Alicia Silverstone Says She Was Called ‘Fatgirl’ During Filming For ‘Batman & Robin’

Batman & Robin was a famously panned film when it was released, but the movie also did a fair bit of harm to one of its central performers. In a new interview with The Guardian, Alicia Silverstone said that her experience making the movie was so negative that it caused her to lose interest in acting.

She said that, when she was first cast in the role, certain tabloids took to calling her harsh names like “Fatgirl.”

“They would make fun of my body when I was younger. 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,” she said.

The Clueless star said that her issues with the film also extended to how she was treated on set.

“That definitely wasn’t my favorite film-making experience. There were working circumstances that were less than favorable in terms of how things went down,” Silverstone said.

Silverstone told The Guardian that she “stopped loving acting” for a long time after she made the movie. Ultimately, though, she suggested that the experience taught her only to seek out roles that she was passionate about. She said that doing that ultimately reignited her passion for performing.

She also said that she learned how not to react in delicate situations while filming that movie. She said that, instead of allowing battles to escalate, she would often find herself walking away and reminding herself not to touch that subject in the future.

Silverstone also said that her experience in the aftermath of Clueless, which was released when she was just 18, also began to sour her opinion of Hollywood. She said that she was “extremely isolated” in her younger years and that the amount of attention she received after Clueless ultimately turned her off of Hollywood.

Somewhat ironically, Silverstone also said that she never really struggled to have her voice heard inside the male-dominated world of Hollywood. She said that perhaps because she had such tremendous success at a young age, she often wasn’t reined in as much as she should have been.

For Silverstone, the greater challenge was finding her voice in her personal life, although she acknowledged that just because she was listened to doesn’t mean her ideas were always used. She also said that she had made a fair few mistakes in her younger years, but wasn’t willing to share the details of what those were.