Alicia Silverstone was already a veteran of television and television commercials when she made her feature-film debut at age 17 playing a younger teen who becomes murderously obsessed with a much older man in The Crush. The film did poorly at the box-office, but gained the young actress a devoted audience, most of it male. It is not difficult to see why Silverstone was so readily embraced as a teenaged sex symbol. Tall, with long-blonde hair and a young girl's firm, but not fully-ripened figure, she exuded a natural, healthy sexuality, a combination of girlish innocence and enthusiasm and seductive, sultry mannerisms, due in large part to her expressive green eyes. Though she has successfully capitalized on these qualities, Silverstone has been careful not to exploit them. She refuses to appear nude and is judicious when choosing her roles. Perhaps her best known role is that of Cher Horowitz, the well-meaning, but meddlesome Beverly Hills teen in Amy Heckerling's take on Jane Austen's Emma, Clueless (1995).

Born in San Francisco, Silverstone is the daughter of real estate investor Monty Silverstone. It was he who started her in the acting business at age six when several pictures of her in a swimsuit resulted in a series of modeling assignments and television commercials. She made her acting debut playing a fantasy girl for the youthful lead Fred Savage in the ABC television series The Wonder Years. Silverstone was still attending Beverly Hills High school when she landed the lead in The Crush. Rather than deal with child-labor laws governing underage actors, Silverstone had herself legally declared an emancipated minor. This allowed her to work more hours. Following the film's release, Silverstone appeared in three popular music videos for the group Aerosmith; one of those videos, for the song Crazy, has been voted an all-time favorite on the MTV television network. Though the sudden increase in work led her to drop out of high school, Silverstone did earn a general equivalency diploma.

In 1995, she starred in a surprise direct-to-video hit as a babysitter who unwittingly becomes the object of the dark sexual fantasies of the men around her in The Babysitter. Due to her no nudity stipulation, Silverstone almost declined the role, but took it when they agreed to use a body double in a couple of scenes. In 1997, Silverstone broke out of her teenage sexpot mode to play the eager young super heroine Batgirl in Batman & Robin. In signing with Paramount to do the film, Silverstone made sure the studio include a clause to ensure that her First Kiss Productions had a non-exclusive, first-look deal for three years.