Alicia Silverstone: Sexy Sidekick

We've been following Alicia Silverstone's career ever since she wowed us as Cher in Clueless years ago. She's played Batgirl, a wacky reporter in Scooby Doo 2 and a Southern beautician in Beauty Shop. Alicia also tackled TV as "Miss Match" and Shakespeare in a film version of Love's Labour's Lost. Now, she tackles a teenaged boy! Well, at least she's in charge of one in Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker. Alicia plays Jack (that's right, Jack) Starbright, Alex Rider's housekeeper and she aids the young teen spy on his mission to stop a world domination plot.

Let's see, you're a 16-year-old guy and you've got hot Alicia as your housekeeper? Doesn't suck at all! We sat down with the star at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills recently and chatted about all things Alicia. The actress looked very sleek in form-fitting brown wrap dress; her long hair is brownish with lots of gold highlights and she looks about 17. We got the goods on her fight scene, speaking Japanese, hanging out with young Alex Pettyfer on set and the fact that, hey, sure.. she'd do a Clueless 2!

TeenHollywood: You and Missi Pyle have one heck of a girlfight in the film. Was that fun or dangerous or what?

Alicia: The [stunt] choreographer [Donnie Yen] is this really famous star in China and he created this amazing sequence and we were thinking 'this is going to be like three million shots, because it's here, there, and everywhere'. It was really hilarious. One of the guys on the team was Andy. I'm following him around, because I wanted to match his shots, and the way he moved, it was just so impressive to me. I would say, 'Do it for me, cause I want to copy you.' And he would dress up, he was my stunt double; sometimes he was Missi's stunt double too.

TeenHollywood: Uh, an Asian guy named Andy was your stunt double?

Alicia: [laughs] Yeah. Usually, you have stuntwomen who sort of look like you. In this case, it was a man and he was Chinese. And, he's wearing a blonde wig. It's just very funny. They were such nice guys. Missi and I both didn't want to disappoint [Donnie]. We felt honored to be working with him. Sometimes, you would see his face – and I could tell how he was so disappointed with me, like I wasn't doing it good enough; ugh, it's crushing. And I went over to him, and was like, 'Oh, were you not happy?' And he was like, 'No, I wasn't even thinking about you.' So it was ok. I think they were just stressed because of time.

TeenHollywood: What was it like working with Alex Pettyfer?

Alicia: I'd try and get through the day and try and be professional. He's super cute and very playful, so I had to be like, 'Would you shut up?' sometimes, 'You're being very distracting right now.' He was adorable and I kind of felt that if I did try and talk about real things with him, he didn't want to go there with me. I'm a girl, and girls are weird, a little bit; so I just tried to stay away. He's a young kid, and sometimes he'd just be like [she makes a roar noise].' 'What is wrong with you right now?' 'Arrr.' He's not going to tell me cause I'm a girl; very funny.

TeenHollywood: Can you talk about your character? She's a gal named Jack who is working in the U.K. without a green card?

Alicia: Well, I don't think that my character would have ever asked for that green card. The reason she has to stay in the country is cause she's the only one who can take care of Alex; she's like his mother. He's lost his parents, he's lost his uncle, he has no one left in the world; if she's not there, he'd go to some agency – who would take care of him? So I think that she's just the only person left in his life; she loves him, and she would never leave him. But I don't think she imagined that would be her responsibility for the rest of her life. So, she became like a nanny.

TeenHollywood: You grew up partially in England. Did you have a nanny?

Alicia: When I was little, there were a lot of people in my life that had come over from Sweden or London; my mom was a flight attendant so she was gone a lot, and my dad was very, very busy in his job. We needed people to take care of us sometimes, too; so we'd have this Swedish [nanny], and she'd be naked sunbathing outside, and all the boys thought that was cool – I thought that was super cool. I think that's what happened to my girl. She went over there thinking it would be a nice idea and she never left; she got stuck there.

TeenHollywood: Did you grow up in England?

Alicia Silverstone: Not really, but kind of; I never lived over there so long. But I went over there for two months at a time every year, for the summers. So I'm very familiar with it, and it definitely feels like somewhere that's not new to me in a way; I've been going my whole life.

TeenHollywood: You have to prepare some sushi for dinner in the movie. What was that like?

Alicia: When I'm slicing and going crazy it's cucumber. Most of the sushi was avocado rolls and cucumber rolls, and that's what I was eating. I was cooking a fish and started talking to it. The director didn't like it but I thought it was hilarious. I was saying how cute the fish was, and how sorry I was that Alex had to eat him. But it was super fun; I liked the idea that she wasn't a super good chef, I thought it was pretty funny that she put so much effort into it. She dresses up in costume, and probably the next night, she made Italian and probably dressed up as a mad Italian person.

TeenHollywood: If you and Alex weren't hanging out much on set. Who did you do things with for fun?

Alicia: Well, I really appreciate Bill [Nighy] and Sophie [Okonedo]. They're awesome, I really love them; we were like the Three Stooges, very misbehaved. We barely would hear the director scream 'action' because we were like, 'blah, blah, blah' and we have a very funny dynamic, the three of us together. Sophie sent me a picture of the three of us and we just look so silly. We had such a good time; they're so clever, so smart, so artistic, so and so funny, and all very nice people.

TeenHollywood: Alex Rider is sort of like a young James Bond. Are you a James Bond fan?

Alicia: I'm embarrassed to say, but I've only seen two; I know I've seen one of the old ones a while ago, and then I saw Die Another Day. I was one of these surprised movie goers. I couldn't believe the cars could do that, the camera, it was all so shocking to me; I'm sure it's been going on for 20 years, but I was shocked. It was like, 'This is amazing,' cause I don't watch a lot of television or movies; I try to, but I just don't have the time.

TeenHollywood: Gotta ask. Is there ever a possibility of a Clueless 2? Teens have rediscovered it since the DVD came out.

Alicia: Funny you ask because I had a weird dream about that last night, really strange. I was doing a movie with Amy [Heckerling, director of Clueless] and I was like, 'Are you sure this is Clueless 2, 'cause it was so long ago?' So much time has gone by now. I'd do it, but I'm not sure how you would do that character now. So many people have ripped it off. But, if they did it, I'd love to be a part of it, of course. I haven't really thought about that girl [Cher]. That's a long time ago.

TeenHollywood: So much has seeped into our culture from that film.

Alicia: Yeah. People didn't used to say 'as if' or 'whatever' in that way. And I never even heard the word 'clueless" before Clueless. Those are now mainstream words I hear adults saying all the time, and that's kind of freaky.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.