Alicia Silverstone: Here Are 15 Facts About The Clueless Star

Alicia Silverstone turned 46 in October, and decades after her break-out role as Cher Horowitz in the 1995 film, "Clueless," fans still can't get enough of her. With over 4 million TikTok fans and 2 million Instagram followers, Silverstone's down-to-earth personality and winning smile are just a few reasons why millions still tune in for regular updates on her life (and not just sporadically!).

Silverstone's character Cher is a pop culture treasure, immortalized by her famous catchphrase "As if!" – words that taught an entire generation of girls to lift their standards (arguably, a little too high). Like Cher, Silverstone is on a mission to make the world a better place in real life. She has devoted her life to becoming an environmentally conscious celebrity who speaks out against animal cruelty. Although her close-to-nature lifestyle hasn't always been well-received, like the time her baby feeding habits were labeled "dangerous," per the Los Angeles Times, the starlet continues to intrigue the public. For many, Silverstone is much more than an A-list celebrity; she symbolizes nostalgia that reunites generations. Here are 15 facts about the "Clueless" star.

Alicia Silverstone revealed that most of us had mispronounced her first name for a long time. After years of enduring the common mistake, the actress finally announced the correct way to say her name in a viral TikTok video posted on June 2021. While looking casual in navy pants and a black top, Silverstone said: "My name is Ali-see-yuh. Not Alee-sha." She ended the video with a Cher-like shrug and smile, captioning it with the text: "Just FYI... It's Ali-SEE-yuh."The video responded to TikTok user Mahogany Lox's trending public question: "Tell me what your name is, and tell me what people mispronounce it as." When Lox saw that Silverstone had responded to her question, she was so excited, posting that she is a huge Cher fan. "Omg thank you for stitching my video!!! Clueless is one of my all time fav [sic] movies. I even got a white Jeep and named it Cher!!! my heart," she wrote in the video's comments section. Silverstone replied to Lox's with, "So cute."

Silverstone's video has been viewed over 14 million times on TikTok and has over 24,000 comments, with many fans admitting they had no idea they had been saying her name incorrectly all this time. The actress responded to reactions by posting: "It doesn't bother me though! But my sweet mama didn't like it... so get it right!"

Before "Clueless," Alicia Silverstone was a part of other successful films, including "The Crush" which was such a big hit that it caught the attention of director Marty Callner who then cast her in three Aerosmith videos for the songs "Cryin," "Amazing" and "Crazy." The songs were radio and MTV hits and featured Silverstone, per Rolling Stone. Despite the success of the music videos, Silverstone struggled with feeling objectified and not taken seriously as an actress. "I do remember when I was in the Aerosmith videos, and people would call me 'The Aerosmith chick,' and I was like 17 and I was very offended!" she told Cinemablend. "Because I was like, 'I'm a very serious actress. How could you? The Aerosmith chick? That was really... and now I think it's hilarious! But at the time, I was like, 'That's so rude.'"

The Hollywood starlet's appearance in the Aerosmith video trilogy happened when the band needed a hit the most. Rolling Stone referred to Silverstone as the "rising star" and "rock 'n' roll muse, " giving Aerosmith a little help when they needed it the most. The casting domino effect continued for Silverstone, with "Clueless" writer and director Amy Heckerling revealing she first noticed the actress in an Aerosmith video. "Here's how I found Alicia," Heckerling told Rolling Stone. "I was minding my own business on my treadmill watching MTV when I saw 'Cryin" and just went cuckoo bananas."

As a teenager, Alicia Silverstone was thrust into the spotlight, and she struggled with fame. Speaking candidly in an interview, she said at the time "Clueless" came felt so overwhelmed by her success that she "wouldn't wish fame on anyone" (via The Independent). Being successful in Hollywood meant Silverstone received unwanted attention as a teen, making her uncomfortable. The young actress felt she needed access to a good therapist, which she didn't have at the height of her fame, per Cinemablend.

Silverstone's perception of herself has always been far removed from what the public sees. She describes herself as a"theatre nerd" (via The Guardian) and a "weird, dorky girl who just hangs out with her dog," but says many people think she is attractive, and this often means she gets pigeonholed. To cope with stardom, the young actress removed herself from Hollywood and explored the world and nature. "I just got really focused. I went to Africa and was trying to help the elephants doing this project," she told CinemaBlend. " I really got so into the world. And so in a way, I'm grateful for how much [Clueless] overwhelmed me, that it allowed me to go into a world that I really cared about."

Although the characters Alicia Silverstone played in her youth are all quintessential American teenagers, the actress was born in 1976 to an English father and a Scottish mother. As a result, she had an English accent up until she was 6 years old, according to The Guardian. "Because my parents are British, I used to use words such as swimming costume, margarine, and dressing gown," she told The Times. "But no one else knew what I was talking about, so I learned to undo them."

Silverstone was raised by Monty, her father, a wealthy real estate agent, and her mom, Didi, who worked as an airline stewardess. The family owned a home on the outskirts of San Francisco, where Silverstone grew up. At the age of 15, the rising star was legally emancipated from her parents, a move she says she had to make to be able to take on the role in the film "The Crush," which had her working crazy hours. Even years after this happened, Silverstone is still sensitive about "divorcing" her parents and insists this was purely a professional move that did not have anything to do with her family life as a teenager.

Silverstone became a mom at 34 to her first and only child, Bear Blu Jarecki, born on May 5, 2011, according to People. The mother-son pair appear to have a close connection, and some have criticized the actress' parenting style, notably when she announced that she co-sleeps with 11-year-old Bear. "Bear and I still sleep together," she shared on The Ellen Fisher Podcast in July (via YouTube). "And I'll be in trouble for saying that. But I don't really care." Dr. Craig Canapari, a pediatric sleep specialist and director of The Yale Pediatric Sleep Center, says there is nothing wrong with co-sleeping with older children. However, sometimes Dr. Canapari thinks it can be "indicative of a larger issue, such as separation anxiety," he told Good Morning America.

Bear's father is the frontman of STUN (which stands for Scream Toward The Uprising Of Non-Conformity), a Los Angeles-based punk band. Silverstone and Jarecki divorced in May 2018 after being married for 13 years, citing "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for their split. The pair currently co-parent their son (via The Sun).

You'd think that as a teenager, Alicia Silverstone would've been thrilled to play Cher Horowitz in "Clueless," but that wasn't always the case. She initially found the character to be too materialistic and "annoying" until she reflected and realized that she was being too judgemental. "Once I started working on her I found all the heart and all the love," Silverstone told Vogue.

The 46-year-old actress regularly celebrates her part in "Clueless" by posting social media videos about the teen flick. On the 27th anniversary of "Clueless," Silverstone took to her TikTok account to share a video montage of scenes featuring Cher. The video, which has since been viewed 2.5 million times, was set to the song "Big Energy" by Latto and captioned: "27 years ago, a bad b*tch was born Happy anniversary, Cher! #Clueless #AsIf #90s." According to Silverstone, "Clueless" is a timeless film, and if you think she ever gets sick of her association with it, you couldn't be more wrong. "People always say, 'Oh you must be so sick of it.' But what's there to be sick of?" she told Vogue. "People liking the movie you're in? It truly doesn't get better."

Alicia Silverstone is one of the most famous vegan celebrities. She was inspired to become a vegetarian after visiting a farm in the English countryside at eight years old, she revealed in an interview on the Simply Vegan Podcast. The "Clueless" star said that she immediately became vegetarian once she was old enough to realize that meat came from animals. "Why are we giving our dogs all this beautiful treatment but torturing and enslaving, and murdering these creatures?" she said on the podcast."To me, that was just hypocrisy."

Silverstone is a committed vegan activist, and this has influenced her work, including her blog, The Kind Life, books, and her business selling natural health products. The celebrity says being a vegan is the "best thing that ever happened to her. She also credits the vegan diet for her son's good health, "He's just so healthy. I just want to share that with the world," she told ET Online. "So people can see that a plant-based baby is really healthy ... It's not like they're just doing OK. They can do better."

Silverstone has publicly declared her anti-vaccination stance in her 2014 book, "The Kind Mama: A Simple Guide to Supercharged Fertility, a Radiant Pregnancy, a Sweeter Birth, and a Healthier, More Beautiful Beginning." Silverstone states that there isn't conclusive evidence about the adverse effects of vaccines, but there are many personal stories that make her question them. "There is increasing anecdotal evidence from doctors who have gotten distressed phone calls from parents claiming their child was 'never the same' after receiving a vaccine," writes Silverstone (via The Hollywood Reporter).

The vegan celebrity told ET Online that her son, Bear, has never needed antibiotics or medical intervention, proudly declaring that he has only ever been sick "for a few hours" twice in his life. She knows most people disagree with her views but takes pride in speaking out about an issue she says isn't "what everybody else wants to hear," according to The New York Times. Contrary to Silverstone's views, the World Health Organization website states, "Immunization is a global health and development success story, saving millions of lives every year."

After her role as Batgirl in "Batman & Robin," Silverstone experienced a new low in her career. The film earned her a Razzie award, and the paparazzi demeaned her by calling her "Fatgirl." Silverstone says that even though she knew there was nothing wrong with her body, it was at this point that she fell out of love with acting for a long time. 

Everything changed when she landed a role in one of David Mamet's plays. "My body was just like, this is what I'm meant to do," she told The Guardian. "I love it so much. I need to find a way to do both, to be able to be an actress and be an activist at the same time, so that's what I did." Despite her reignited spark for acting, the actress has stated that a "Clueless" reunion is not on the horizon for her, preferring the stage to the screen, "I hope to be doing theatre until I'm dead," she professed to The Guardian.

Alicia Silverstone calls herself a "natural mama," per The Ellen Fisher Podcast (via YouTube), and sometimes her parenting methods are seen as a little out there. For example, in 2012, Silverstone posted a video of her pre-chewing her son's food and then spitting it into the 10-month-old's mouth. "I fed Bear the mochi and a tiny bit of veggies from the soup from my mouth to his. It's his favorite...and mine. He literally crawls across the room to attack my mouth if I'm eating," she wrote on her website, The Kind Life. The blog post was accompanied by a video, which has now been removed.

The video had both experts and the public divided. While some experts said the practice helps "boost a child's immunity," others, like the Delta Dental of Iowa, disagreed, with the dental practice responding to the video with this tweet: "Word is Alicia Silverstone chews her food for her child. Don't follow in her footsteps. You can pass dental disease!" (via the Los Angeles Times).

Since divorcing Christopher Jarecki in 2018, Alicia Silverstone has been single. Appearing on "The Drew Barrymore Show," the actress expressed that she struggles to find time to date but has always been intrigued by dating apps. The vegan activist said she finally built up the courage to join a dating app after hearing that Barrymore and Sharon Stone had used them.

Unfortunately, Silverstone said she has had no luck after trying online dating twice. The first time Silverstone tried to go on, she didn't feel comfortable being herself and created a fake profile that had her banned. The actress then went on again as herself, but the app must've thought she was a catfish, and she was banned again. "I had a date with someone planned, and the day I went in to find out about the date where we were meeting or whatever, I had been banned," she told Barrymore." Poor guy. I got kicked off as myself, too."

Besides having a successful film career, Silverstone is also a New York Times bestselling author of two books. In October 2009, Silverstone released her first book, "The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet." The vegan diet book describes Silverstone's lifestyle with personal anecdotes, tips, and recipes. Silverstone's website says "The Kind Diet" helps with weight loss and offers many health benefits. "You will have tons of energy, and you will become more sensitive to all the important things in life – like love, nature, and your deepest, truest self," writes Silverstone.

Her second book, "The Kind Mama: A Simple Guide to Supercharged Fertility, a Radiant Pregnancy, a Sweeter Birth, and a Healthier, More Beautiful Beginning," was published in 2014. The book is promoted as a recipe for a healthy pregnancy (via The Kind Life). Despite making a profit, the book was slammed as "anti-vaccine" and "filled with crazy talk," per The Wrap. The actress-turned-author said that writing books is an "epic" task. "It's so much work. The only reason for me to take so much time to do it, on top of everything else I do, is that I want to empower women," she told USA Today. "It feels like a crime not to share information that has helped me so much."

While most celebrities share very small glimpses of their life on social media, Silverstone gives her followers so much more. From vegan cooking videos with her son Bear on Instagram to the occasional throwback Instagram photo of her high school prom date, the activist's Instagram and TikTok pages offer her millions of followers an insight into her life, and they're loving it. 

The actress also uses TikTok and Instagram to post popular reenactments of scenes from "Clueless." But what the social media influencer is most loved for is her sense of humor and ability to snap back at the haters. One of Silverstone's most popular TikTok videos is of her responding to a photo that is captioned "Alicia Silverstone Candid Fat Photo." The star claps back with a smile and the middle finger as the song "Abcdfu" by GAYLE plays in the background. The hilarious clip has been viewed 5.9 million times and captioned by Silverstone, "Damn. I think I look good."

Gardening naked may seem a little weird to most people, but not green queen Alicia Silverstone. Silverstone took to Instagram in July to post an old clip of her being interviewed on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" about how she gardens (via YouTube). In the clip, which aired in 2003, Silverstone explained that sometimes she likes to do "a little naked gardening." Host Conan O'Brien looked on in disbelief as Silverstone explained the ritual. "It's a little thing we say in my home. I tell the dogs, 'OK, it's time for naked gardening!' It makes it easier to get around, and then it's hot [or you can] jump on the trampoline," Silverstone told O'Brien. "It's fun to jump on the trampoline naked. It's fun to jump in the pool naked. It's nice." O'Brien, still unconvinced, laughed and made jokes about what could go wrong and what the neighbors would do when they saw Silverstone naked gardening.

The 46-year-old captioned the resurfaced clip on Instagram with the words: "I haven't done this in ages, but it doesn't sound like a bad idea! Maybe little Alicia was on to something? Perhaps I should try it this weekend.#ProudNakedGardener #NoShame"

Alicia Silverstone is a successful actress, producer, New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur, and animal rights advocate. Silverstone started her career at a young age and reportedly made $10 million a film when she signed a two-picture deal with Columbia Studios at 18 years old, according to The Baltimore Sun. Today, she is estimated to have a net worth of $20 million (via Celebrity Net Worth).

Diversifying her income streams was a smart move for Silverstone, with her profitable vitamin line, Mykind Organics, boosting her finances. She reportedly has $16 million in assets after collaborating with natural health company Garden of Life (via The Investor). The savvy businesswoman uses her social media fanbase to promote her vegan lifestyle and products by posting videos about her vitamin collection on Instagram. Despite her wealth, Silverstone still resides in the Los Angeles home she purchased for $597,000 in 1996. The 2,402-square-foot home is eco-friendly and features an organic vegetable garden and solar panels, per Berg Properties.