Clueless director Amy Heckerling has called out ‘nonsense’ complaints from fans who have suggested that the legendary 90s film is actually ‘problematic’.
The hit teen romantic comedy was released on July 19, 1995, and introduced us to ditzy and lovable spoiled teenager Cher Horowitz – played to perfection by Alicia Silverstone – and her equally-wealthy friendship group, with Paul Rudd, Stacey Dash, Donald Faison, Breckin Meyer, Brittany Murphy and Elisa Donovan also making up the cast.
The ridiculously quotable flick, a loose adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, followed the yellow plaid-wearing Queen Bee of Beverly Hills as she set two teachers up in the hopes that her grades would improve, before directing her matchmaking attention to school newbie Tai (Brittany).
While she had her own sights set on Christian Stovitz (Justin Walker), things took a turn when she realized that she was truly in love with her stepbrother Josh (Paul), whose mother was briefly married to her father, Mel (Dan Hedaya).
Despite the movie being a total classic for millennials all over the world, many new watchers have called out the plot twist on social media in recent years, with countless posts and think pieces slamming the love story as ‘incestual’ and ‘problematic’.
Unpacking the 30-year anniversary of Clueless in an interview with Metro – ahead of a planned TV reboot – Amy was having absolutely none of it, and swiftly blasted the criticism.
‘Well, that’s nonsense. First of all, in Hollywood, people have many marriages, and they wind up with their children [having] to act like, “We’re all a family” with some other children that, in a couple of years, they’re not going to have to [see] at all,’ she told us.
‘She says, “My father was married to his mother for five minutes and now I have to see him all the time”.
‘Cher’s father is actually very gruff but he’s basically a really good guy. He says, “You divorce wives, not children”. Which means if you get a child to respond to you emotionally, you don’t just dump them because you’re getting divorced.
‘Cher, who wants to be the center of his world and not have to share him with anybody, actually hates Josh at first. In Jane Austen, it’s her sister who’s married to his brother. So, they are, in a way, in-laws and stuck being in the same family, but they have no love for each other.
‘And, by the way, my grandparents were stepbrother and stepsister.’
Although three decades have passed since Clueless was released, the debate over the storyline hasn’t eased. In fact, a quick search on Reddit shows that the ‘incest’ discussion is still going strong.
Commenters are seemingly still enraged over the nature of Cher’s relationship with Josh, leaving many questioning why his position as her ‘ex-stepbrother’ was written into the script.
‘I just finished the movie and all I can say is WHAT THE HELL. The movie was doing great…. Up until Cher revealed that she had a crush ON HER BROTHER,’ one complained. ‘And the last 5 minutes of the movie are just her and said brother making out. I mean, girl, I get it, Paul Rudd is a hottie but THATS YOUR BRO, BRO.’
In a separate post, user Menthol_breath said they were ‘weirded out about the relationship’, fuming: ‘The movie ends with (spoilers) Cher realizing she’s in love with Josh. I get they aren’t blood relatives, but isn’t their situation incestuous, or at the very least weird?’
Pendragoncomic agreed: ‘OMG, how did I not know about the creepy incestuous undertones?! I know this movie is an iconic depiction of 90’s culture, and it supercharged the careers of its stars.
‘But I can’t get over the fact that the movie is basically about it being okay to fall in love with your brother. Are we supposed to be okay with this?’
As Antipinballmachines added: ‘It has stepsiblings becoming a couple, and I’ve barely seen anyone bring it up. Just because they aren’t blood related doesn’t mean it’s okay – I myself have stepsiblings (who have kids some of whom are only a matter of years younger than me) and found it disturbing.
‘Couldn’t they have just been childhood friends or something?’
Amy explained that she clarified their relationship at certain points in the script, insisting: ‘I have her say, “Oh, my father was married to his mother for five minutes, and now I can’t get him out of the house”.
‘But she never calls him her stepbrother … He’s just Josh who she can’t take, his mother and her father were married for a minute. So that’s that.’
That’s that indeed…
Much of the film leads up to those critical few minutes where, after a failed driving test, a slightly more successful shopping trip and an argument with Tai – where she was quite rudely informed that she’s ‘a virgin who can’t drive’ – Cher realized her true feelings.
‘Oh, my God, l love Josh,’ she announced in a voiceover during a heartfelt montage. ‘l am majorly, totally, butt crazy in love with Josh!’
Instead of coming clean, she threw herself into fundraising for the ‘Pismo Beach disaster relief’, donating canned good, tennis rackets and skis – because, as she wisely declared, ‘some people lost all their belongings, don’t you think that includes athletic equipment?’
In the final scenes, she revealed how she felt and they passionately kissed at the top of the staircase, blessing us with one of the sweetest scenes in the movie.
While we were all totally bugging over the pair finally getting together, Amy admitted that the footage gave her the most stress because she was ‘so worried’ about ensuring it flowed properly.
‘It wasn’t that it was difficult to get right, but I was just very worried that it had to become right,’ the filmmaker said. ‘You don’t want to be hokey, but you don’t want to make it dismissive. You want to give it what it’s worth without milking it.
‘I was rewriting it a million times.
‘I was seeing an actor at the time, and I showed it to him, and he looked at it and said, “Right over here is where I’d kiss. This other stuff, no. Once you get to there, that’s where it has to be”. And he was absolutely right, because he’s an actor and he felt that.
‘It was just purely based on the emotion. So, I changed it, and we did it that way. Paul and Alicia were just so wonderful, and sweet and earnest but silly.
‘I was always rereading chapters of Emma and going, “Well, what would Jane Austen do here?” That’s better than any production executive [to] listen to.’
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.