Alicia Silverstone arrived on TikTok over the summer, and since then she's been posting a ton of nostalgic content, mostly directed at her famed role as Cher Horowitz in Clueless. The social media platform also allows fans to connect with the actress, and most recently one longtime fan of hers got real about how the media needs to go on an apology tour for the way they treated a teenage Silverstone when she starred in Batman & Robin.
Batman & Robin already gets plenty of hate on other fronts, but as TikTok user @foreversymone shared in her post, that’s not what her post is about. She wanted to bring to attention the unfair way Alicia Silverstone was treated in the ‘90s for her weight. Alicia Silverstone noticed the video and reacted to her comments:
@aliciasilverstone #duet with @foreversymone justice for batgirl! 😂❤️
♬ original sound - sweet babboo 💕
As the TikToker shared, she wants “justice for Alicia Silverstone” for the way she was unfairly treated for her size. She pointed to a real magazine article that used the headline “a weighty issue” to describe the actress at the time and even compared her to Babe the pig. As she ranted:
Y’all had her fucked up… As a fat woman who grew up obsessed with Clueless, who grew up obsessed with [Batman & Robin], which is pure camp, it just makes me frustrated to know that she couldn’t have been more than 130 lbs and they were straight up ripping on her constantly over this. People, Us Weekly, everybody, say you’re sorry to Alicia Silverstone.
It’s a great topic to remember because body-shaming in the media was a lot more prevalent in the ‘90s, and as this TikTok reminds us, would go as far as publicly being unkind to young actresses for not being stick thin models. The standards have long been impossibly high in regards to women’s figures, and the narrative around Silverstone donning the Batgirl suit at the time was a straight-up harmful conversation. Alicia Silverstone opened up about this to CinemaBlend’s podcast ReelBlend in a 2020 episode where she called being on the film “uncomfortable.” In her words:
At 18, putting that suit on and not knowing what the heck I was doing, I can’t say it was that fun. And it came at a time in my life when people were being very unkind. So I think it was just not the best experience, but it wasn’t terrible. Luckily, I was fine. But it’s not up there with my David Mamet or Kenneth Branagh!
While speaking to ReelBlend, Alicia Silverstone also shared that while playing Batgirl, she had a great experience with George Clooney and the movie’s Alfred Pennyworth, played by Michael Gough. Otherwise, she didn’t particularly enjoy being a superhero because it was more technical than other projects:
It wasn't like the deepest acting experience of my career. It’s more technical. It’s really more… a lot of it is really, ‘Look over there and throw something.’ Where am I looking? What am I looking at? What am I throwing? [laughs] And that’s not really that inspiring. You know that I mean?
During Alicia Silverstone’s reaction to the TikToker, she can be heard saying “thank you” to her for defending her unfortunate experience along with “I love you.” After receiving so much hate around the role, even being nicknamed “fatgirl” at the time, it must be nice to see someone understand the injustice that was going on and speak out for her.
Nearly 15 years after Silverstone took on Batgirl, Warner Bros is revisiting the hero with Leslie Grace set to take on the role in a live-action movie for HBO Max. It's set to begin shooting soon.
