Silverstone
Graduates to Stage!
Movie star says she wrestles with her
character’s weakness in "The Graduate"
By Paul Sherman (Boston Herald)
The stage version of "The
Graduate" features actors who are better known for
their film roles, including Alicia Silverstone as Elaine
Robinson, and Jason Biggs as Benjamin Braddock.
Would Alicia Silverstone balk at doing eight performances
of " The Graduate " a week?
As if.
After all, this is the actress who legally emancipated
herself as a teen so she could work longer hours while
shooting her first movie, "The Crush."
She’s the actress who dropped out of high school to
commit to a movie career, resulting in stardom with
1995’s " Clueless. "
However, 25-year-old Silverstone once turned down
"The Graduate." She had been offered the role
of Elaine Robinson during the London run of the play
based on Mike Nichols’ 1967 movie, after Kathleen
Turner had concluded her run as the infamous Mrs.
Robinson.
"I hadn’t even read the script,"
Silverstone says of that rejection. "I said no
because I was doing too many other things at the time,
and the idea of going to London to take over a show that
wasn’t starring Kathleen Turner ... just wasn’t
as interesting a scenario."
But Silverstone pounced when the offer came again for the
Broadway-bound production co-starring Turner and Jason
Biggs (American Pie).
"Once I started weighing the pros and the cons, it
was extremely clear I needed to do this," says
Silverstone, whose limited stage experience includes a
pre-"Clueless" one-month workshop with the
Berkshire-based Shakespeare & Company." I always
pick my projects based on if I’m going to be
challenged or not, and this definitely is a big
challenge."
For Silverstone, some of the challenge has been to play
an unliberated 1960s woman lacking assertiveness. When
Elaine becomes the object of affection of Benjamin
Braddock (Biggs), the friend who has just had an affair
with her frustrated mother (Turner), Elaine acts with a
weakness Silverstone doesn’t always share.
"I have a real hard time — I’m struggling,
actually — with lines of hers that are very
submissive," Silverstone says." There’s a
few lines when she says things like, ‘But I
wouldn’t be enough for you, Benjamin. You’re an
intellectual and I’m not. You should marry someone
who can discuss politics and history and art.’ I
always say it sarcastically, because I can’t say it
for real.
"Yes, she is very weak. A lot of people are really
weak. I think I’ve been weak in my life. We can all
relate to that sort of thing where you don’t stand
up for yourself because you have no self-worth.
That’s not the part that’s difficult,"
Silverstone says.
"But she clearly should not be making the choice of
whether he wants her or not. She should be making the
choice of, ‘Do I want this guy in my life? He’s
just come in here, and screwed it all up.’
That’s my little conflict."
Animal activist Silverstone finds more common ground with
Elaine in her political commitment.
"I play Elaine as very optimistic and extremely
politically active in a very earnest, vulnerable
way," she says.
"She just really wants to make the world a better
place, and she’s doing everything she can to do
this. She’s operating from a very good-hearted
nature. Whereas Benjamin is Mr. Grump, who pretty much
has everything and is just miserable, and Mrs. Robinson
probably wants to have everything that these young people
have."
Figuring out Elaine and "The Graduate" has been
the most rewarding part of the stage process for the San
Francisco native.
"You hear things differently every night, you see
things differently every night," she says.
"Every time there will be something new.
"It goes through weird periods for me. I’ll
have a week where I’ll feel like I’m on fire.
I’m like, ‘I really get it.’ Then
I’ll go through not liking what I’m feeling
again. Then I realize that’s because there’s
more work to be done. That’s the most exciting part
of the whole thing."
Silverstone certainly has no shortage of drive. In
addition to her stint in "The Graduate," she
has two movies on the way (Global Heresy with Peter
O’Toole and Scorched with Woody Harrelson) and
co-produces and voices the heroine of the ABC Family
Channel animated series " Braceface. "
"Today, when I get off the phone with you," she
says, "I’m going to go have a business lunch
with the ["Braceface" production] team to
discuss things, then I’m going to go do my voice for
one of the episodes, then I go to the theater and do the
show. It’s a heavy day."
from
www.townonline.com
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