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Interview by OK Magazine
by John Millar

Alicia Silverstone talks about her love of Britain, Kenneth Branagh, those pregnancy rumours and her glittering career

Alicia Silverstone has got it all -- youth, looks, talent and personality. When she meets OK! at London's Dorchester Hotel, Alicia, dressed in a blushing pink top, chic suede zipper jacket and dark trousers, looks absolutely stunning.

She's only 23 years old but she has already achieved so much in her career. After launching a modeling career when she was only six years old, and then appearing in a series of Aerosmith videos, Alicia has become a regular on the big screen.

Most memorably she starred in the teen hit Clueless, which was like a Beverly Hills version of the Jane Austen's Emma, and then pulled on the figure-hugging rubber suit to become Batgirl opposite George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell in Batman And Robin. Now she's in the star studded cast of an all-singing, all-dancing version of the Shakespearean comedy, Love's Labour's Lost. And, as she admits with a gleaming smile, Alicia almost has to pinch herself as a reminder of her Amazing success story.

'I am just learning to appreciate it,' she says, 'I did not think I deserved it because I had people in my life making me feel that I was not worthy.'

'I am just realizing I have a lot to be proud of and I'm happy. The people that love me and that I love make me feel so good about what I'm doing. I feel very lucky.'

Since making Love's Labour's Lost, Alicia's name has been linked with the film's star and director, Kenneth Branagh. It's a relationship that she has denied and she says she is amused by the rumours that surround her private life. 'I heard I was pregnant recently,' she says with a giggle. 'And I also get linked with really great people...it's weird. At first it was upsetting but now it is just amusing.'

One of the new productions which is being considered by Alicia is likely to be a version of the story of Madeleine Smith -- it's a famous Scottish murder case, which revolves around that country's unique 'not proven' verdict. It's a production which has been bubbling under for a couple of years now but is still very hush-hush, but Alicia was so excited about it that she was unable to resist confirming her interest to OK! 'I am not supposed to talk about the Madeleine Smith project, but I am very keen to do it,' she says. 'And I would love to film it in Scotland because my mom was born there.'

Refreshingly for one so young, Alicia has a very down-to-earth attitude towards her film work. Although Batman And Robin was slaughtered by the critics she refuses to display any bitterness or regret when OK! asks about that movie. 'It was an interesting experience,' she says. 'I learned so much from it and I never have regrets about anything that I have done because I feel that I have made some really good choices.'

Although Alicia, who is a vegan, is a native of San Francisco, and soaks up a healthy lifestyle in the California sunshine, she revels in any opportunity to visit Britain. That's because the young actress says that she feels very much at home on this side of the Atlantic. The reason for that sense of comfort is simple -- her parents are both from Britain and, as she recalls, Alicia's early summer holidays were all spent over here.

'I spent every summer here when I was a little girl. My parents would bring me here for holidays till I was about 12,' she says.

And one of the happiest memories that she has from those visits is, fittingly enough, a strong link with showbiz. 'The funny thing, since I'm now appearing in a movie musical, is that when I was growing up I would come to London's West End with my parents and we would go to Leicester Square to get the cheap tickets and watch all the musicals at the theatres.

'I think that is what made me love acting so much, but I had no idea that I would ever be in a musical because I knew that I couldn't sing or dance. I had never sung before. Well, I had one line that I had to sing in a school play years ago, but I'd rather forget about that. I had danced on stage but nothing professionally, we are talking school plays again here,' says Alicia who was a cheerleader during her school days.

'But ever since I was a youngster, I loved those stage productions that my parents took me to because they were so wonderful. So for me to be in this movie is unbelievable -- when would I ever get to dance like that! So I hope I can make a musical again because then I would feel like I was part of some beautiful romantic story again.'

Alicia admits that she hadn't seen very many movie versions of Shakespeare's plays and that she had been a bit nervous at first about the challenge presented by doing Love's Labour's Lost as a musical.

'I was worried that I was going to be a fish out of water and not as prepared or as good as everyone else so I was doing a lot of homework before I came to London. Then when I got here I was more comfortable. I realized that I was OK and was doing all right.'

'Putting it all together was the complicated thing. we had to pre-record our songs so that when we came to film the dancing scenes we would be lip-synching and I would be so busy worrying about my feet that I'd forget to sing. That was difficult but we got it all together in the end.'