Reasons Why Alicia Silverstone Is Anything but Clueless

Mr. Hall Was Based on a Real Man

The lovable Mr. Hall was based on a real drama teacher who worked at a Beverly Hills high school. The man of the hour, Herb Hall, was invited onto the set for a brief cameo as the school’s principal in the film. After years in the education system, he finally retired in 2014.

Cher is persuading Mr. Wendell Hall about a paper she doesn’t want to do in a scene from Cluless.

Source: Moviestillsdb.com / Copyright: Paramount Pictures

“There’s something about teaching,” Herb Hall told The Courier, “I love watching the kids grow as performers and people. To see them progress from terrified freshman to accomplished seniors.” Another interesting fact: The actor who played Mr. Hal, Wallace Shawn, was actually a teacher before switching up his career to acting.

The “Rollin’ With My Homies” Dance Was Improvised

Poor Tai. All she wanted to do in the part scene was impress her crush, Elton, who was too busy swinging back and forth with his homies to the beat and was also too busy drooling over Cher. After hitting her head, Elton makes sure she’s fine by doing these wavey movements to get her to dance along.

Clueless publicity shot of Jeremy Sisto as Elton dressed in a beige suit at prom.

Source: Moviestillsdb.com / Copyright: Paramount Pictures

As it turns out, Jeremy Sisto, the actor who played Elton, made up the funky moves on his own. He told Vulture magazine, “I think I made that [dance] up. I don’t think we had a choreographer. I did my go-to, funny, whatever-I-thought-was-a-douchey dance at the time.”

There’s a Little Bit of Darian in Every One of Us

When asked about her character in The Crush (1993), Silverstone admitted she felt like every person had a little bit of Darian inside them. “She’s a very complex girl,” she told Rolling Stone, “I don’t believe that Darian does anything to hurt anybody intentionally.”

Romantic still of Alicia Silverstone and Cary Elwes from the movie The Crush.

Source: Moviestillsdb.com / Copyright: Warner Bros.

Fun fact: Reese Witherspoon was offered the role first, but she passed on it because she felt like it was too creepy and didn’t want it on her cinematic resume (even though three years later she starred in Fear, a psychological thriller which was equally creepy).

As a Kid, She Looked Up to Meryl Streep and Jodie Foster

At the start of her career, a little after The Crush and right before Clueless, Silverstone was still trying to figure things out. She wasn’t sure what genre to dedicate herself to and said she was open to trying many new things. But one thing she knew for sure was that she wanted to be respected in the field.

Teenager portrait of Alicia Silverstone.

Photo by Frank Trapper/Corbis/Getty Images

“I want to follow Jodie Foster, She’s so smart, and she’s somebody I really look up to,” she told Rolling Stone back in 1993. She added that she wants to be respected like Meryl Streep, because “everybody looks at her like, ‘Wow, she’s just so great.’”