For an actor, it must be frustrating to realize that you will be remembered almost solely for a role you played at the age of eighteen. But at least Alicia Silverstone, whose acting career apparently peaked twenty-six years ago, seems to be having fun with this fact of her life.
Back in 1995, Silverstone’s star was launched when she played Cher, the heroine of Amy Heckerling’s Clueless. And in the three months since joining TikTok, the super-brief-video platform, Silverstone has posted three super-brief video reconstructions of famous scenes from everyone’s favorite Emma update.
In June, she played the “Eww! As if!” scene, with her ten-year-old son Bear in the role of unwanted suitor. In July, she marked the anniversary of the Clueless release with a peculiar parent-child role reversal: Bear lip-synching her movie-father’s horrified reaction to Cher’s wardrobe choice (“It looks like underwear!”) And in August, she and a friend named Christian (fashion designer Christian Siriano) restaged Cher’s tragically misconceived date with her movie-friend Christian, this time with a rather more. . . energetic ending.
Is Silverstone pathetically – or opportunistically -- milking her one claim to fame, in hopes of selling more copies of her diet and pregnancy books? Or is she a good sport for indulging our insatiable Clueless-love?
It’s a near thing, and if September brings another Clueless-themed TikTok, I may have to reconsider. Meanwhile, however, all those reminders of one of my favorite Austen adaptations have put me in a cheerful mood, so I’ll vote for good sport.