Think you know everything there is to know about the iconic film Clueless ? As if!
Did you know that Paul Rudd was held at gunpoint one night after filming or that Reese Witherspoon was almost cast as Cher?
For more juicy secrets, check out this list of 10+ behind the scenes secrets about Clueless that fans didn’t know. Ugh, I just love this movie.
1. *Clueless* was originally pitched as a TV series:
Back in the early ’90s, 20th Century Fox was looking for a sitcom about popular teenagers.
This led Clueless writer-director, Amy Heckerling, to pitch what was called No Worries .
When they passed, Amy turned it into a movie.
2. Silverstone’s performance in an Aerosmith music video helped her land the role of Cher:
The actress appeared in Aerosmith’s “Crazy” music video.
Heckerling told Interview Magazine : “Her performance in the video — I believed everything. I just went crazy for her. So when I handed the script in, by that time the ‘Crazy’ video was out and I videotaped it.”
“I gave it to the studio and said, ‘Think of this girl when you read it,’ and they said ‘Oh, Liv Tyler?’ And I went, ‘No!'” she said.
She continued, “Meanwhile my friend, the casting director, was saying ‘You’ve got to see the girl in ‘The Crush.’ Well, it’s the same girl.”
3. The credit card in the “suck and blow” scene is fake:
The actors kept dropping the card before they got it to the next person.
This led producers to make a fake credit card out of cardboard and then put layers of ChapStick on it to make it stick.
4. Breckin Meyer got inspiration for his character from Keanu Reeves:
The actor who played Travis the stoner revealed this at the 2019 Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2).
He said that he watched a lot of Keanu movies to prepare for the role, including Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure .
5. The plot is based on real-life events:
While the film is loosely based on Jane Austin’s Emma , it also draws inspiration from the family life of writer-director, Amy Heckerling.
Turns out, her grandparents got married to each other, despite being stepbrother and stepsister.
“Totally not blood-related,” Heckerling said in the book *As If! The Oral History of Clueless* by Jen Chaney.
“When I was a kid all she did was complain about her stepmother to me … but her step brother, whom she later married, was always a protector.”
“They were married. They knew each other from the time they were teenagers.”
“They were so dependent on each other and so angry all the time with each other. Anyhow, that cracked me up. So it did not seem like a crazy thing to me [for Josh and Cher to be together].”
6. Alicia Silverstone was always napping on set:
Ron Orbach (who played the stern DMV tester) said that Alicia took a nap between takes of their iconic driving scene.
“Alicia’s sitting in the driver’s seat,” he said , “Again, eyes closed, looking like she’s sleeping or something, I couldn’t tell.
“But when action is called, her eyes open, she goes, and it’s basically spot-on: hits every line, every moment, perfectly.”
“‘Cut!’ And she goes back to sleep. And this keeps happening, over and over, take after take.”
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Maybe that’s why she failed her driving test?
7. Tara Reid made an off-screen cameo:
“It took a long time to shoot that [party] scene and I remember falling asleep [at one point] and being woken up by Tara Reid who was not in the movie but just came by the set to hang out which was really odd,” said Donald Faison who played Murray.
“I went to high school with Tara Reid, so when she woke me up, it was kinda like, ‘Yo, what are you doing here?'”
The actress was pretty unknown back then, but eventually, she went on to make a lot of teen films, such as American Pie and National Lampoon’s Van Wilder .
8. Paul Rudd was almost killed:
The night before filming at the Bosstones party, Rudd went out for dinner with some friends.
Afterward, a man jumped out at the group and put a gun next to Paul’s head. He goes, ‘You don’t think this is a real gun?'” Paul said .
“He was all tweaked out on something, and he shot his gun next to my head.”
Paul’s friend ran inside to get the police who were inside the restaurant, but it was too late.
The robber got away with the actor’s backpack, which had a copy of the Clueless script in it and his Discman!
9. The set blew the fashion budget on Cher’s yellow plaid outfit:
Turns out, it was actually an original Dolce & Gabanna.
“Amy and I both love plaid, and I think there is nothing better to have than a quintessential plaid skirt for a girl’s first day of school,” costume designer Mona May told Vanity Fair .
“But we had to go further with that [idea] for the movie, so we had to have the complete suit.”
As for the iconic pieces, May explained where she drew inspiration.
“It was about taking fashion from all different sources and predict what would be on the street six months ahead, like a fashion designer would.”
10. The movie was made during the ’90s, but the soundtrack mainly features other decades:
“Amy [Heckerling] really is a music fan, but all the music she wanted to use was ’80s! And ’70s and ’60s too,” the film’s sound supervisor, Karyn Rachtman, told Flavorwire .
“The film had this timeless feel, even though it’s so ’90s.”
11. One studio wanted the film to have a male lead:
20th Century Fox was worried that the movie wouldn’t be big enough if it had a female lead.
Amy told The Baltimore Sun , “They were worried about something that was so female-oriented.”
“They kept pressuring me to create more of a life for the boys in the film, to create more of an ensemble piece.”
Honestly, I think the movie did a great job at keeping a healthy mix of male and female actors around, while keeping the focus on Cher as a whole.
12. It almost had an entirely different cast:
A lot of big names auditioned for a chance to be in the iconic film.
Sarah Michelle Gellar was up for the role of Amber, but had to pass due to her shooting schedule on All My Children .
13. Even Angelina Jolie auditioned! In the end, though, she was deemed “too mature” for the film:
Other famous names who auditioned include Dave Chappelle, Johnny Galecki, and Norman Reedus.
Ben Affleck auditioned for the role of Josh and even Reese Witherspoon was up for the role of Cher.
14. It doesn’t stop there! Dave Chappelle was also meant to star:
Amy Heckerling spoke about how Dave Chappelle was almost cast as Murray.
“He was just amazing — he was such a mensch,” Heckerling said . But in the end, she “needed somebody who was really innocent, a goofy kid.”
15. There were constant changes to the script:
“Every day there were changes,” Heckerling said . “If Donald Faison wants to say he’s keeping it real, you’re going to go with it.”
So there were probably tons of improvisations that were done!
16. Stacey Dash was actually a lot older than her co-stars:
She was playing a 17-year-old but she was actually in her late 20s.
Alicia Silverstone was 19 at the time! We can all agree that Dash gave a very convincing performance as a teenager.
17. Alicia Silverstone wasn’t a fan of how *Clueless* changed her life:
“It was really just extreme how I was being talked to and talked about,” she said . “I think I just got really turned off by it.”
Of course, her young age, paired with her being a woman, did shape her life and career.
“Unfortunately or fortunately, I do not know, I’ve never had that problem with my work,” she said.
“I have had it in my personal life, learning to have a voice in my real life has been harder than having a voice in my work life. Maybe it’s because I had success at a young age and sometimes maybe to my detriment, when I should have been wrangled.”
“I probably behaved not as well as I could have at times. Maybe I was too young to even notice. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t mean they always listened and doesn’t mean they aren’t laughing behind your back.”
“I just stupidly didn’t have a very political point of view on it. I would sort of just light the house on fire by accident and not be aware of the consequences until it was over and be like, ‘Oops maybe I shouldn’t have said that.'”
18. Alicia Silverstone was also dealing with some physical issues on the set of *Clueless* which impacted filming:
“I remember on the set of ‘Clueless’ I was always so sick and always had ulcers, and would ask my driver to go get frozen yogurt because that’s all I felt I could eat,” she said . “I would get allergy shots. I was totally out of touch with my body.”
