Alicia Silverstone loves bringing back her Clueless character Cher Horowitz for fans on social media, and now she’s doing it for the Super Bowl. Silverstone reprised her character in a new commercial for the app Rakuten that will air during the big game on Sunday. Elisa Donovan also appears as Amber Mariens.
The commercial opens with Cher, wearing her famous yellow plaid jacket and skirt, walking up to the debate podium to make the case for Rakuten, a shopping app and browser extension that gives consumers “cash back” through a cut of commissions the company receives from retailers. The one-minute spot then shows Cher shopping for clothes and makeup, with plenty of Clueless references sprinkled in. Cher also wears outfits reminiscent of her wardrobe in the film. Amber tries to rebut Cher, but she doesn’t get a chance. “I’m sure it would be re-brutal,” Cher said.
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Donovan told Yahoo! Entertainment it was “really fun” to be remembered for playing Amber. “I always think, like, ‘It’s better than being remembered for like some horror movie where I got slashed to pieces or something,” she said. Donovan later said it was “surreal” filming the ad and it was the first time she had seen Silverstone in several years.
“I walked on the set, and Bill Pope was the cinematographer and he was for the film as well, and I walked in the classroom, and he’s like, ‘Geez, you don’t ever seem to change your wardrobe after all these years,’” Donovan recalled. “It was so funny. It was such a joy to see him, too, and, I mean, it was bizarre. They recreated the set to a T! From what was written on the board to our stands that we were speaking in front of…And we just laughed. There were moments where I looked over at Alicia, and I just felt like, ‘What is happening? Where are we?’”
Clueless hit theaters in 1995 and was loosely inspired by Jane Austen’s novel Emma, with the story transferred to Beverly Hills. It was written and directed by Amy Heckerling and is widely considered one of the best films about teenagers. The cast also features Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison, and Breckin Meyer.
The Rakuten ad is not the first time Silverstone revived Cher. In a fun August 2021 Instagram video, she recreated Cher’s failed romantic advances towards Justin Walker’s Christian Stovitz, but with designer Christian Siriano instead. She also went viral on TikTok in June 2021 when she pulled out the plaid yellow jacket for a video with her son Bear.
Rakuten is just the latest Super Bowl advertiser hoping to cash in on nostalgia. Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul brought back their Breaking Bad characters for Frito-Lays’ PopCorners chips. In 2022, Chevrolet recruited Jamie Lynn Sigler for a recreation of The Sopranos opening. Super Bowl LVII will air on Feb. 12 on Fox, from State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
