Alicia Silverstone is recalling being body shamed when she starred as Batgirl in “Batman & Robin.”
In a recent interview with The Guardian, the 43-year-old actress admitted she didn’t have a great time filming the 1997 action flick opposite George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell due in part to the “hurtful” comments she received about her weight.
Even before starring in “Batman & Robin,” Silverstone faced shaming after her breakout role in “Clueless” in 1995 when she was just 18 years old.
“It was really just extreme how I was being talked to and talked about,” she told the publication. “I think I just got really turned off by it.”
Silverstone then went on to star as Batgirl in “Batman & Robin,” which she admitted “definitely wasn’t my favorite filmmaking experience.”
“They would make fun of my body when I was younger,” she recalled. “It was hurtful but I knew they were wrong. I wasn’t confused. I knew that it was not right to make fun of someone’s body shape, that doesn’t seem like the right thing to be doing to a human.”
“There were working circumstances that were less than favorable in terms of how things went down,” she continued. “And no, I didn’t say ‘f–k you’ and come out like a warrior but I would just walk away and go, ‘OK I know what that is and I’m done, I’m not going near that again.'”
In addition to the cruel remarks about her body — including being labeled as “Fatgirl” by paparazzi and asked by an interviewer about her bra size — the film was destroyed by critics and earned Silverstone the Worst Supporting Actress award at the 1998 Razzies.
As a result, Silverstone said she “stopped loving acting for a very long time” — and didn’t feel “reinvigorated” until she was cast in a David Mamet play.
“My body was just like, this is what I’m meant to do,” she explained. “I love it so much, I need to find a way to do both, to be able to be an actress and be an activist at the same time so that’s what I did.”
Now, after decades in the business, Silverstone said, “I think I do really love acting still. I mean … I know I do!”
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