With 2015 coming to a close, we wanted to see if there were any cool movie
anniversaries that we hadn't covered yet.
And that's when we discovered that Clueless turned 20 this year,
which means next year it'll finally be old enough to drink, legally.
(Sound) >> Here are seven things you didn't know
about Clueless, probably.
(Sound) >> Ew!
Get off of me!
As if!
>> There's no debating that Clueless is Alicia Silverstone's most well known film.
Before that, she was mostly known for being that girl from the Aerosmith videos.
And that's, more or less, how she snagged her role as Cher.
Writer Director, Amy Heckerling,
was on the treadmill one night watching MTV, like you do when it's 1994,
and an Aerosmith video came on that had Alicia Silverstone in it.
Pretty much, instantaneously, Heckerling said to herself, that's the girl.
She knew then and there that she wanted Silverstone to play the lead in Clueless.
Shortly after that treadmill sesh,
Heckerling and a 17 year old Alicia Silverstone had lunch, and that was that.
Silverstone never even auditioned.
Kind of a ballsy call for Heckerling, but it worked out.
(Music) >> So?
>> Shopping with Dr. Seuss?
>> Well, at least I wouldn't skin a collie to make my backpack.
>> You've probably heard that Stacy Dash was 28 years old when she
was playing a 17 year old Dionne, but the rest of the cast was pretty close in age
to the high schoolers they were playing on screen.
And that makes for a fun bit of irony in this scene where Cher and
Ty are having a fight.
>> You're a virgin who can't drive.
>> See, Brittany Murphy later revealed that in real life she was a virgin who
couldn't drive at the time that they shot this scene.
It's just like the old saying about the pot calling the kettle sexually
inexperienced and a poor motorist.
>> Classic!
(Music)
>> Clueless launched a lot of careers, including Paul Rudd's.
But if it had been up to Rudd, he wouldn't have even played Josh.
He would have been Murray.
That's right, during the audition process, Rudd has asked to audition for
Murray, because he hadn't realized that Murray was supposed to be black.
In Paul Rudd's defense, the script didn't really specify Murray's ethnicity.
So Rudd just read it as a white guy who was trying to be black.
>> I'm completely bugging.
>> I'm bugging myself.
(Laugh) >> The producers had to inform
him of the misunderstanding, which Rudd later admitted was probably a good thing,
because he was pretty sure he couldn't do a white guy trying to act black anyway.
Even after all that was cleared up, Rudd still went through auditions for Elton,
and even Christian, before everyone finally realized that he should be Josh.
(Music)
>> Whatever.
>> All right, I know you all remember this classic scene in Mister Hall's
debate class.
>> Like, right now, for example, the Haitians need to come to America.
>> Well, Cher's mispronunciation of the word Haitians as Haitians
was a Silverstone original.
The truth is, Silverstone didn't know she was pronouncing the word incorrectly, and
Heckerling loved it so much, she told the crew not to correct her.
It was something that she and the producers would never have thought of, and
it was freaking perfect for the character and scene.
Though, hopefully,
someone has told Alicia Silverstone how to pronounce Haitian since then.
(Music)
>> Since we mentioned Mr. Hall's debate class in our last thing,
now's the perfect time to let you know that there was a real Mr. Hall at
Beverly Hills High School who taught debate, as well as performance arts.
And he's in Clueless.
That's him, right there, introducing Ty to the tennis class.
>> We have a new student with us.
This is Ty Frasier.
>> Yep, Mr. Herb Hall got a bit of a promotion in the movies,
since in Clueless he's playing the school principal.
He taught at Beverly Hills High for 28 years, and actually,
retired just recently.
So, boom.
Now you know that about him too.
(Music)
>> Two very enthusiastic thumbs up.
Fine holiday fun.
>> Here's another thing about art imitating life in Clueless.
Breckin Meyer really did go to Beverly High for about three years, and
Alicia Silverstone was also a student there.
It's pretty much just a weird coincidence.
Unlike his character Travis, Meyer wasn't a skateboarding stoner at Beverly High.
He says he was just too busy getting beat up to have time for
either of those things.
Nonetheless, he does play a pretty convincing skating stoner.
Most people think Travis is really just Spicoli 2.0,
since Amy Hackerling did also direct Fast Times as Ridgemont High.
>> Sorry, I'm late.
It's just like this new schedule is totally confusing.
>> But Meyer drew his inspiration for
his performance from Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
>> No way! >> Which is, whoa,
a bonus thing you didn't know.
>> (Music) Let's end on the ending for
our last Clueless thing, because you probably didn't know that the director is
in the movie, in the wedding sequence.
Amy Heckerling is one of the bridesmaids for Miss Geist.
That's her back right there.
The back story there is that Twink Caplan, who was a producer on Clueless and
also played Miss Geist, well, she and Amy Heckerling were good friends.
And Caplan made Heckerling promise to be a bridesmaid at her wedding, some day.
Well, before Caplan could get real life married,
she wound up getting movie married.
And Heckerling figured it might be her only opportunity to fulfill
her promise to her friend.
For the most part, Heckerling cut herself out of the scenes that she's in, but
you can get a few good looks at her here during the bouquet toss.
She may have left most of the performance on the cutting room floor,
but she definitely committed to the role.
She is throwing elbows like a real life, desperate, single woman at a wedding.
>> (Sound) That's it for us today.
Hopefully, you're now a bit less clueless about Clueless.
If you're a fan of the movie, which would stand to reason if you watched this video
all the way to the end, be sure to check out our Clueless movie buzz episode.
Stacy Dash actually came, played the game, and got drunk with T and
those other assholes.
Thanks for watching, and be sure to check out Cinefix.com and subscribe for
more truish things about movies, and sometimes the real Mr.
Hall, right here on things you didn't know.
(Sound)