Oh my god. I’m totally buggin’ right now. Clueless is of course perfect how it is. The 1995 cult classic is way up there among high school films, and Alicia Silverstone’s Cher will live on for generations to come as a definitive ‘90s icon. Still, apparently, the two stars of Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere, Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, could have been the stars of Clueless, too.
While promoting the miniseries based on Celeste Ng’s bestselling novel, the Little Fires Everywhere stars and producers found out they crossed paths back in the day. In their words:
Witherspoon: One thing that is public and it came out last year, I auditioned so hard for Clueless, and I didn’t get it.Washington: I did, too!
I totally paused. Can’t you instantly imagine Reese Witherspoon as Cher Horowitz and Kerry Washington as her BFF Dionne? The casting is perfect. I wouldn’t change a single thing about Clueless but, if we could see some kind of alternate universe version of the 1995 film with the pair playing valley girls with Brittany Murphy and Paul Rudd, that’d be incredible.
Back in the early ‘90s, both actresses were just starting their careers as actresses and hadn’t quite “made it” in the industry. Reese Witherspoon’s first role was in 1991’s The Man in the Moon when she was 14 and in Disney’s A Far Off Place. As for Kerry Washington, she’d been in an episode of ABC Afterschool Specials.
While talking about their first times for Buzzfeed, the actresses revealed that they first met many years ago at a script reading at Leonardo DiCaprio’s house for a movie neither they or Leo ended up starring in. Sometime in between, they might have passed each other in the halls auditioning for Clueless, too? How crazy.
Once Reese and Kerry realized they could have been in Clueless way back when, they got excited about the possibility of recreating a scene from the classic together. Can this actually happen, now? The movie is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It came out in July of 1995.
Last year, it was actually revealed that Reese Witherspoon was up for Cher but Alicia Silverstone wasn’t her only competition. Apparently, Angelina Jolie, Keri Russell and Gwyneth Paltrow were up for the role at one time as well. That casting director certainly knew how to pick out talent considering each of them are A-list actresses today.
Reports of a Clueless remake made the rounds back in 2018, with GLOW writer Marquita Robinson penning the script, but no other updates have been given for it since. Anya Taylor-Joy recently starred in Emma, which is basically Clueless in its first form since the ‘90s classic is a modern take on the Jane Austen novel.
Check out Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington in Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu now.
