Alicia Silverstone Biography

Early life:

Alicia Silverstone was born in San Francisco, California, to Monty Silverstone, a real-estate investor, and Didi Radford, a former flight attendant. Silverstone's parents are both English. Her father was a native of East London and was also Jewish. Her mother converted to Judaism upon marrying Silverstone's father. Silverstone is the youngest of three children and also has a half-sister, London rock singer Kezi Silverstone, and a half-brother, David Silverstone, both from her father's previous marriage. Silverstone was raised in Hillsborough, California, and visited England during the summer. When she was six, she began modeling and was subsequently cast in television commercials, the first being for Domino's Pizza.

Alicia attended Crocker Middle School, then she attended San Mateo High School in San Mateo, California, where she was a cheerleader. During this time, she acquired some early modeling and advertising work and was eventually cast as the 'dream girl' on American TV series The Wonder Years.

Early career:

Silverstone won a leading part in the 1993 film The Crush, playing a girl who sets out to ruin an older man after her teenage crush is spurned; she won two awards at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards for the role. Silverstone became legally emancipated at the age of fifteen in order to work the hours required for the shooting schedule of the film. She went on to star in three Aerosmith music videos known as the "Cryamazy trilogy", entitled "Cryin," "Crazy," and "Amazing", which were hugely successful both for the band and Silverstone, making her a household name (and also gaining her the nickname, "the Aerosmith chick"). Around this period, Silverstone was offered the role of Valerie Malone on Beverly Hills 90210. After she turned it down, the role went to Tiffani Thiessen.

Silverstone's next starring role was in Clueless, which became a sleeper hit and critical darling during the summer of 1995. Silverstone's performance was well received, and she was branded the spokeswoman for an emerging young generation. As a result, she signed a deal with Columbia-TriStar worth $10 million. As part of the package, she got a three-year first-look deal for her own production company, First Kiss Productions. Silverstone also won "Best Female Performance" and "Most Desirable Female" by the MTV Movie Awards in 1996 for her performance in the film.

Her next role was as Batgirl in Batman & Robin; she was lambasted by tabloid media and mainstream press alike for putting on weight. Though she was not overweight, Silverstone had obviously put on more weight than the public was used to seeing her carry, and this started a whirlwind of rumors that affected her personal life. Coincidentally, she was turned down for the lead in 1994's My Father the Hero because the producers said that she was too heavy for the part. The role ultimately went to Katherine Heigl instead. She suffered further bad press for allegedly striking a pedestrian with her vehicle in a crosswalk; and it didn't help Silverstone's cause that Batman & Robin was an even bigger critical and commercial failure than her other movie from 1997, the dark comedy Excess Baggage, which was the first movie to be released by First Kiss Productions. In the film, Silverstone played a chain smoking, underage drinking, rich brat, who fakes her own kidnapping in order to get her father's attention. The film was not as critically or commercially embraced as Clueless. Silverstone also came under fire (especially by E!) for receiving such a lucrative production deal so early in her career. Excess Baggage was such a disappointment, that after just one film, Columbia-TriStar let their production deal with Silverstone expire.

Apparently, Sony was hoping that after a potential blockbuster like Batman & Robin, Silverstone would be bankable at the box office. But when the performance of Batman & Robin proved to be disappointing, they lost faith in her and pretty much dumped excess baggage with very little promotion or marketing. After her production deal ended, very few people would hire her.

Later career:

For some time, Silverstone, despite her young age, gained the reputation of being a "has been", who reached her peak with the Aerosmith videos and Clueless. She effectively removed herself from the public eye for many years, resurfacing in the critically acclaimed NBC television show Miss Match, which was cancelled after thirteen episodes in fall 2003.

Silverstone later acknowledged that she hates the trappings of fame, insisting that being a celebrity is a horrific ordeal that she wouldn't want her worst enemy to suffer.
Alicia Silverstone reportedly refuses to appear nude in any of her movies. Because of this, she requires a body double in her place for nude scenes. When she starred in the stage version of The Graduate, she insisted on wearing underwear for the famous nude scene. The producers were forced to let her do this because, otherwise, she would have resigned from the show. She has also acted in the Kenneth Branagh film adaptation of the Shakespeare play Love's Labour's Lost, in which she was required to sing and dance.

Her most recent movie, Stormbreaker, was released in the UK during the summer of 2006, and in North America on October 13, 2006. Silverstone filmed the role of Jack Starbright (Alex Rider's Housekeeper and Guardian) in the summer of 2005, several days after her wedding. She took the role because of the opportunity to work with co-stars Ewan McGregor and Sophie Okonedo, both of whom she has said she admires.

Personal life:

Silverstone has dated Adam Sandler. She married her longtime boyfriend Christopher Jarecki in a beachfront ceremony at Lake Tahoe on June 11, 2005. The couple dated for eight years prior to being married, and Silverstone has noted that she feels "really lucky" to have been in a long-term relationship from a young age.

She is also noted for her strong views on animal welfare and is a committed vegan. In 2004, Silverstone was voted sexiest female vegetarian by PETA. In another illustration of her activism, Alicia recently went to the South Central Farm in LA to support the community. She is bilingual, fluent in English and French.