Clueless

Alicia Silverstone, who played Cher, did not know how to pronounce "Haitians" correctly in the classroom scene. Director Amy Heckerling told the crew not to correct her because she liked her so much and wanted her in the film.

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Tai insults Cher by calling her a virgin who can't drive. Brittany Murphy later admitted that during filming she was a virgin who couldn't drive.

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Paul Rudd auditioned for the roles of Murray, Christian and Elton. Rudd assumed the character of Murray was a white teenager trying to act like a rapper.

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The role of Mr. Hall was based on Nat Hentoff, a Beverly Hills High School debate teacher who was a friend of director Amy Heckerling. As a favor, Herb Hall was given the role of the school principal.

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The plot, characters, themes and values are all based on Jane Austen's novel "Emma." Paramount asked Amy Heckerling to write a film for teenagers, and she immediately remembered the novel she had read in her youth.

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During filming, Paul Rudd was attacked and his backpack, which contained the film's script, was stolen.

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Alicia Silverstone did not have to audition for her role in this film.

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According to Jen Chaney's book "As If!" celebrating the film's 20th anniversary, although many people assume the film's costume budget was high, it was quite modest for a big blockbuster. Costume designer Mona May wanted the girls to look like mall rats rather than models, so the 63 costume changes cost only $200,000. The biggest costume expense was the plaid Jean-Paul Gaultier outfit Alicia Silverstone wears in the opening scenes; as she told Entertainment Weekly, it was a piece she had to keep alongside all the other clothes from the film that she donated to charity.

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Murray has two distinct features for a high school student: braces and a shaved head. Donald Faison revealed that the (fake) braces were meant to hide his small "baby teeth," and that his shaved head was because his hairline had already receded by the age of 18.

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Dan Hedaya considered this film and his role in it one of his favorite filmmaking experiences.

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Throughout the film, 53 different types of plaid/check are used, seven of them worn by Cher and 12 by other major characters.

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Cher's teacher's comments on her report card are as follows: English Composition - excellent composition and vocabulary, Debate - unprepared and undisciplined, Bio I - won't dissect the frog, Physical Education - must learn responsibility, World History - should work harder to pay attention to current events, Geometry - nice shapes.

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In the opening scene, Christian stands in front of a sign that reads "End Discrimination." In the scene where Cher packs her father's things and is surprised by Christian's call, he is in a museum; the painting behind him shows two men embracing lovingly, another hint at his sexuality.

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According to the script of Clueless (1995), the restaurant scenes were supposed to take place at California Pizza Kitchen, but when the chain's CEOs read the bread/penis jokes in the script, they did not allow filming there.

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The scene where Cher wanders around and realizes her true feelings for Josh as the fountains erupt is borrowed from Gigi (1958), where Gaston does the same thing. The music that plays as Cher stands at the top of the stairs in her white dress before meeting Christian is also taken from the same film. Gigi happens to wear a white dress both times that theme plays.

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The films Christian watches with Cher on video, Some Like It Hot (1959) and Spartacus (1960), give hints about his sexual orientation. The first film is about men who dress in the clothes of the opposite sex (while fleeing a mob attack). The second contains the famous scene in which a Roman master (Laurence Olivier) tries to seduce his male servant (Tony Curtis). Tony Curtis appears in both of these films.

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Although many obvious modernizations and adaptations were made, Clueless stays quite close to the original plot and central character group of Jane Austen's "Emma." In terms of characters, for example, Cher could be Emma, Josh Mr. Knightley, Tai Harriet Smith, Elton Mr. Elton, Travis Robert Martin, Christian a looser and much more sympathetic version of Frank Churchill, and Dionne probably Mrs. Weston. It is also possible that Mr. Hall and Miss Geist are Mr. and Mrs. Weston, whom Emma also claims to have matched, given that Cher tries to matchmake the two of them.

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The baseball cap Josh (Paul Rudd) wears is a KU cap for the University of Kansas. Rudd is a KU graduate, where he studied theater and was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. Rudd is from Kansas and graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School.

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The funny convertible Christian drives to Cher's house is a 1954 Nash Metropolitan.

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Clueless (1995) ranked 7th on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies (2006).

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The book Christian reads during class is "Junky" by William S. Burroughs, another hint at and indicator of his sexual orientation, given that its author had strong homosexual desires.

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It is often cited as Paul Rudd's first film, but that was actually Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995). Clueless was his second film, though its release before Halloween 6 caused confusion.

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Amy Heckerling met with Alicia Witt, Reese Witherspoon, Keri Russell and Tiffani Thiessen for the role of Cher. Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow were considered for the role, but neither auditioned.

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Jerry Orbach was offered the role of Mel Horowitz, but he likewise could not spare the time from his show Law & Order (1990); Harvey Keitel was seen as too expensive to appear in the role.

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The high school the students attend is "Bronson Alcott High School." Bronson Alcott was a 19th-century Transcendentalist writer, best known for founding a failed Utopian community called "Fruitlands" and for being the father of "Little Women" author Louisa May Alcott. Amy Heckerling once dated Bronson Pinchot, whose middle name, "Alcott," comes from the writer. "Bronson Alcott" is also the name of the prep school in Nat Hentoff's 1976 novel "This School is Driving Me Crazy," where the protagonist's father is the headmaster. It is also the name of a character in author V. C. Andrews's "Dawn" series.

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During Super Bowl LVII (2023), Alicia Silverstone and Elisa Donovan reprised their characters in a tribute ad for Rakuten, highlighting their argument sequences. Silverstone used her "as if" catchphrase from the film.

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In a promo shot for MTV, Dionne and Cher are seen ordering food at a diner. Their waitress was P. E. teacher Miss Stoger (Julie Brown), who works a second job. They are outraged at the idea of pickles in their Caesar salads and instead order just lemon slices to suck on.

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Cher's address is listed as 901 Drury Ln Beverly Hills, 90212.

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Cher's masseur, Fabian, is played by the film's costume designer.

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Amy Heckerling said that Cher and Josh getting together was inspired by her grandparents, who were former step-siblings and also married.

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In several scenes set in the Horowitz house, a mezuzah is visible on the doorpost of the home's front door. A mezuzah is a small box containing passages from the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21) that Jews traditionally affix to their doorframes as a constant reminder of God's presence. Mezuzahs also function, both in life and in films, as an indication that a Jew lives in the house or works in the building. This, along with the fact that "Horowitz" is traditionally a Jewish name (historically referring to a Jew from Horovice, in the region of Bohemia, now the Czech Republic) and that Cher Horowitz, her father Mel and her stepbrother Josh are played by Jewish actors, has long been adopted by some fans of the film as an understanding that Cher and her family are Jewish characters.

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