Alicia Silverstone 'stopped loving acting' after filming 'Batman & Robin'
Alicia Silverstone has a long history in Hollywood, but not all of her moviemaking memories are happy ones.
The 43-year-old actress, who shot to stardom playing Cher Horowitz in the 1995 teen comedy "Clueless," told The Guardian that she "stopped loving acting" after being body-shamed while filming the 1997 superhero flick "Batman & Robin."
"That definitely wasn’t my favorite film-making experience," said the star, who was just 20 when she played Batgirl opposite George Clooney (Batman) and Chris O'Donnell (Robin) in the Joel Schumacher-directed movie. During shooting, tabloids began cruelly referring to Silverstone as "Fatgirl," with the paparazzi soon following suit.
"They would make fun of my body when I was younger," recalled Silverstone. "It was hurtful but I knew they were wrong. I wasn’t confused. I knew that it was not right to make fun of someone’s body shape; that doesn’t seem like the right thing to be doing to a human."
"Batman & Robin" bombed at the box office, with Silverstone's performance earning her a "worst supporting actress" award at the 1998 Razzie Awards. The entire experience caused her to grow wary of Hollywood.
"There were working circumstances that were less than favorable in terms of how things went down," she revealed. "And no, I didn’t say 'F--- you' and come out like a warrior, but I would just walk away and go, 'Okay, I know what that is and I’m done, I’m not going near that again.'"
"I stopped loving acting for a very long time," she added.
Silverstone, who currently stars in the indie movie "Bad Therapy," said her career took a brighter turn when she turned 30. She hired a new agent, one who encouraged her to say yes to only the roles she loved — advice she described as "earth-changing." The longtime vegan began making more room in her life for animal activism. She also authored a bestselling cookbook, "The Kind Diet."
Before long, Silverstone's love of acting was reignited after she said yes to a role in the David Mamet play "Boston Marriage."
"My body was just like, this is what I’m meant to do, 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," she said.
