Alicia Silverstone is looking back at her very first movie role and the teenage crush that came with it.
In a new interview, the actress admitted that she once believed Cary Elwes was her boyfriend after they filmed a kiss for the 1993 film The Crush.
The confession is both lighthearted and heartfelt, and it offered fans a glimpse into how impressionable Alicia Silverstone was during her earliest days in Hollywood.
Highlights
- Alicia Silverstone has admitted that she once believed Cary Elwes was her boyfriend after filming their kiss in The Crush.
- The Clueless star reflected on her awkward teenage crush and her co-star's kindness.
- Silverstone opened up about her early auditions, career milestones, and returning for a Clueless reboot.
Alicia Silverstone was only 16 years old when she developed a crush on her older co-star
Image credits: Getty / Vinnie Zuffante
When Silverstone stepped onto the set of The Crush, she was just sixteen years old and filming opposite Elwes, who was already thirty.
The age difference didn’t register in the same way for her back then.
She was simply thrilled to be acting with the man she had admired in The Princess Bride, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Image credits: Warner Bros
She recalled telling people proudly, “I’m going to kiss the boy from The Princess Bride,” she said.
After the on-screen kiss, she admitted that she briefly thought of him as her real-life boyfriend.
“We had this kiss in the film and, because I was young, I thought that that meant he was my boyfriend now. Not really, but little bit,” she said.
Image credits: Getty / TheStewartofNY
Silverstone even remembered visiting his trailer and asking if it was alright that she felt that way, and Elwes responded with kindness.
Looking back now, she described him as the perfect gentleman who treated her not like a love interest, but like a protective big brother.
“But, really, he was a really good big brother to me and took care. He was so lovely.
Image credits: Warner Bros
"We had a very professional relationship and he was very big-brother-like to me, and very sweet and kind,” she recalled.
Decades after filming, Silverstone still finds her teenage crush hilarious.
When Elwes’ wife, Lisa Marie Kubikoff, once sent her photos from the set of The Crush, she couldn’t help but joke about the connection she had felt.
Image credits: Warner Bros
“Lisa Marie sent me pictures from back in the day where we’re lying together, and I’m looking at her while she’s taking the picture like, ‘This is my man,’” Silverstone said.
Thanks to Elwes’ kindness, Silverstone stated that she looks back at her time filming The Crush with fond memories.
“It was just a great job. What a great part to play. It was so fun,” she said.
Image credits: Entertainment Weekly
Alicia Silverstone almost lost her breakout role before it even began
While The Crush would go on to mark Silverstone’s official debut, she revealed that getting the role involved a lot of work and disappointments.
The film, which was directed by Alan Shapiro, featured a 14-year-old girl named Adrian Forrester who became dangerously obsessed with a 28-year-old writer named Nick Elliot.
“At first, I was auditioning almost every day, but I wasn’t getting anything. Then, all of a sudden, I started to get close to everything.
“It’s between you and one other girl.’ But that actually was worse. I’d get so close and then be disappointed, where before I didn’t care,” she said.
Image credits: Warner Bros
At one point, the producers even offered the role to someone else, leaving Silverstone devastated.
“They had me back many, many times, and it seemed like I was going to get the part, and then they offered it to someone else. It felt really bad,” she said.
“For some reason, I felt like I was supposed to play this psychotic character,” she added.
Image credits: Warner Bros
Fortunately for Silverstone, the original actress ended up dropping out, and the role of Adrian Forrester officially went to her.
The performance not only became her first major credit, but it also paved the way for her rise as one of Hollywood's most recognizable faces of the 1990s.
Alicia Silverstone is now stepping back into her most iconic role
Image credits: Warner Bros
More than thirty years after her teenage crush and first movie, Silverstone is still adding new roles to her résumé.
She recently starred in the thriller Pretty Thing, which premiered last month, and is now preparing to revisit her most iconic character of all, Cher Horowitz, in Clueless.
Silverstone admitted she “never thought” about doing a revival of the 1995 hit, but she is excited about Peacock’s upcoming reboot series.
Image credits: Instagram / aliciasilverstone
Alicia Silverstone’s story about her kiss with Cary Elwes received polarizing reactions on social media, with some stating that they can relate to the teenager’s sentiments and others arguing that the whole premise of the movie was inappropriate.
“Being a few years younger than her, I can say at 15, I wouldn’t have minded kissing him lol,” one commenter wrote.
“Being 15 at the time and all, and me being obsessed with The Princess Bride… I would have had the same fantasy reaction if Cary kissed me. I mean, who WOULDN’T want their first kiss to be from ‘The Dreaded Pirate Roberts?!’” another wrote.
“Any grown man that's ok with kissing a literal child even if it is ‘acting’ is a full-blown pr*dator,” argued another.
“What she did should have never happened. She was a child who should have been protected from doing any scenes like that,” another netizen wrote.
Netizens shared their thoughts on Alicia Silverstone’s story on social media
