Alicia Silverstone Was Nervous To Dance in ‘Beauty Shop’
We all know Alicia Silverstone as Cher from the hit ’90s classic Clueless. However, the environmentalist and actor has stepped outside of the box in the last 25 years. From theatre projects to activism, Silverstone had to navigate Hollywood on her own terms.
Looking back, she says dancing in the 2005 movie Beauty Shop was one of the most terrifying and liberating experiences she’s had on set.
Alicia Silverstone was overwhelmed by fame after ‘Clueless’
When Silverstone starred as Cher in 1995’s Clueless, she had no idea how big would be. She also never anticipated that her fame would explode in the way that it did.
“It was really intense,” she explained in an interview. “I didn’t expect any of the reaction that we got. It was a lot, and I think if anything it all pushed me away from doing this job for a while and got me so much more into my activism. I eventually found my love of acting again, but at the time I didn’t know anything about what I was stepping into.”
Alicia Silverstone experienced body shaming in Hollywood
Though working on Clueless was a super empowering and positive experience for Silverstone, not every experience following that role was great. In 1997 she starred as Batgirl in the critically panned Batman & Robin with George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell.
Silverstone experienced body-shaming on a global stage with the media calling her “fat girl.”
“That definitely wasn’t my favorite film-making experience,” she shared with The Guardian. “They would make fun of my body when I was younger. It was hurtful but I knew they were wrong. I wasn’t confused. I knew that it was not right to make fun of someone’s body shape, that doesn’t seem like the right thing to be doing to a human. I stopped loving acting for a very long time.”
Alicia Silverstone was nervous to dance in ‘Beauty Shop’
After the Batman & Robin debacle, Silverstone was eager to step outside of her comfort zone and try new things. She did a ton of theater work and even starred in the family-friendly, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
In 2005, she starred in Beauty Shop alongside Queen Latifah. The film was a spinoff of the highly successful Barbershop franchise. Set in Atlanta, Queen Latifah starred as Gina, a hairstylist from Chicago who opens her own shop after some major conflict with her old boss. Silverstone starred as Lynn, a stylist in Gina’s shop.
During one particular scene, Silverstone’s character twerks and dances in a club. In a throwback interview, The Babysitters Club actress revealed just how nervous she was. She recalled,
The whole point was that I looked like a girl who could dance from a music video. Bille [Woodruff] had done a ton of music videos, so he used his choreographers. He brought them in and we just did a few rehearsals and they showed me how to do the dance and then I did the dance. I got very shy, it was really weird and it was awkward and I was nervous and then it was over and now I can’t stop dancing like that.
