‘Clueless’: Cher’s Love Interest, Christian, Was Almost Played by This ‘Twilight’ Star
We’re totally buggin’ over this surprising fact about the 1995 film Clueless.
A recent interview revealed that Christian — Cher’s initial love interest in the movie — was almost played by another actor. And to make this reveal even more shocking, one of the stars of the vampire phenomenon Twilight was the person who nearly nabbed the role.
Peter Facinelli was ‘was very close to’ landing the role of Chrisitan
While appearing on the On the List podcast on Apr. 26, actor Peter Facinelli told host Brett Gursky that he “was very close to getting” the role of Cher’s crush Christian.
“There’s a list of movies I almost got—Clueless is one of them,” the actor said of the beloved 1990s high school comedy. “I read for her like six times. I got along really well with [director] Amy Heckerling.”
In the film, Cher, played by Alicia Silverstone, falls for Christian, who she believes is the guy of her dreams. However, she eventually learns that he’s gay and they later become good friends.
According to Facinelli, who’s best known for playing Dr. Carlisle Cullen in The Twilight Saga films, he was dead set on playing the role of Christian. He even read lines in a New Orleans accent to give the character more depth — or so he thought.
“I was just new, and when you’re new, you just don’t know,” he explained. “You just think, I’m an artist, and this is what I’m doing. My whole thing was, I kind of based it on Harry Connick Jr., that role. I kind of came in, and I was doing this New Orleans kind of little accent, like a little twinge of a New Orleans accent. He was a kid from out of state that was going to this school anyway, so I thought that that was interesting.”
Peter Facinelli didn’t get the role because of one big mistake he made
Though giving Christian a New Orleans accent seemed like a good idea to Facinelli at first, the film’s director Amy Heckerling didn’t agree.
“Then Amy goes, ‘Well, can you try it without the accent?'” the actor recalled. “And I go, ‘No.’ And she goes, ‘No?’ I go, ‘No. This is what I would do with it.’ Plus, I had a little bit of a New York accent, too, so I was trying to hide it with the New Orleans accent.”
Needless to say, Facinelli lost out on the role. But he did learn a valuable lesson from the experience.
“So I didn’t get the role because I told the director to f*ck off, basically, when she, in the audition, told me to try something else,” he explained. “You learn right away: Don’t be a d*ck.”
He added, “Now, if someone’s like, ‘Drop the accent,’ you just drop it.”
Peter Facinelli went on to star in another ’90s teen film
In the end, the role of Christian went to actor Justin Walker. But despite Facinelli losing out on the part, he still starred in a 1990s high school comedy.
In 1998, the actor played Mike Dexter opposite Jennifer Love Hewitt in the film Can’t Hardly Wait.
The part proved to be Facinelli’s breakout role as he went on to star in various movies and television shows throughout the 2000s and 2010s.
In 2008, Facinelli gained global recognition when he starred as Dr. Carlisle Cullen in the vampire-themed romance fantasy, Twilight, opposite Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.
Facinelli appeared in all five of The Twilight Saga films and built up quite the fan base thanks to his character.
