Movies | Pop Culture | 90s

10 Facts About 'Clueless' That Will Make You Say "As If!"

There are few movies that are as iconic as Clueless. If you grew up in the 90s then Clueless probably helped form your opinion of what high school would be like. Obviously, most of us didn't have the same experience as Cher and her friends but it was still one of the greatest movies of our generation.

It's still a great movie, and has held up great over the years. Sure, their cell phones are a little big and their outfits are super 90s, but the story is classic. To be fair, it's based on the Jane Austen book Emma.

Paramount Pictures

There is a lot of interesting facts that you may not know about the 90s classic. See how much you really know about your favorite movie!

It was supposed to be a TV show

Paramount Pictures

The original concept of Clueless was actually a television show. Its writer, Amy Heckerling, had called it No Worries but Fox said that no one would care about a show with so many girls. Obviously they were wrong, because not only did the movie turn out to be the epic and amazing, but they eventually did make a TV show version of the movie!

ABC

Mr. Hall was a real teacher

Paramount Pictures

The goofy and awkward debate teacher, Mr. Hall, was not only based on the teacher that the writer knew, but he was played by a real teacher. Wallace Shawn was a teacher before he decided to get into acting so he was able to draw on his experience.

Two other big stars could have been Cher

MGM

Two young actresses were interested in the role of Cher. Reese Witherspoon was in the running, but Heckerling wanted to pick someone unknown. Sarah Michelle Geller was offered the role but a scheduling conflict with All My Children led Heckerling to find Alicia Silverstone.

Silverstone got the role because she was in music videos

Heckerling said that she wanted the girl from "those Aerosmith videos" and lucky for Silverstone she was the perfect fit.

Paul Rudd auditioned for basically every role he could

Paramount Pictures

Even though Rudd claims that he didn't get the movie at first, he ended up auditioning for every male role. He started off auditioning for Christian and then when he didn't get that he went for the role of Murray. Obviously he's the perfect Josh so its for the best that he didn't get those parts!

But which iconic moments weren't what they seemed?

Cher's pronunciation of "Haitians" was not scripted

Paramount Pictures

Alicia Silverstone actually didn't know how the word was pronounced and Heckerling decided to leave it in.

The "Suck and Blow" game was tricky to film

Paramount Pictures

They tried to film it using a real credit card but it was too hard to actually do. The props department replaced it with a cardboard replica but it was still not working. Even after drilling holes in it, the card wouldn't stick. They resorted to using a bunch of chapstick to make their lips stickier for the card to attach on to.

There are over fifty types of plaid in the film

Paramount Pictures

The wardrobe department really went all out on the plaid, styling 53 different items onto the cast. Cher wore seven, and the other major characters wore 12. The rest were in the background but that's still a lot of plaid!

Many other celebrities auditioned for the movie

Paramount Pictures
  • Terrence Howard auditioned for Murray
  • Jeremy Renner auditioned for Christian and Josh
  • Zooey Deschanel auditioned for Amber and Cher
  • Owen Wilson auditioned for Travis
  • Leah Remini auditioned for Tai
  • Seth Green auditioned for Travis
  • Lauren Hill auditioned for Dionne

The most expensive outfit was Cher's yellow plaid

Paramount Pictures

The Jean Paul Gaultier outfit was the most expensive article of clothing that was purchased for the movie. The entire budget was $200,000 which sounds like a lot but apparently that was considered "modest".

Admit it, you're totally going to watch this movie on tonight!