From ex-boyfriend beatdowns to makeover montages? Alicia Silverstone may be most famous for her role in "Clueless," but she never would have gotten the gig if it weren't for Aerosmith!
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00:00From ex-boyfriend beatdowns to makeover montages, Alicia Silverstone may be most famous for
00:06her role in Clueless, but she never would have gotten the gig if it weren't for Aerosmith.
00:10The key to understanding the bizarre story is Aerosmith's long and winding history, which
00:15is filled with the lowest of lows and the highest of highs.
00:18And we mean high.
00:20The band was founded in 1970.
00:22Three years later, they released their first album, which included the iconic song, Dream
00:26On.
00:27In 1975, they released the album Toys in the Attic, which Rolling Stone included on their
00:31list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
00:34They were on top of the world.
00:36Then it came crashing down.
00:38Lead singer Steven Tyler and lead guitarist Joe Perry were nicknamed the Toxic Twins for
00:43their out-of-control drug use.
00:45By the early 80s, the band was in shambles thanks to addiction, and the rise of MTV and
00:49music videos seemed to have relegated Aerosmith to a relic from the past.
00:54But then the band flipped the script.
00:56In 1986, they teamed with Run-D.M.C. for the groundbreaking cross-genre rap-rock anthem
01:01Walk This Way.
01:02More than a decade after the success of Toys in the Attic, the video for Walk This Way
01:07turned Aerosmith into icons for a new generation.
01:10Suddenly, they were the biggest thing going.
01:12That led to high expectations for their next round of music videos, and while they rode
01:16high through the rest of the 80s, by the 90s, Aerosmith was once again on the downswing.
01:21Wars were not going well, and MTV personalities disliked the band's recent music video for
01:26Livin' on the Edge.
01:28The band seemed on the verge of becoming irrelevant once again.
01:31And then Alicia Silverstone happened.
01:33She appeared in three award-winning Aerosmith videos.
01:36That's true.
01:37That's the one we just seen.
01:38Which was your favorite of the Aerosmith videos?
01:40The first one.
01:41Yeah.
01:42Cryin'.
01:43In 1993, the band released a music video for their new single Cryin'.
01:46The video featured Silverstone as a feisty character who gets back at an ex-boyfriend
01:51in various ways throughout the video.
01:53It was a smash hit.
01:55Silverstone told Rolling Stone that the video for Cryin' tripled Aerosmith's sales.
01:59Hoping to catch lightning in a bottle, Aerosmith brought Silverstone back for their next two
02:02music videos, Amazing and Crazy.
02:05The 1993 music video for Amazing features Jason London playing a boy immersed in a virtual
02:10reality where he spends time with Silverstone's character.
02:14And 1994's Crazy featured Silverstone alongside a new actress, Liv Tyler, the daughter of
02:19Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.
02:21She starred alongside Silverstone as a high school girl who plays Hooky in the music video,
02:26which went on to become one of MTV's most requested videos of the year.
02:30The success of Aerosmith's music videos didn't just help the band.
02:33Liv Tyler became an overnight sensation, and went on to become famous for films like Armageddon
02:38and The Lord of the Rings.
02:40But the most lasting impact of the videos was that it directly led to Silverstone being
02:43cast in Clueless.
02:45Director Amy Heckerling told Rolling Stone,
02:47"'I was minding my own business on my treadmill watching MTV when I saw Cryin' and just went
02:52cuckoo bananas.
02:54She's funny and beautiful.
02:55Anyone who shows even a glimmer of that mix becomes a major star.'"
02:59"'You fell off the thing and you got your stomach pierced and...did any of that really
03:04happen?'
03:05"'No.'"
03:06"'No?
03:07Make-believe?'
03:08"'Yes.'"
03:09Clueless allowed Silverstone to distance herself from the Aerosmith phenomenon.
03:12The film became an instant classic.
03:14City Wire included Clueless on its list of the 100 Best 90s Movies, and some even still
03:19associate yellow plaid with Alicia Silverstone's character Cher in the film.
03:24Still, though Silverstone was eager at the time to put her Aerosmith days behind her,
03:28decades later she recalls those days with fondness.
03:31In 2020, she told CinemaBlend,
03:33"'I do remember when I was in the Aerosmith videos and people would call me the Aerosmith
03:37chick.
03:38And I was like 17 and I was very offended, because I was like, I'm a very serious actress,
03:43how could you?
03:44Now I find it hilarious."
03:46All of the Aerosmith videos that starred Silverstone have racked up hundreds of millions of views
03:50on YouTube.
03:51Even over 25 years on, fans still love Silverstone's Aerosmith trilogy, and it seems that Silverstone
03:57herself now has a healthy appreciation for them as well.
04:00We're not crying.
04:01You are!