though, because she
believes it will benefit children by giving them new
points of view and positive role models. Says Clark:
"She breathes life into Sharon." "I
thought this show could let me into the minds of kids and
give them options," Silverstone says, "and
possibilities that were never considered."
Cable Guide and Ultimate Cable (June 2001, US)
Transcribed by ~ Someotherdude
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