Alicia Silverstone is remembering the late Brittany Murphy. In a retrospective for Vogue, the 43-year-old actress recalled Murphy’s audition for Clueless in honor of the movie’s 25th anniversary. Murphy, who played Tai in the flick, died in 2009 at the age of 32.
“I just remember thinking she was so great for the part. I can’t remember how many girls came in to audition for Tai that day and I don’t know if I saw a few girls for it or just her, but I remember Brittany being really adorable,” Silverstone said. “She’s so good at the little accent because she had one already, but I think she just pushed it to new heights.”
“I found her so wonderful and I said to [director] Amy [Heckerling] right away ‘I think she’s the one! She was the best one you guys!’ hoping they would agree,” she continued. “She was like ‘Uh yeah duh. Of course she was the best, she’s the one.'”
As for what it was like when they started making the project, Silverstone remembered both her and Murphy’s moms spending time on set.
“I remember her mom was on set a lot. I brought my mom around a little bit and we would all spend time together,” she said, before sharing that they didn’t know at the time what a success the film would be.
“I don’t think we had any intellectual idea about us being up-and-comers in a big movie because we didn’t know we were in a big movie,” she said. “Maybe other people knew, but I was so innocent and never really paying attention to career stuff at all. I was just doing another job.”
When Lauren Zima spoke to Silverstone in April, the actress shared that her favorite line in the iconic film is actually one of Murphy’s.
“It’s not my line, but I love when Brittany Murphy says, ‘You’re a virgin who can’t drive,'” she said, before revealing the other lines she remembers. “In my life, sometimes for fun, to make myself laugh, I’ll say, ‘Oops! My bad.’ I really like, ‘Well, you see how picky I am about my shoes and they only go on my feet.'”
In regard to her own character, Cher Horowitz, Silverstone told Vogue that she found the teen to be “materialistic and unappealing” as well as “really annoying” and “everything I sort of loathed” at first.
“But I realized that was just me judging her, and once I started working on her I found all the heart and all the love,” she said. “She loves her daddy so much! And she’s trying to be a supportive friend, so I just sorta put all of my love and heart into this character with these other aspects that were cringeworthy.”
Though she’s a fan of the character now, Silverstone doesn’t have much in common with her.
“I do maintain that Cher was a character for me. I presume people like to think I’m like her, but anyone who knows me knows I’m not,” she said. “I do possess the same facial tics and the same voice, but I was even kinda talking differently — at least I think I was. I just didn’t identify with that kind of a gal. I just wasn’t dealing with clothes and kids and school because that wasn’t my world.”
As for if there’s a potential for a Clueless reunion, Silverstone was quick to shoot that down in her interview with 360aproko.
“I don’t think Amy Heckerling’s down for that. It’s not in my hands,” she said. “I think what’s really hard about Clueless to re-do it is that Cher learns how to become a whole human. Where do you pick her up? Do you pick her up from the evolved self or do you pick up from she’s relapsed and now she’s back to her old ways? I don’t know where you go.”
Though a return to the characters seems unlikely, Silverstone marveled at how the movie doesn’t age.
“I’m always amazed at the longevity of Clueless. It’s incredible that so many people love this film and not only continue to love it but continue to rediscover it,” she told Vogue. “I’m sure I don’t look the same but little kids will still come up to me asking Are you Cher? And I mean little little, you know? How cute is it that they’ve discovered Clueless because their parents are showing it to them? So many moms who were my age when it came out are so excited to show it to their sons and daughters now.”
“It never gets old, so that’s the good news. People always say, ‘Oh you must be so sick of it,'” Silverstone added. “But what’s there to be sick of? People liking the movie you’re in? It truly doesn’t get better.”
