Monday, 8/25/97 Alicia to excess FILM: Alicia Silverstone is
working overtime, starring in and producing ‘Excess Baggage.’
By Mike Prevatt Daily Bruin Senior Staff It seems like just
yesterday when Alicia Silverstone gained nationwide recognition in
Aerosmith’s "Crying" video, voted by MTV as the "No. 1 Video of All
Time." Immediately after, she found stardom beyond small films and
high hopes, despite being only 17 years old. That was 1993. In just
four short years, Silverstone has two major motion pictures under
her belt ("Clueless" and "Batman and Robin"). Now she is ready to
unveil "Excess Baggage," a new film Silverstone both stars in and
produced. The movie, out this Friday, is the debut of First Kiss
Productions, headed by Silverstone and her assistant/best friend
Carolyn Kessler. The 20-year-old Silverstone found the whole
experience rewarding. "It’s been about two years of my life,"
Silverstone says. "I loved every moment of it. It was all so
challenging and fulfilling …" "Excess Baggage," also starring
Benecio Del Toro ("The Usual Suspects") and Christopher Walken
("The Prophecy"), tells the story of Emily (Silverstone), a girl
who tries to get her father’s attention by staging her own
kidnapping. Emily doesn’t count on running into professional car
thief Vincent (Del Toro), whose life is turned upside down in the
worst ways thanks to the anything-but-timid Emily. The film is the
first in a two-picture deal with Columbia for Silverstone the
producer. Sharing production duties with Kessler and Bill Borden,
Silverstone’s tasks ranged from casting to music supervision.
"Everything was difficult, and I loved everything about it. I
didn’t not like anything because I learned from everything. I
enjoyed having a vision and seeing it through to the end and being
responsible for every aspect of the film." Extra responsibilities
gave Alicia more of a voice when it came to the script and how her
character was portrayed. She even shared her newfound power with
co-star Del Toro. "Benecio and I were able to write a lot of this
movie because you have your guidelines and you have a script, but
we were ad-libbing throughout the whole movie. With the love scene,
we improvised the whole thing about a week beforehand by ourselves,
tape recorded it and wrote the scene like that." "She really had a
deep connection with the way her character was conceived," adds
director Marco Brambilla ("Demolition Man"). "When something didn’t
ring true to her, she was very sensitive about it. "The only
difficult thing was the fact that … you gotta shoot the scene
she’s in, so that makes it more complicated," Brambilla continues.
"Otherwise, especially in pre-production, it was a great asset to
have someone like Alicia who really gets the tone of the movie and
gets the idea that we’re not making a formulaic comedy … it
worked out very well that way." Del Toro was especially impressed
with Silverstone’s determination and passion. "She’s 20 years old,
she’s acting in a movie, she’s producing and she’s fighting with
everybody for what she really believes in. And she’s not being a
bully about it. And she didn’t lose stamina, she’s kept it up all
the way through … Good for her." "Alicia’s a big reason why I did
this film," Del Toro continues. "I did it because she was great in
‘Clueless.’ She’s great to watch and she’s down-to- earth. I’d work
with her anytime." Like "Clueless," "Excess Baggage" centers around
themes of youth, love and maturity. "I just really wanted to show
something that I thought a lot of young people needed and could
relate to," Silverstone says. "There’s no way you can change a
person, so you got to accept the person and then figure out how
you’re going to precede from there without that person being any
kind of influence on you." The film’s coming-of-age themes also
center around relationships and love. Silverstone aimed to create a
youth-oriented movie with more emotionally mature characters. "I
mean, Emily and Vincent don’t end up together (just) because they
are attracted to each other physically," Silverstone says. "They
don’t meet each other and go, ‘Let’s go do it in the kitchen!’"
Silverstone especially focused on parental love and teenage
alienation. "I know a lot of people that don’t have really good
parents," Silverstone says. "But you don’t live your life,
successfully – that is, if you keep saying, ‘My mom was so mean to
me’ or ‘My dad was an alcoholic …’ because as painful as all
those things are, you can’t live your life that way. You can’t find
out who you are that way. You can’t figure who you are on your own.
The greatest lesson I could have ever learned was to accept
circumstances the way they are, without any emotional attachment to
it." Silverstone learned these lessons as a teen-ager, where she
gained independence and achieved success early in life. But her
accomplishments don’t exist on terms we most associate Hollywood
success with. "Everyone measures success differently," notes a more
defensive Silverstone. "Success to me is not about how much money I
make or how much attention I get from people. I’m successful
because I have five dogs. To me, that’s successful because I always
wished I had lots of dogs and I’m very happy that I do. I think I’m
successful because I have great friends … because I’m generally a
happy person. But at the same time, it’s like, y’know, none of that
other stuff makes me successful." With Silverstone’s "success"
comes the media attention, some of which is unflattering. However,
like many public figures, she ignores the attention. "I basically
try not to pay attention to that stuff. It’s very uncomforting that
everything I say gets written, because it’s like tomorrow I might
have the answers to everything, where yesterday I didn’t have any
answers." Despite what the media and business expect of her,
Silverstone has seemingly found her own niche in the film world,
but does she ever miss her friends or want to live the college
life? "I’d like to go to college to learn specific things," says
Silverstone. "The life and experience of college is not what I need
or require. I’d like to learn political science and American
history … I never took those classes and I’d like to know them.
But I’m getting such an education with what I’m doing (now) that
when it’s time to learn that, I’ll go learn it. I don’t miss
hanging out with those kids because I don’t know if I’d have the
same things in common." In the meantime, as Silverstone continues
to build her resume with leading roles and production credits, she
still is "clueless" as to where she’ll end up in the future. "I
have no idea!" laughs Silverstone. "I may be in a tribe!" FILM:
"Excess Baggage" opens on Aug. 29. (top left) Benecio Del Toro
plays Vincent Roche and Alicia Silverstone plays Emily T. Hope in
"Excess Baggage." (above) Silverstone stars as a rich but
emotionally neglected girl. (left) Kistler (Harry Connick, Jr.)
listens as his partner Vincent (Del Toro) tries to explain what
happened to the stolen car that they were supposed to deliver to
their boss. Previous Daily Bruin Story If you have MTV, you’ve seen
her videos