Alicia Silverstone and Karl Glusman Open up About Their ‘Emotionally Intense’ Erotic Thriller ‘Pretty Thing’ (Exclusive)

Alicia Silverstone and Karl Glusman are bringing the heat and flipping the script in their new erotic thriller, Pretty Thing.

The Clueless actress, 48, and Nocturnal Animals actor, 37, opened up to PopCulture.com about the “emotionally intense” thriller ahead of the July 4 release of the Justin Kelly-directed film.

Sophie (Silverstone) may be at the top of her game as a successful executive, but she’s pushed to the brink when her younger lover Elliot (Glusman) takes his obsession too far.

Silverstone said she was immediately drawn to the “complex character” of Sophie and her “interesting and different” relationship with Elliot when she first read the script. “It was emotionally intense,” she told PopCulture, adding that while Pretty Thing “definitely nods to the ’90s erotic thrillers” like Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct, it also “turns [the genre] a little bit” on its head.

“Typically, the woman in those films … if she’s going to be unapologetically sexual the way mine is, she’s also going to try and kill you, potentially,” Silverstone explained. “So what was nice is this character is not. …He’s the one who turns manipulative and dangerous. I really liked that twist on it.”

For Glusman, playing Elliot offered him a chance to branch out as a performer, as he felt “almost like two characters in one” throughout the film.

“That’s the thing that I’m always looking for, is just something different than I’ve done before. Something that scares me a little bit — it’s outside the comfort zone,” the Love actor told PopCulture. “I think riding that edge is sort of the sweet spot to be pushing yourself, trying to stretch as a performer.”

Working with Kelly was another draw for Glusman and Silverstone, who had previously appeared in the director’s 2016 film King Cobra.

“Justin was so fun to work with back in the day, but it was short,” she shared, “and I would have loved more. After I left, I thought, ‘Oh, he was lovely.’”

Kelly was able to create “a very fun and comfortable environment,” throughout the film’s “very risqué, provocative moments,” Silverstone continued, also praising Glusman as “an amazing scene partner.”

“I hope people feel entertained by this romantic erotic thriller and the aesthetic beauty of it,” the Batman & Robin star added. “I think it’s so artful. … I just really love it. So I feel like that is really what people love — and watching these two characters unravel and work off of each other. I think it’s just really fun and hopefully very good.”

Pretty Thing opens in select theaters and on VOD everywhere on July 4.