Elisa Donovan Answers My 'Clueless' Questions
Get the scoop on Amber's outrageous outfits, Brittany Murphy's 'hummingbird' energy and a stressful audition in Scott Rudin's office.
Hi friends,
As many of you know, Clueless is a perfect movie. Cher Horowitz and her fabulous pals rolled into theaters like a hot-pink Porsche in 1995 and reinvented the teen comedy. They spoke in a vernacular all their own, casually tossing off clever catchphrases the way that Steph Curry nails three-pointers. (My favorite: “That was way harsh, Tai.”) I had never heard anyone speak like that before, on-screen or in real life. The dialogue sprung from the brilliant mind of writer-director Amy Heckerling, and I soon found myself weaving her one-liners into everyday conversation. I got into the habit of forming my hands into a “W” and repeating the diss made famous by Cher’s classmate and rival Amber Mariens:
Then my stepdad started to say “What-ever!” And it became a permanent thing in our household.
Flash-forward to 2020: I met the talented actor who played Amber, Elisa Donovan, and managed to avoid asking her to say the line. Elisa is a total Betty, and hilarious and down-to-earth. She is obsessed with Prince and the whodunit Clue. We share a birthday and both lived in the East Village at one point in our lives. Somehow, I’ve never asked Elisa about Clueless and her unique experience making cinematic history. And I call myself a connoisseur of the arts. (As if!)
In honor of the classic’s 30th anniversary, I finally sat down with Elisa to discuss the masterpiece that changed her life, and mine too.
When you were filming Clueless, did you have any sense that the movie was gonna be a big hit?
No. I mean, I get asked that question often, and you can say in retrospect, “Oh, I knew it was going to be special,” but I sure didn't. All I knew was that I could tell that everybody [was] great at their job.
The right people were put in place for this, but that was the first movie I had ever done, so I just thought, “Wow, this is always how it works.” The writing is excellent. The direction is perfect. The casting is perfect, wardrobe, set, everything. Everybody really came together and made this full picture and there were no slow starters, nothing rudimentary going on there. It was all professional-level.
I did not realize how phenomenally unique it was to have a woman directing it, running everything. I didn't realize that was so unusual. It wasn't until later when I thought, “Oh, there aren't many women who do this.”
Amy Heckerling is such a creative force. What was it like to see her in action?
She reminded me of myself in high school, just from the way she was dressed and her hair. I was a punk rock kid, so I immediately felt like, “Oh, I love this person who's wearing knee-length combat boots and black clothes.” And she was incredibly kind and just so good and so specific in her direction. She was like our mom, kind of, and also a kid herself.
You auditioned for Marcia Ross, a big-deal casting director. Tell me about your audition!
I read for her, and then I went back again and read for her and someone else, one of the producers maybe. And then I went back again and read in Scott Rudin’s office, which was the scariest thing I have maybe ever done in my life to date. And it was my first time driving onto the Paramount lot, which is so pristine. It's very Old Hollywood, and it's just such a beautiful, special lot. And I just remember [feeling like], I am hallucinating. I am jumping out of my skin. I was so nervous and trying to find his office. And then I went into his office, and it was Scott, Amy, Twink [Caplan, who portrayed Miss Geist] and [producer] Adam Schroeder, and I was just beside myself. I remember the room being really small and dark, which is probably not true. And I just remember Amy and Twink smiling so much and being so kind to me and really wanting to make [me] feel at ease and comfortable.
Then I left, and they called and said, “You didn't get the job.” And I was devastated because I felt like, “Yes, I did. This is supposed to be my role.” And then they called back again and said, “No, she does [have] the role. We're offering her the part.”
I was like, “OK, do I really have it?” It was a long process and intimidating. I was nervous the whole time.
I can’t imagine anyone else playing Amber. And it’s hard to do comedy. But you have that Lucille Ball quality of deploying facial expressions, body language and comic timing to make people laugh. And you make it look effortless. You mentioned that you and Amy are sort of alike — I love that. What kinds of conversations did she have with you about your Clueless character?
We would talk about how [Amber] is that friend who is always around, but you don't really know why you're friends with them. But you are friends with them. And she wants to be Cher.
[Amy] would try to get the humanness in there so that it wasn't just a caricature. When I read it, I immediately said, “Oh, I know who this person is. This is blank-and-blank from my high school.” I knew they were really insecure, but they thought their worldview was so enormous and, really, they were just mean. And so, I was like, “OK, I'm going to put together that person with a high-fashion icon.”
Everything from the wardrobe helped so much. Working with [costume designer] Mona [May] was amazing because [fashion] just informs the character. Anything Amber does, she does 150 percent. Maybe there's a conversation about a war going on in the world. “OK, well, I'm going to get a military outfit; from head to toe, we're going to do full military.”
It's like she went to Paris Fashion Week and then just plucked things off the runway and put it on for English class: way couture, over-the-top. And she was theatrical in that way. I loved having a little prop that was a part of the outfit.
Do you have a favorite Amber scene?
I loved anytime that she got to dance. I always created this wacko sort of dance that she would do. Those were the minor little moments. That's what made it so fun. No matter how small the part was in the particular scene, I always tried to have Amber make a statement and be memorable.
How many times do people come up to you in the wild and say, “What-ever”?
All the time. That’s the other part of this role: I had a boyfriend in high school who was kind of like an asshole, and he was a couple years older than me. I would talk about something, and he would just be like, “Whatever, we're not doing that. Whatever.” And it was his way of brushing me off. And so, when I read the script, I was like, “Oh, I'm going to take back this word and I'm going to imbue it with everything I have, with every part of me.” I think that's why that always had a bite to it, because that was very real for me.
Clueless is constantly referenced online. In fashion. Everywhere. Why does it continue to resonate?
You can just take it and plop it into any generation and any time in history. And while the words might be different and certain things might look different, the dynamics are the same. Amy really tapped into something universal, and there is a big heart in it. And I really think that is one of the key components: that this is not a mean movie. This is not a judgmental or a biting film. It's not making any massive statements. But then within that, you have two female characters, a Black character and a white character, who are the leads in this movie. I mean, just that alone is groundbreaking.
The late Brittany Murphy gave such a charming performance as Tai, the new girl in school. What do you remember about being on set with her?
I always call her a hummingbird. She was spinning all the time. She had so much energy, and she was so sweet and so talented, fiercely, fiercely talented, and she always made you feel like she was so happy to see you and so happy to be wherever she was.
I feel like that comes through in Tai — almost like a naivete.
Oh, definitely. I mean, she was so young. She was the youngest of all of us. I think she was 16 or 15 because her mom was there [and] had to be there. So, she must've been a minor.
You and Alicia Silverstone recently reprised your roles for a Super Bowl commercial, and also reconnected at 90s Con, a convention celebrating 1990s pop culture.
I didn't expect [90s Con] to be that rewarding and that fun. You're making people truly happy, so that was awesome. Alicia and I had dinner one night and we had never talked about any of it. We had never talked about making the film.
We were kids. I'm a few years older than she is, but we were both still young. And we just talked about the challenges: How it was really hard. … She’s like, “Yeah, [the boys are] hanging out, playing basketball, shooting hoops in between shots.” And meanwhile, she's working a million hours a day. All these forced calls. We're all sweating it, worried about what we look like and how this is going to go. It was a lot of stress, but so fun. It was really nice for us to be able to share a lot of stories of what we both were experiencing at the time, and how now we both have kids, and we have different lives.
Your daughter just turned 13 and only recently watched Clueless for the first time.
I still thought that she was too young to see it, but everyone in her class, or many of her friends at school, had seen it. She felt weird that she wasn't allowed to see it.
I finally let her watch it. She watched it with my husband in the fall.
I didn't want to sit and watch it. I just didn't want to. And so afterwards I said, “What did you think?” And she said, “I loved it. It was really funny.” And she said, “But what I didn't understand was why everybody didn't know that Christian [Justin Walker] was gay from the beginning. That was so obvious.” I was like, “Oh my God, we're living in a different time.” She's like, “The second he was on the screen, I went, ‘Oh, he's gay. Oh, [Cher] likes him though.’” She was just confused by that.
What would Amber be doing now, in 2025?
I think she would be running her own company, her own fashion line. I'm of two minds: Either she married an extraordinarily wealthy man and is driving him crazy. Or she decided she doesn't need any man for anything. And she just started her own empire. And maybe Cher works for her.
Clueless is available to stream on Prime Video and Apple TV. You can follow Elisa on Instagram here and buy her wonderful memoir, Wake Me When You Leave, here.
END CREDITS
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- talked to Katherine Center about why overnight success is overrated. I LOVE THAT.
- critiqued Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.
A24 released a new Materialists photoshoot. GIRD YOUR LOINS.
Seth Rogen filmed in San Francisco yesterday! “I’m a regular commuter,” he told Emily Dreyfuss while writing BART.
I wore a butter yellow linen blazer and shorts from J.Crew to a thing this week and a friend said, “What is this Julia Roberts situation?” Which means I have to post it now:
Yours in “Oh, no. You don’t understand. This is an Alaïa,”
Erin
Fabulous interview and I love that she mentioned Mona May and reclaimed “whatever” and made it her thing! This is my favorite movie so appreciate all the backstories. Also LOVE the shorts suit on you. Cher would approve!
Omg love this Erin! More clueless content please !!!