Spoiler alert! Below, you’ll find spoilers for Senior Year. 

Alicia Silverstone spends less than two minutes on screen in Senior Year, but much like the character she plays, her legendary presence looms large. As Deanna Russo, longtime idol to protagonist and prom-queen wannabe Stephanie (Rebel Wilson), the former Clueless star delivers a healthy dose of reality about the dangers of settling for a crown and peaking in high school. 

Though her identity isn’t revealed until much later, Deanna Russo has an almost mythical aura throughout Senior Year. Early on, the audience catches a glimpse of her when 17-year-old Stephanie (Angourie Rice) drives past a lavish suburban house with best friend Seth (Zaire Adams). Stopping short, she stares at the woman in the driveway, living a seemingly perfect life. Deanna, the audience learns, was a Harding High School prom queen who married her quarterback boyfriend and now lives in a beautiful home. Stephanie worships her and views her trajectory as the key to happiness. 

Fast-forward a few scenes, and 37-year-old Stephanie wakes up from a 20-year coma following a cheerleading accident. With her entire life upended, she decides to pick up where she left off: Finish high school, win prom queen and live happily ever after. Of course, none of that goes quite as planned. In a moment of crisis, Stephanie suddenly finds herself in an Uber with a very familiar looking driver: Deanna Russo. 

When Stephanie tells her that she’s a legend — “You won prom queen and had a perfect life!” — Deanna laughs bitterly. “I was divorced when I was 30, when my husband left me for a 21-year-old barista with two more abs than I had,” she says. “I was left with no credit, no job prospects. My advice: Throw that crown away now.” It’s a sobering moment for Stephanie, who finally realizes that she has to let go of her past in order to embrace her future. Her dream of becoming Deanna Russo was just that, a fantasy she concocted based on what she thought she was supposed to want. 

Senior Year director Alex Hardcastle says he had Silverstone in mind to play Deanna from the start. “She was right at the top of my list,” he tells Tudum. “I thought that would have the most depth. It becomes really sweet and lovely rather than just funny and silly [stunt casting].”

Everett Collection

He and Silverstone were friendly and had even worked together on the 2018 series American Woman. But would the star be willing to take on such a small part? “Honestly, heart of hearts, I thought she’d say no,” he says. “I thought she’d be like, ‘Another high school movie? I think we’ve been down that road.’ ” 

Hardcastle saw the scene as a way for Silverstone to come full circle. After all, it’s been 27 years since the actor was first crowned as queen of high school movies for her performance as Cher Horowitz in Clueless. Coming from her, the speech takes on added meaning — after all, who knows what happened to Cher after ending up with Josh (Paul Rudd)? Does she go on to fulfill her potential? Or does she become an ornamental spouse who ends up regretting the decisions she made as a teen?

“I pitched it to her as a closure on her chapter of the high school [genre],” he says. “I love what she did in the movie. The message is, ‘Don't think the way you’re perceived at high school is going to in any way foreshadow what’s going to happen [in] the rest of your life because it almost certainly isn’t.”

Still, did he have a backup plan just in case she took a pass? “Drew Barrymore would have been really good, too, actually now that I think of it,” he says, adding, “Never Been Kissed was definitely on my radar when I made this.”