In the early 1990s, the writer-director Amy Heckerling was feeling down. Heckerling had burst on to the scene a decade earlier with Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a groundbreaking coming-of-age comedy of libidinous teens, and scored a surprise box office hit with 1989\u2019s Look Who\u2019s Talking. But she was struggling to fit Hollywood demands. \u201cI was thinking: \u2018Oh, I\u2019m never going to make a film that\u2019s what I want it to be, because you can\u2019t have protagonists that are female, you have to do slob comedies, but there\u2019s only a few actors that they accept in those roles, and you don\u2019t get a chance to work with them if you\u2019re a female,\u2019\u201d Heckerling told me recently.<\/p>\n
With little interest in catering to the prevailing tastes of the day, Heckerling went back to the drawing board: what did she want to write? A true native New Yorker with the accent to match, Heckerling \u201cgravitated towards darker stuff\u201d \u2013 early gangster movies, David Lynch. But she was most amused by \u201cpeople who are very optimistic and happy. I just think, how the hell did they get that way?\u201d Like the main character in the 1994 movie Ed Wood, perpetually pleased with his mediocre work, or the star of Gentleman Prefer Blondes (the book), sending herself flowers to stir the jealousy of men around her. She envisioned a woman in a \u201cbig, pink bubble that can\u2019t be burst\u201d, convinced of her centrality but still winsome, relentlessly positive and naive. Someone like Cher Horowitz, the most impeccably dressed 16-year-old in America, hapless social matchmaker of Beverly Hills\u2019 Bronson Alcott high school and the lead of Heckerling\u2019s movie Clueless<\/a>.<\/p>\n Clueless, released 30 years ago on 19 July, remains a seminal teen comedy, the kind that immediately and indelibly stamps the culture. The instantly recognizable yellow plaid suit? \u201cWhateverrrr?\u201d As if you could escape its cultural legacy. A loose adaptation of Jane Austen\u2019s 1815 novel Emma, Clueless reinvigorated the stagnant teen movie<\/a> genre that flourished for the rest of the decade. 10 Things I Hate About You<\/a>, Mean Girls<\/a>, Easy A<\/a> \u2013 the teen comedy staples of my teenage years in the late 2000s \u2013 live in the shadow of Clueless, which played almost daily on at least one cable channel after school. \u201cThere are very few movies in history that have lasted 30 years with that kind of intensity, with that kind of a broad appeal to generations,\u201d Mona May<\/a>, the film\u2019s totally important costume designer, told me. \u201cIt\u2019s truly beloved.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s bright heartwarming and joyful \u2013 smart, funny and satirical in a way that still resonates,\u201d said the film\u2019s star, Alicia Silverstone<\/a>, via email. \u201cThere is something about Amy\u2019s take on youth culture and coming-of-age stories that is timeless.\u201d<\/p>\n There are very few movies in history that have lasted 30 years with that kind of intensity, with that kind of a broad appeal to generations<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mona May, costume designer<\/p>\n It also barely made it out of pre-production. Finding a studio home for Heckerling\u2019s script was, as Cher would say, \u201clike searching for a boy in high school … as useless as searching for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie\u201d. Heckerling first developed what she thought would be a TV series at 20th Century Fox, with the support of an executive named Elizabeth Gabler. She delivered the feature script to Fox along with a VHS tape she recorded off MTV of Aerosmith\u2019s music video for Cryin\u2019, featuring a young, blond, radiant actor named Alicia Silverstone. They passed. Heckerling\u2019s agent, Ken Stovitz, then doggedly shopped the idea around town, to no avail. The protagonists were female; \u201cClueless\u201d sounded too much like underperforming films on young slackers; studio brass thought Heckerling\u2019s still distinctive amalgamation of Valley speak, teenage slang and personal inspirations (the trademark \u201cas if!\u201d came from \u201cmy gay friends in their 30s\u201d) wouldn\u2019t translate to a wide audience. \u201cThe entire industry said no,\u201d Heckerling recalled.<\/p>\n Except for Scott Rudin, the prolific, and prolifically<\/a> volatile<\/a>, film and theater producer, whose support ignited a bidding war. \u201cUsually I\u2019d write something for some people and it would go where it was or we\u2019d go to other people that might be interested,\u201d Heckerling said. \u201cBut never, \u2018we all hate it, now we all love it.\u2019\u201d And that\u2019s show business \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s stupid,\u201d Heckerling laughed, \u201cbut I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n With the backing of Paramount, Heckerling and casting director Marcia Ross began their search for actors to play the most stylish high-schoolers in the US, including some unsuccessful sessions shadowing real students at high schools in Beverly Hills and the San Fernando Valley. (\u201cThese kids walked around in these baggy clothes. They look just looked hopeless,\u201d said Heckerling, though they perhaps inspired Cher\u2019s disdain for high school boys \u201cin baggy pants and oversized T-shirts looking like schlemiels \u2013 bleurgh\u201d.) Heckerling first met with Silverstone at a cafe and was won over by, of all things, how she leaned her body over a cup to use the straw rather than pick it up, a move that reminded her of her eight-year-old daughter. \u201cWhen I first saw the Cryin\u2019 video, my initial reaction was: \u2018Oh, she\u2019s a hot chick,\u2019\u201d said Heckerling. But after the first meeting, it was: \u201c\u2018Oh, I want to take care of her.\u2019\u201d She connected with her vision for Cher \u2013 a girl who \u201cthinks she\u2019s all that and she\u2019s acting like a grownup who knows everything, but there\u2019s a child in her\u201d.<\/p>\n Stacey Dash, a 25-year-old from New York, won the part of Dionne, Cher\u2019s relatively more experienced best friend. Dash \u201cwas much more savvy already\u201d, May, the costume designer, recalled. \u201cShe was sassy.\u201d To play Josh, Cher\u2019s intellectual, very undergrad-y stepbrother-turned-love interest, the team cast a fresh-faced actor named Paul Rudd<\/a>. And for the \u201cclueless\u201d Tai, a homely new kid Cher mentors \u2013 and misleads \u2013 as part of her initiative of \u201cgood deeds\u201d, Ross found a 17-year-old newcomer named Brittany Murphy<\/a>. \u201cEverybody loved her,\u201d said Heckerling. Peppy, open-hearted, eager to help, Murphy was always the frontrunner for Tai, though she wasn\u2019t confident in her chances. After a chemistry read with Silverstone, \u201cAlicia was trying to tell me: \u2018Oh my God, it has to be her,\u2019\u201d Heckerling recalled. \u201cAnd I was already like: \u2018Yeah, we know.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Alicia Silverstone in Clueless. Photograph: Paramount\/Allstar<\/p>\n Filming commenced in November 1994, and proceeded over 40 days in Los Angeles<\/a> like \u201ca well-oiled machine\u201d, said Elisa Donovan, who played Cher\u2019s haute couture-loving frenemy Amber. (Cher\u2019s assessment: \u201cDo you prefer fashion victim or ensemble-y challenged?\u201d) Fresh to LA with just a few TV credits, Donovan walked on to her first film set and \u201cthought: oh, this is how movies work. Brilliant women write them and direct them. They\u2019re in charge. They\u2019re the ones who hire all the right people. They tell everyone what to do in like a fun and kind, but firm way. They know what they\u2019re doing.\u201d (On subsequent sets, she \u201clearned pretty quickly that this was highly unusual\u201d.)<\/p>\n Key to this environment was the partnership between Heckerling and May, who assembled the entire wardrobe for the film \u2013 63 designer looks for Silverstone, 45 changes for the other principal actors, and all the extras\u2019 outfits \u2013 for a budget of about $200,000 (about $413,000 today). \u201cAmy is an amazing writer,\u201d said May. \u201cShe wrote the blueprint for me \u2013 high school, Beverly Hills, rich girls, high fashion.\u201d But in 1994, \u201ceverybody was wearing grunge,\u201d not Ala\u00efa \u2013 a Parisian designer May had to personally beg, via French translator, for the iconic red party dress, as they were out of money; the designer loaned it \u2013 May designed the peacocking feather jacket to complete the look \u2013 and got name-checked in the script.<\/p>\n May took clues from runway shows, sourcing looks from department stores, old collection books and magazines. The characters \u201chad Daddy\u2019s credit cards, they could go shopping at the runway shows in Paris or Milan or wherever\u201d, said May, but the clothes had to communicate \u201creal girls that then you can emulate and love\u201d \u2013 elevated and chic, but also youthful, fun and innocent. Such as, say, a yellow plaid Jean-Paul Gaultier blazer May pulled off the rack at a department store, the third choice behind a blue and red riff on the classic Catholic school uniform. (Yellow is \u201ca tricky color\u201d, Heckerling noted. \u201cIt\u2019s sunshine, but it\u2019s also jaundice.\u201d) Blue didn\u2019t work, red was too Christmas. But the yellow one on Silverstone was a goosebumps moment \u2013 \u201cOh my God, this is Cher,\u201d said May. \u201cShe\u2019s the queen bee.\u201d<\/p>\n It was through the clothes that Silverstone, then 18, transformed from budding environmental activist into airheaded, but well-meaning, Beverly Hills queen. \u201cShe was already saving animals and walking around in her sweatpants and flip-flops with two dogs in tow into the fitting. She was not Cher in real life,\u201d May recalled. Silverstone confirms: \u201cI was not one bit interested in fashion at that time personally, and my usual outfit was jeans and my favorite green T-shirt.\u201d But, \u201cI looked at Cher as being extremely confident and having a deep, healthy love of herself.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s bright heartwarming and joyful \u2013 smart, funny and satirical in a way that still resonates<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Alicia Silverstone<\/p>\n The set, overall, was \u201cjust really fun and vibrant\u201d, Donovan recalled. \u201cIt was all magic,\u201d said May. \u201cAmy is such a great director \u2013 she opened us up, she\u2019s very collaborative, she\u2019s very encouraging.\u201d Silverstone, as the star, was a bit more circumspect: \u201cI was in almost every scene, so I was working hard and taking the role seriously. When I hear about all the fun the other actors had, I get whatever the past tense of Fomo is.\u201d<\/p>\n Filming wrapped at the end of 1994, and Clueless hit theaters seven months later, becoming an instant hit among the target audience \u2013 something quickly clear to Donovan, who was swarmed by a group of teens at a mall a fews weeks after release. It took longer for Heckerling to catch on. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel like it was like a big [hit] at the time,\u201d she said. \u201cI have friends that are [male] movie directors, and they have hits that are gigantic. I mean, Animal House and Beverly Hills Cop and Ghostbusters, those are big money-making movies. And Clueless did not make that much. It was a hit, but it wasn\u2019t in every theater like that.\u201d<\/p>\n But it did catch on, winning fans on the then booming home video market and launching an endless tradition of Cher Halloween costumes. \u201cYou always hope your movie is a hit,\u201d said May, who went on to design costumes for Romy & Michele\u2019s High School Reunion, Enchanted, The House Bunny and more. \u201cEvery film-maker will say that, but you just never know. It has to just be the right moment and the right time and the right culture. And this was all right.\u201d<\/p>\n Stacey Dash and Alicia Silverstone in Clueless. Photograph: Cinetext\/Paramount\/Allstar<\/p>\n In true Hollywood fashion, the industry took some of the wrong lessons \u2013 instead of focusing on how the movie worked, or greenlighting more female directors, it spawned countless imitators. Afterwards, \u201cit wasn\u2019t like: \u2018Oh boy, here come all the great scripts,\u2019\u201d said Heckerling. It was: \u201cHere\u2019s the script that\u2019s this classic for teenagers, or that classic, but with teenagers.<\/p>\n \u201cThey only think you can do what\u2019s been done,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s like they needed a big insurance policy. Movies are expensive, so they only want to make sure that if you did Emma in high school, why don\u2019t you do Persuasion in high school?\u201d<\/p>\n Also in true Hollywood fashion, Clueless has become valuable IP \u2013 the basis for a spinoff TV show with Dash and Donovan that ran from 1996 to 1997; a West End stage show<\/a>; and an upcoming, still vague adaptation<\/a> with Peacock from The OC and Gossip Girl creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, with Silverstone set to reprise her role. Heckerling, an executive producer, declined to offer any details, citing prematurity and a well-earned development superstition.<\/p>\n The 30th anniversary once again brings up the original film\u2019s still remarkable singularity, as well as the stark absence of Murphy, who died at the age of 32, igniting years of intense media speculation. \u201cI always think about Brittany and it\u2019s really hard to do any of this and not talk about her,\u201d said Donovan. \u201cShe was so talented and just had so much energy and so vibrant \u2026 just this hummingbird, frenetic sort of energy, but also like, \u2018everything\u2019s great. I got it. No problem.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n With the anniversary events, \u201cIt makes me emotional because I feel like she should be doing a lot of this, like she would be doing a lot of this,\u201d she added. But the milestone \u2013 the kids of Clueless now old enough to have their own headstrong high-schoolers \u2013 offers an opportunity to remember, as Heckerling put it, \u201cthe goofy fun of it all\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople come up to me and say: \u2018Your designs changed my life,\u2019\u201d said May. \u201cTo hear that in your lifetime, that something that you created has had an impact on people? It\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the early 1990s, the writer-director Amy Heckerling was feeling down. 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