Alicia Silverstone took a break from acting after her ‘90s run because it “didn’t feel as fun.”
During an interview with Fox News Digital at the Televerse 2025 Festival, the “Irish Blood” actress spoke about her decision to take a break from fame.
“I think there was a time where it didn’t feel as fun, and then I was so engaged in activism and writing my books, ‘The Kind Diet,’ ‘The Kind Mama.’ Then, having a baby and being a present mommy.”
“I’ve been working all along, but then I at some point realized, ‘Wait, I really love acting’ and I was starting to do a lot of theater. I’d been doing tons of stuff. Many Broadway shows and many theater productions, and I think I found my joy in it and thought, ‘Let’s do this, let’s do it.’ You can do it all, but you have to do it carefully. It is very difficult,” Silverstone said.
Silverstone welcomed her son, Bear Blu Jarecki, in 2011 with her now ex-husband, Christopher Jarecki.
The “Clueless” star told Fox News Digital that she has two other books in her mind that she’d like to write, but work has been so busy, it’s “too difficult” to do right now.
WATCH: Alicia Silverstone reveals fame ‘didn’t feel as fun’ anymore during her Hollywood career break
In 2023, Silverstone spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the height of her fame, saying, “It was very complicated and I don’t think I knew how to manage it: I didn’t have the foundation, the good tools to deal with it. I wasn’t prepared for it in any way, shape, or form. I really had no idea what was happening, and it didn’t feel comfortable.”
In the ‘90s, Alicia was considered the “it girl” after starring in “Clueless” and appearing in Aerosmith’s music video. Following her success, Silverstone appeared in movies like “Batman & Robin.”
However, the actress and producer said working on the project wasn’t everything she thought it would be, especially after she began being judged by her appearance.
“It was really just extreme how I was being talked to and talked about,” Silverstone told The Guardian in 2020. “I think I just got really turned off by it.”
Silverstone explained to The Hollywood Reporter that she “wasn’t happy and what I did was really extract myself a bit from my acting career and went more into my activism,” she told the outlet.
“I went to Africa to help the elephants, I went to Peru to try to help the rainforest. I found my passion for writing books on healing and health. The Kind Diet books came a bit later but that was the start of the journey there.”
Over the next decade, Silverstone did not officially quit acting, only appearing in roles similar to her persona in “Clueless” – a series titled “Miss Match” and the movie “Beauty Shop.”
Silverstone told Entertainment Weekly that after taking on an average of four movies a year in the ’90s, she decided to slow it down and do about a film a year in the early 2000s.
“Before ‘Clueless,’ I was much more intuitive and playful and had more confidence about what I was doing. And I think after ‘Clueless,’ for a minute I got a little stressed and made it more intellectual or something. I had about three or four years of this strange feeling. Acting is important to me, but I have taken breaks from it at times, and then come back to it because I loved it so much. I’ve figured out that you can do all the things,” she told the outlet this month.
Silverstone told The Hollywood Reporter that she was finally “doing life right.”
“It’s isn’t easy, being an activist, a mother and an actress all at the same time. But I’m doing my best. I continue to do speaking engagements about health and our earth, all of that is really meaningful to me. The most important thing to me is being fully present with my son. As for acting, I’ll keep finding a way to dabble, to stay in there,” she said.
Now, Silverstone is back in the swing of acting, with her latest series, “Irish Blood,” recently premiering. Silverstone stars as a divorce lawyer based in Los Angeles who travels to Ireland to uncover a web of family secrets.
“I think that it’s really a fun mystery, the crime elements are fun, it’s a quirky show, and it’s an emotionally rich drama. I think that audiences will really have a great time with it. Quick storytelling and it grabs you, and it is fun,” Silverstone told Fox News Digital.
It was also announced in April that Silverstone will also be reprising her role as Cher Horowitz for the Peacock series “Clueless,” which will be a continuation of the hit 1995 movie.
