Alicia Silverstone is in bed.
“Sorry I’m laying down. I don’t feel great,” she says, curled up against a floral pillowcase and with her dog Pinto Bean just outside the frame of the Zoom screen. “I’m just a bit poopy.”
Still, she had rallied — with an impressive mix of professionalism and refreshing “take me as you find me” self-confidence, presumably born out of being famous since you were a teenager — to talk about her latest project, “Irish Blood.”
Released on Crave earlier this month, it’s a whodunit that stars Silverstone as a cynical divorce lawyer from Los Angeles who grew up thinking her father was a violent man who had abandoned her and her mother without a second thought.
A mysterious letter, followed by an equally cryptic phone call, suggests otherwise, and curiosity lands our heroine on a flight to Ireland, her estranged father’s homeland.
Like many of us, the Irish setting of this show (which was a co-production between Canadian production company Shaftesbury and Ireland’s Deadpan Pictures) was an instant draw for Silverstone.
“I remember going to Ireland with my son’s dad (musician Christopher Jarecki) when we first were in love, way back in the day,” said Silverstone. “We did a long road trip and I remember saying to him, ‘Let’s move here.’ It’s such a beautiful country and the people are so special.”
As a 49-year-old with adult responsibilities, however, the reality of a months-long shoot in Ireland was much less romantic. In fact, she initially resisted doing the series because filming overseas would require too much time away from her 14-year-old son, Bear.
“There are times that I have to say no to things that I love because there won’t be room for me to have him. It’s just not doable,” said Silverstone of the reality of trying to parent while working in a notoriously peripatetic industry. “I make those decisions around him and our life, because he’s my most precious treasure ever and I don’t want to miss a moment of it.”
In the end, she said yes to the show because the production promised her that every three weeks, she’d have a week off with her son.
“That’s unheard of. They were so willing to work with me to make my schedule work so that I could be with my boy,” Silverstone said, adding that they spent those off-weeks together on trips in Europe, including a special pilgrimage to see social media star the Moustache Farmer and his animal sanctuary in Germany. “We had a wonderful time.”
On set, she also had a ball shooting “Irish Blood,” thanks in large part to the people behind the scenes.
“Our crew was so different than any crew I’ve ever been with. They’re just so much fun. They’re so clever and so funny and charming. Their sense of humour is so incredible,” said Silverstone. “We were very silly together and that was fun. There was just so much joy and laughing.”
Also memorable are her scenes with Dearbhla Molloy, who plays her character’s shrewd, no-nonsense Irish grandmother.
“I loved acting with her and she’s so funny,” said Silverstone. “It was really sacred to me that she was such a good actress and we had these quiet moments in the show amongst everything.”
Besides starring in the show, Silverstone was also a producer. Working with a group of people that were all “so sparkly and special” made carrying that double load a bit easier for her.
“It’s really a hard job, producing and acting at the same time, and we were working so hard on these scripts. Well into production, I was working on trying to make the scripts better,” she said, calling the crew a “bright light” amongst it all.
What might Silverstone, who’s been doing this since “Clueless” made her a household name at 18, be looking for to make a script really sing?
“Sometimes you don’t have to do anything,” she said, pointing to “Bugonia,” the sci-fi film she co-starred in alongside Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons earlier this year, as one example. “The script I read that Yorgos (Lanthimos) was directing and Will Tracy wrote was so good, and you don’t even have to think about it. The only terrifying thing is trying to be as good as it is.”
The script for the erotic thriller “Pretty Thing,” also released this year, was another one that required little input from her.
“When it arrived to me, it was in really good condition. There were a few tweaks to discuss, but mostly you just can’t stop turning the pages. You’re invested and interested in the characters; it all feels fresh and new and smart. That’s what I suppose I’m looking for,” she said.
Sometimes, she continued, you might read things that require you to work a little bit harder. “Sometimes there’s a thread that’s really good, but then it’s surrounded by a bunch of muck and you have to pull the thread out,” she said.
Silverstone added that she’s “only producing in order to act,” and that she has other ventures — like her writing, which has included two lifestyle books, and her podcast — that are a higher priority for her.
“Those projects are more important to me than thinking about what story I can tell in a film, to be honest,” she said. “But when I do produce, I’m producing because I want to act in it, so I have to elevate the project as much as possible so it can be as good as possible. I’m not thinking about it in any other way than how do I make this material as good as it can possibly be.”
As a producer, then, her focus often turns to the people involved. “How do I surround myself with actors that inspire me and excite me? Who’s best for this role? How do I get the best directors involved, who can lead and I love their work?” she said.
“My favourite thing is being able to be led by somebody that I admire, and it’s very rare that this happens. It’s very common that you’re working with someone who is newer, or you haven’t seen their work or they haven’t done a lot.”
It’s a risk every time, Silverstone added, and “sometimes those risks work out, sometimes they don’t. But when you get to free fall, like with Yorgos Lanthimos, you’re just there doing your best work and you know everywhere you turn you’re in the presence of brilliance.”
And to bring it back full circle to “Irish Blood,” she felt in similarly safe hands with Canadian executive producer and director Molly McGlynn.
“I could trust in our partnership. We had a really good working relationship. It’s very important, because when you don’t it’s really a pain in the butt,” Silverstone said.
