Alicia Silverstone

Welcome, welcome to armchair expert. I'm Dax Shepard. I'm joined by Monica Padman. Hi.

Hi. Today we have Alicia Silverstone. And we're looking at it. I think 30 year anniversary of Clueless, which is so exciting.

And moving to change my life. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yeah, I was. So 30 years ago, that's 95. I got to California 95.

And that just seemed like another galaxy, her and that movie, the notion that I got to sit and chat with her. I'm unimaginable. And there were so many iconic LA things in that movie that when you moved here, weren't you like, Oh, the valley, the this, like everywhere in LA takes 15 minutes. That's true.

Classic classic class 15 or 20. OK, the crush pretty thing Batman, Robin blast from the past. She has a new series out now on Acorn TV called Irish blood, which you loved. I loved this was incredibly fun.

So please enjoy Alicia Silverstone. He's an object. I don't think we've met in the world. You have a specific memory.

Oh, save it for the pod. Oh, he's funny. Oh, you have the movie back. I do.

How fine? Wait, what movie back? The Gonia. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, they give you a fun back.

Is it a wrap present? Oh, my God. I'm surprised they didn't get you a Patagonia something because it sounds so similar. They could have done a little playing on words.

I could be a gardening bag, right? Yeah, sure. You're a known gardener. They got that specifically for you.

I'm not sure. I think everyone got it. But who knows? That's not a joke.

You know, she's a known garden. I didn't know that. That's a shame. I want to put a lot of interviews with you today.

And most of them mentioned your gardening. Oh, yeah. Really? They really do.

OK, where do you claim that we met? I feel we met. Now maybe I've got it wrong. At the Garden State premiere?

No, it's a exact rough joke because so many people confuse us. Oh, you know, I'm confused by you, too. But there was a kind of private dinner. I want to say with Jonah Hill on the Sienna got if you go off where that Sally Hershberger's there was a restaurant and I feel like James Franco was there.

No, no, no, no, no, sorry. Orlando Bloom. And I feel like you were there that night. I may have made that up.

It wouldn't have been a very meaningful moment. I really feel like I remember, of course, but regardless, doesn't matter when you paint that picture. It sounds very plausible. Yeah, it does.

Like all the ingredients are there. Jonah Hill. Sure. I've been to some dinners with him.

Yeah. But I'm not remembering that exact one. And I didn't make a scene. You don't remember that much.

No, I think you said something nice to me and that was it. OK, but that could have been Orlando Bloom. I just confused the situation. And he confused me for Orlando Bloom.

That's a compliment. He's very good at that. Very handsome. I was just with Rob Lowe on his podcast and he said his memory of our hanging out last was very different than my memory of our hanging out last.

So he remembered us presenting, I think, at the Emmys, which I have no memory of. I remembered us spending a day together. We were both on a show at the same time. I was on this match and he was on whatever show he was doing at the time.

20 years ago. I think we were on NBC. I think. And the two of us both were stars of their shows.

So they cut us pair to do a lot of sort of things together. Right. And either we know anything about each other's show. No.

Right. So he was remembered that day. And I don't remember presenting at the Emmys with him. But we believe each other.

I see my magazine covers and I don't remember being there. I know they have it because I see it. The picture looks sort of familiar. But I don't remember being there at all.

It's so interesting. I mean, never is weird for everyone. But I do think these environments heighten that issue where it's like, where am I? Also, they're all heightened experiences.

Like a photo shoot and stuff. Everyone's staring at it. Like, maybe your brain just sort of wants to get rid of that. That's another aspect.

I think in a lot of these situations, you do disassociate. You like, I hate getting my photo taken. So when you have those four hour photo shoots, I'm just off in some chamber. Lucky you were four hour photoshoot for a boy.

Yeah, that's a lot of business. Also, I'm so hard to deal with. I'm not going to get a good one. Just send him on his way.

I don't even think he can hear it. So many movies here. He's mad at everyone. I had one of those yesterday where my manager sent me a video of him at a concert with a woman.

And he was saying, listen, remember this? And it was Rob Thomas's concert. And he was with his wife. Yes.

And I had forgotten that I was in a rock- Oh, wow. Nice memory. Yeah. I was like, oh, yeah.

I showed you my son. And he was like, that's you. Yeah. Yeah.

OK, so right out of the gates, mom and dad are both from England. They're English. My brother and I are the first Americans in the chain. Did he his mom?

My mom is Dee Dee, but she's no longer with us. She's been gone for almost six years. But dad's still here. I'm going to see him on Friday, almost 92.

Wow. How old was mom? She's eight years younger than him. And she passed six years.

So 84. No, she was. She was 78. That's bad.

Yeah. That's bad. We all like that. Did they meet here or did they meet in England?

They did. I was 78. And she was beautiful when she was my age. And she was just sort of really different than all the other parents, you know, because she wore all lower Ashley.

I don't know if it was lower Ashley, but that kind of thing. Doesn't even know what that is anymore. It's like that really floral. When I was younger, it was upsetting.

She'd say, why are all your clothes black? So whatever I'd see her, I would try to wear colorful clothes so she could feel good about it. You had green shirt. They wore it for four years.

Oh, yeah. Because were you trying to be the opposite of her? I wasn't at all. I was born in 1976.

And that's when we had a revival of female liberation, right? Yeah. That movement. And I think it was in the air because my mom couldn't be that way.

But people around her were. And you were in San Francisco? Yeah. And I did a show called American Woman a long time ago.

I play Paris Hilton's grandmother, which was Kyle Richard's mother. And in this show, I felt like my mom, they would go to elocution classes and she wanted to be an actress, the character that I was playing. So all that's to say that my mom, she was elegant. And there was a real pizazz.

If you weren't pan am as a steward, we called them stewardess. We called them stewardess. Yeah. Yeah.

But they met in England. So they met in the States. They were on an opposite date. My dad was on a date with her friend.

OK. She's apparently by the end of the evening. Oh my gosh. Was it a double date?

A double date. OK. It was a double date. There.

There. And then the double dog there. He turned into a double dog there. And then a reverse back.

And that was in Florida. What were they all doing in Florida? He wanted to move to the States for the sunshine, for the better life. And they were in the war, World War II.

And so my dad was dodging bombs in the underground. You know, it was a young boy. That can't be fun. And then he moved to Florida.

And he opened up a sandwich shop in Coral Gable, opened a place called Monty's. He had already done this with the restaurant business with his dad before they were sort of sandwich, diner-y kind of places. Got stationed in Florida as her base. And for some reason, I guess she chose that.

She wanted to get away. All the English love the sunshine. Yes, they do. I mean, my dad looks really dark.

OK, like a cardamom to mine or something. He's a son. He's a son. He's always a son.

Always. He's a son guy. Some boys. He's a son guy.

He doesn't make any sense because I'm very white. Is he very white? No, he's dark. It's not his genuine color.

I've never seen his genuine color. I don't think there will ever be a genuine color. Well, it's Heidi White. He's my white white is my guess.

I know. And I don't want to see that. OK. But he wasn't so many new.

We don't know. Probably. He always had a speedo. Always.

So what took him to San Francisco? Because he wanted to get into real estate. And that was my mom's idea. And that ended up being very good for him.

They were in San Francisco. Then when my brother and I came along, we were in San Bruno, then San Carlos. This is all in the Bay Area. And then Hillsborough.

I'm presuming you're moving up the socioeconomic ladder, each of those moves. Because Hillsborough's nice, right? Hillsborough's like Beverly Hills. But we were a little hillbilly-ish in our, you know, keeping up with the Joneses.

Like we had a nice house. My dad had a nice car. But we were all counting pennies. Not as bad.

He took on all they could afford. Yeah, we went to Sizzler for dinners. And Lopsie's way. Benny Hana was the big once a year.

Oh, yeah. So when I was 16 and my agent took me to a restaurant that wasn't Sizzler of Benny Hana, I was like, what? He's like, I couldn't believe. Yeah, you got the options where either all the food was out in a salad bar or it got made at your table.

Yeah, that was the only option. They were going to make a backstage and then bring it out. Did you feel like you didn't belong in that fancy environment? Did you feel like, or pretending?

We didn't care about that stuff. Right? Mom would sow anti-materialism. She was an environmentalist without knowing it.

She wasn't trying to protect the Earth. She just was absolutely anti-waste. Because of the war. She said, remember the war all the time.

Wow. Because she also went through the war. There's just a different awareness of being responsible and thoughtful about your money, about your resources, which I wish everyone had. And so she had it naturally to save everything.

I just saw that the other friends were a lot more indulging and some had a lot more. But it wasn't really a thing. America's a really unique place where you can be rich and then feel super poor. Right, exactly.

Like there's so many people in the neighborhood that live in a really nice neighborhood, but they could barely be there or they couldn't be there. It was so stressful and everyone else seemed or be flying to Aspen on planes. There's so much comparison here too. So that's part of it.

Yeah, just these huge gaps that can exist. My dad was doing well. He just was really thoughtful. They were frugal and my dad had come from very little.

So you're responsible. You know what it is on the other side and you know how hard it took you to get there. Whose idea was it for you to start modeling that six? Eight.

Eight. There's a woman named Pat Forest. I like her already. It's a solid 80s name.

Yeah, it is. If you get lost, you forget your keys at school. Just go to Pat's house and she'll look after you for five. So Pat Forest lived up the street in San Carlos.

We walked to school. It was just two houses down. And Pat Forest saw me doing dancing. You know how kids put on shows.

I'm sure you put on shows. We all put on shows. Do boys put on shows to their parents? Yeah, but it's more like watch me jump this thing in the driveway.

I kind of a ring on the show. The show is generally vehicular. So the girls shows are dancing or singing. Right?

Well, we would do dancing shows and it was ridiculous. The costumes that we would put on. One time Pat Forest was suffering one of these shows. And she said to my dad, she's going to be a star.

OK. And now whether or not she had a premonition or she was just being very kind. It sounds like a standard thing to say to a parent. I think it is.

But it ended up being somewhat true in her defense. So I think something made them decide that I should go into acting. So I think we've got the modeling thing as a way in. Yes.

But in my mind, I thought I was an actress, even though I was eight. The modeling thing was not for me. I didn't like it. But you got a dominoes commercial really early, right?

That was once I started acting. Yes. However you before we even explored dominoes, you should know Monica and I still swear by we love dominoes. Oh, there is a place for dominoes.

I guess that but I'm just wanting you to know how we feel. So you feel really hard. No, why is it in a stall judge or do you really think they make a pizza? Well, they make a beautiful pizza.

OK. The square thing crumbs. OK. It's so maybe I should try the one you should do the job.

They have gluten free now, which I get down with. I can eat a whole one of those. I did it, by the way. You remember I just said I gained 14 pounds three days in the next one?

It was a series of days. One of them was a dominoes. Really? Like, fuck everything.

I'm going hard. Sometimes, yeah, this happened to me sort of recently, too, where I got home from a party. And I was like, there's only one thing for me to do tonight. And it is order dominoes.

Yes. So funny. It was so good. They're not even a sponsor.

No, they should be. They are. OK. They sound like a full blown.

I'm talking like this for years. That's why they're exactly like they love us. They genuinely love the product. OK, so how old were you when you got the dominoes, Marshall?

I was 14. So it was a big jump. My dad took me to the theater all the time. So I loved the theater.

And I never had any intention of being in movies or TV. I didn't know anything about that. Just loved the theater. Did some stuff at school.

And then he got me into an acting class with a woman, Judy O'Neill, who would come to San Francisco with a group of kids. And I was a young kid. And they were like 17-year-olds. It was a 16-year-old.

Yeah, it was a 18-year-old. It was so exciting. Yeah. And like, oh my god, so juicy and therapeutic.

Everyone was crying about stuff. And like their parents and juicy. Who I had a huge crush on. Who I called was he.

So Jonah Blackman. So Jonah Blackman. He danced with Britishnikov. He was in a got milk commercial.

He was a star. He had an incredible physique from all that dancing. He was very much not playing on my team. And I thought, Jonah has said that he has been with women since so not fully but mostly like men.

But at the time I thought, we were in love. Do you know that song? It must have been love. Yeah.

That was our song. But it's over now. Oh my. No dressing in love was our song.

And I was pining for him when I was in England and camp, like just dying for Jonah. But Jonah and I were best friends and I would tell everyone he is not gay. Uh-huh. And then one day, you know, it turned out that he was.

Did you feel betrayed? I did, for five seconds. Yeah. Because maybe even friends were so long and I just thought, I've been fighting people on this for like four years now.

He was like, listen, it's not my fault. I didn't know. He was like, now you look like a chomp. Look like a chomp.

You're in Texas. You're asking a catch. Exactly. We also did kiss.

I remember that we liked each other a lot and there's a lot of Jonas Pleckman stories. But anyway, I was obsessed with him. I was obsessed with him so I couldn't pay attention to my class. I just, you know, I would give you a little extractor and go there this early.

But wow. And then one day I got it together and I just got good. And then I went to LA because they invited me to come to LA with this Judeo-Nio group. And I lived on a futon in a room with other children.

Oh, very interesting. The whole experience. There's somebody else, Eric Dane. Eric Dane.

Good job. I knew it. I mean, Eric Dane. Yes, we had Eric on the show and I'm remembering that he was on the futon of somebody's and you would come up.

And he was there and he and I were together. Yes. As romantic lovers. I told you that we were together.

No, no, no, no. We were in the same space. We were in the same group together, the same class. But you weren't romantic.

No, definitely not. I had to think. He has a lot of other than me. I mean, not that much of other than me, but at the time, no, I think I was more interested in Brandon.

Oh. Anyway. So he also, no, he's not. Okay.

Yeah. Did you like any straight boys at any point? Yeah, I did that. Kind of.

I got around. Yes. So you got the dominoes Marshall at 14. You moved to LA at 17 and live on the futon.

It's complicated business. I moved to LA when I was 14 because I'd gone to do this acting camp for the summer at Judeo-Nio's house where Eric was. We did a showcase and things started happening and I didn't understand what was happening. And so then when it was time to go back to school, I went back to school in San Francisco at my school, San Mateo high school, sophomore year, and I found myself having to fly back and force for these auditions.

Did you know Marshall talk by chance? Yes. Why didn't Marshall talk? Nate talks my best friend in LA, his older brother.

Whoa. You know Marshall. Yeah. I remember Marshall.

I think he was a senior when I was a freshman. Does that check? Yeah. I think he and I are the same.

He was in San Francisco. He went to San Mateo and I think they lived in Hillsborough. Was not very close with Marshall. That Marshall was at with Chad Sparks.

These are very Californian names. Chad, Marge. They are all the cute seniors. Yeah.

They're all the cute seniors. Yeah. So I'm going back and forth and back and forth. It's getting ridiculous.

So then we decide to take me and just live for my sophomore year, second semester in Los Angeles. Is it was me and Mom or the whole gang? My dad and Mom and I, my brother was older. So he was already in college.

And so they were like, let's go there. And I got off the futon. And actually, Jonah came and lived with us because I remember he made out with a girl in my bed. So I think, yeah, I know, but we were already.

We were already past the whole thing. I'm going to Beverly Hills High now for my second semester of school and I'm doing the commercial. I did a pilot. I probably did the wonder years at this point and I'm just 15.

And then I auditioned for this so exciting program at Beverly Hills High, which is the dance group. They had a company. I think it was called the company and I wanted to be in this dance company so bad and I got in but not in the top 10. There's like an alternate.

Oh sure. You get to dance with them but you're not in. You're just like if somebody hurts themselves. Sure.

But I was so excited and I got into the drama department, which I'm so excited about. This is for the next year. So junior year I'm coming back and I'm going to be in these groups. But during that summer is when I got the crush.

All those plans got destroyed but other good things happened. Really quick. How was the transplant from Sam Mateo to Beverly Hills High? You already said you weren't into fashion.

You wore the same gap t-shirt or the pocket on it for four years straight. That's true. Did you feel out of sorts? Totally.

Obviously the film Clueless is an exaggeration of the people that were there but some of the people that were there. The girls did have nose jobs. Yeah. Which so disturbing.

Yeah. That age. Yeah. I was like, did they drove the BMWs?

Amy did some research. Yeah. Yes. I went to that school and I still wore my sweatpants.

I still wasn't into any fashion. I still was doing my green t-shirt. Did you make friends? I did.

We were living in an apartment building that is on the very cusp to count as Beverly Hills. Sure. I got Robert's in or something. Right off of La Sienna where meets Wilshire.

Right there is La Pier or something. And that street is a little apartment building we lived in. Whereas these girls lived in massive mansions in Beverly Hills. They were going to ask for an at Christmas on a jazz.

So when you look back, you must have this feeling all the time. I have it so often, which is like I'm watching the Britney Spears documentary. And I'm remembering how paparazzi followed her. And I'm watching then on the late night talk shows, people calling her a slut.

On talk shows? Oh my god. You're calling Monica Lewinsky a fat slut. Really going hard when I watch these docs.

I'm like, oh well, I live through that. And it didn't seem crazy at the time and now it seems insane. Right? So similarly, I look at the crush.

I'm like, look at the premise of this fucking movie. You're 14. 15. I think you're 14.

Oh, the character. The character. Yeah. I know she's 14.

She gets a huge crush on a 28 year old. Yeah. And tries to seduce him. I mean, this is bonkers.

I mean, I'm mixed together. Right. But you're saying now this would not be acceptable. Well, just you look at it and you go like this is such a short.

I mean, they might still make a movie, but probably the takeaways would be much different. I don't know what they takeaways were. It's just a male fantasy that there's some 14 year old proly around America. So horny, she's trying to fuck a 28 year old dude.

That's madness. That's not really happening. But again, I was that age going like, yeah, this makes sense. It might be happening if that person probably has trauma.

But most likely the man is preying on that 14 year old. I mean, look, here's a really dicey one. You won't be saying anything to her. I just all fall in my shoes.

I'll read a story about someone who got some pictures surfaced and they were in blackface in 85. And I'm like, that's terrible. Also there was a movie called Soul Man that we all went and saw in like 87. It was like I playing black in blackface to get a scholarship.

Yeah, things have really changed. We do at least have to acknowledge the context, which is like there's a movie in 3000 theaters of somebody in blackface. Yeah, but in our culture, nobody wants context. They want to be a division.

I mean, it's wrong. I'm very clearly done with a blackface. But if you send them Cineplex and you go on that Halloween, you're not at least thinking you're stepping outside of what the more is exactly. Probably most of what we all did was not.

Yeah, all the time. That's not so the thing that people pointing the fingers is like, well, maybe look back at your own past. I'm sure there's something there to dig up. No one was perfect.

It's so hard to do perfect. It is. It's impossible. But now that we're out of the water, I do look at it.

No, this is bonkers. There's 100 movies with teenage girls in love with older dudes that I watch. Yeah, the men wrote. Even the desire of someone that young is you have some insecurities clearly.

I'm sorry. I'm going to go out and let them say it. You're very insecure as a 28 year old too. What you think you will be matched with as a 14.

Unless I mean, I don't know, maybe they've experienced it. Later of this claims that this happened. Okay. Yeah, maybe the writer claims that this is a story out of his real life.

Look, there's all kinds of people. Okay. Anyways, that movie was a big, big deal for you. It was.

You were immediately newcomer MTV movie awards. MTV movie awards. Wow. He was very proud of that.

That's a problem to me that the 14 year old, she was very badly behaved. She really stocks him. Oh, yeah. But he shouldn't have kissed her.

She's a kid though. She's a kid. There are so many problems. Yeah.

She's not the villain. But she is. She's really badly behaved. She almost kills someone.

Sure, it's all problematic. Yeah. No, she's just sick. She's trying to do some.

She's taking off clothes. He's not pursuing her. Right. But he does accidentally for one second kiss her back, which was a big mistake.

Big. Can I do it? She thought they were getting married. Yeah.

She'd already demonstrated that she had a little tenuous graph spot in reality yet. He kissed her back. She was bad. She hurt her friend.

She like made her friend fall off of a force. She's definitely not normal. She's not good. She has a mental issue.

I will be watching this. It's a great one. Yeah. I really remember, of course, the Aerosmith video.

Were those cast out of LA? Well, Marty Colner, the director, who remained my dear friend all the way up until he just passed. Okay. I love that man so much.

Talk about mixing up things. He was a 45-year-old man hanging out with a 15-year-old girl. Maybe I was 16. We would drive everywhere together.

We hung out all the time. I'm sure it looked freaking weird. He was just totally clean. He thought I was his daughter and he wanted to protect me.

I didn't know any of that. I just thought he was my friend. But as I got older, I started to realize, oh, he's been a solid, healthy figure in my life. Anyway, he's adorable.

So he had seen the crush with, I think, John Kolodner, who was a big guy at Gefan Records, and said, will you be in this video? I didn't know who Aerosmith was at the time because I was 16 years old. My kid doesn't know who Donna or Elvis is. This string of videos you do is actually kind of the rebirth of Aerosmith.

So people don't know Aerosmith was enormous in the 70s. They went away running and she brought them back for a minute with Walk This Way. Marty directed that. Oh, cool.

But that kind of recharge. And then now this crop of music is when they come back on the scene hard. Liv was in one of those three videos. She was in the third one.

So I did Cryin with Stephen Dorf. I bungee jump off of the bridge and flip him off. That was the one that won Best Video of All Time. Oh my god.

Yeah. What a great athlete. What a great athlete. Best Video of All Time.

I've got beef with that one. You could really have it with that. It doesn't make sense. But it's great fucking video.

I don't know how they pick. I'm going to call for a vote. You could do it. I will say that you can totally do that.

I think that what made it different was for the first time a woman was in a video in control and not like just taking her clothes off. Yeah, I'll go to a car. All the videos were like that. Every video was a girl totally naked.

Did you live have a little something? Did you guys? We did some stuff. Did you guys kiss maybe in that video?

Did I just infer that maybe? Oh, when Marty and I talked about doing this third video and Liv wanted to be in it. He was talking about doing a strip thing. And I said, I'll be the guy.

I don't want to strip. I had the idea that I'll just be a dude watching her. Like you and that will be hot in itself. So that's how that park got born.

But yes, the whole video is us like romping around pretending that we're making out. Very exciting. Very exciting stuff. This is what a rock star dad.

This is the difference. My dad would not be cool with me being young in his video. That's like growing up with a rock star dad. She had just recently found out that was her dad.

It was pretty recent. Oh, I didn't know that. I was raised by another great musician, Todd Runge, her mom was married to growing up. This is all public knowledge.

And then I'm nervous I'd be waiting in the stuff I know. But all I know is I think she found out kind of later. Oh, wow. That was even telly.

They went to a show and they started talking about. You look like you look like me. And her vibe is there. That's weird.

She met him and didn't know. Pretty sure that's the story. Wow. I think they had a chismic meaning and then the mom told her.

I think. Wow. I mean, they literally have the same everything. Yes.

I don't know them that well, but I mean like the face like the mouth. Yeah. Yeah. I love in the video when he's doing his like, you know, and then his kick of the leg.

She mimics that and it's perfect. Just like back and forth. So I did a movie with her and that's when it became friends and then somehow she said to me, she was at her dad's and she said, I'm doing this guy. Who's this guy?

And he's like, he was in without a bad. That's my favorite movie and gave me his stationary. That is a silhouette of him doing that. Oh, no way.

Yeah. And you know, like without a paddle greatest movie of all time on this cool station or a night framed it was one of the many things. Chris, and it was like Jesus Christ when she came into the house and he's done a picture of yourself. That was a cool one of the things that was up.

Yeah. Like every time I see a clip, somebody just showed me a clip of it. 115 you can see this. You can see this miles.

It's incredible. Stay tuned for more. I'm sure expert if you dare. Okay.

So I think you're 18 when you shoot clueless. I turn 18 on set. Now again, I know this is common knowledge, but it wasn't to me. What's interesting about clueless.

Of course I saw it. I loved it. It's the first movie I remember being so obsessed with have to watch over again. All our friends watched it and were being the characters.

It was the first like real zeitgeist movie I was a part of. Yeah. Were your friends assigning like your? Yeah.

Who are you? No, they wouldn't let me be share because I wasn't white. Again, this is the time. Yes.

Maybe now I could be share. Kind of or she was just share. Exactly. I was probably putting the Dion who I love.