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Alicia Silverstone is happy to see a shift in the culture around women in Hollywood.
The actress recently spoke to USA Today about her acting career, then versus now. The face of many ’90s beloved films, including Clueless and The Crush, Silverstone rose to fame in a moment where women in Hollywood were subject to extreme scrutiny — and, she says, she’s seen a shift in what is and isn’t acceptable to run in the press since she entered the industry at just 15.
Today’s culture is a welcome change, Silverstone told the outlet, noting the media and the broader public are “kinder to people now.”
“[The media] used to be able to just rip a woman apart. Now you would not be allowed to do that,” she said, adding, nowadays, “people would’ve come to my rescue.”
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“In any given moment, there’s a group of people who have things to say, and then the other people come and they smash [the negative comments] down. Before, we didn’t have that,” she added.
Still, Silverstone recognized social media and online discourse aren’t all good things, noting that she “can’t imagine” having to navigate the digital landscape, admitting she’d likely just have different problems starting a career now, not less.
Silverstone, 48, was an emancipated minor when she was dubbed “the new Lolita” and a “video vamp,” per Entertainment Weekly. At just 18, the young actress was labeled a “movie star whom lots of men want to sleep with” and faced cruel scutiny over her changing body, specifically during the 1997 press run for Batman & Robin.
Though the increased attention focused on her body helped propel her career, she told EW that it also took a mental toll.
“It was really hard, because you’re just a little girl. You’re a little person and trying to grow up, and you’re growing up in front of people,” she said in an interview published Aug. 14. “For any human, it’s an awkward time.”
Silverstone admits the body-shaming comments still linger in the back of her mind.
“We definitely did it differently back then,” she said of the ’90s. “And that was not easy, for sure. But it’s all fine. Nothing to lose sleep over — but certainly something that stays with you.”
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While she is happy to leave all that in the past, the actress does love to see the revival of other parts of ’90s culture — baggy jeans, grunge, and music and movies that marked the era, she told both outlets.
“I remember people talking about the ’90s were back, and that was a long time ago,” Silverstone told USA Today. “The ’90s has come back and it keeps coming back. I don’t think it ever went away.”
