Alicia Silverstone - Totally timeless

THIRTY YEARS AFTER CLUELESS, THE STAR REFLECTS ON HER ‘LIGHTNING-IN-A-BOTTLE' BIG BREAK AND SECOND ACT

- Jennie Noonan

Marking three decades since the release of Clueless, Alicia Silverstone - who starred as spoiled high-schooler Cher Horowitz in the endlessly quotable modern adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma - still marvels at the movie's seemingly timeless appeal.

“I don’t think that any one of us could have ever imagined or known what a cultural phenomenon this would be,” she told Forbes in August. “My guess would be as good as yours, but my guess is Amy Heckerling wrote a brilliant script. Jane Austen ain’t too shabby herself — the book Emma - and then Amy put her brilliant twist on it ... I think she has her finger on the pulse of what is culturally happening in any given moment in such an incredible way ... It’s lightning in a bottle. For some reason, all the magic came together at the same time.”

While Silverstone has worked steadily ever since, with a career spanning multiple genres and mediums, from film and television to stage work, she’s recently picked up the pace. “I burn the candle so hard,” the actress-producer, whose projects this year include TV series Irish Blood and films Pretty Thing, Bugonia and A Merry Little Ex-Mas, told People magazine.

“What I guess I’m always trying to figure out is, ‘What do normal people do? How much rest do normal people get?’ And then try to make that implemented into my life because I work so much, so crazy, I’m always travelling. I’m a machine.”

The 49-year-old jumped at the chance to reunite with Bugonia director Yorgos Lanthimos, who she worked with on 2017's The Killing of a Sacred Deer. “I would do absolutely anything with him,” she told V magazine about the Greek director behind Oscar-bait films like The Favourite (2018) and Poor Things (2023). “I love him. He is a brilliant genius.”

She was also thrilled to be working with costars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.