Jeremy Sisto Recalls ‘Clueless’ Audition: ‘Initially, They Asked Me To Read For…’ (VIDEO)

[This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike authorization.]

“As if!” It may be hard to believe it (especially if you just look at Paul Rudd), but it’s been 28 years since Clueless was released.

The 1995 film (loosely based on Jane Austen’s Emma) followed Cher (Alicia Silverstone), a shallow, rich, and socially successful high school student in Beverly Hills as she tried matchmaking those around her, to various results. Among them: new student Tai (Brittany Murphy) and the popular Elton (Jeremy Sisto). The only problem? He’s more interested in Cher… who’s busy falling for her ex-stepbrother Josh (Rudd).

When Sisto stopped by TV Insider to talk about FBI — for which he’s been nominated for a HCA TV Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Broadcast Network or Cable Drama Series — this past spring, we had to ask him to look back on his audition for Clueless. “Initially, they had asked me to read for Josh,” he revealed. “I think I wanted to make fun of these rich kids, which I probably resented from my own childhood.”

At the time, Sisto was 19 and had just finished filming the 1995 film Hideaway with Silverstone. He met with the film’s writer and director, Amy Heckerling. “She said I reminded her of John Travolta, maybe because of my hair, but I hadn’t seen their movie together, which was Look Who’s Talking, so I didn’t really understand the context or realize that that was a really good thing for her,” he shared. “When I got the script, I wanted to play that character. I thought it was the funniest.”

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At the time, he and his costars Breckin Meyer and Donald Faison had no idea how big the film would become. “It’s not like a musician that you go on stage and there’s hundreds of thousands of people. So what did start to happen was people would recognize me from it,” Sisto explained of its success. “That became kind of strange. The character was weird, and I didn’t want people to think I was like that.”

To this day, he continued, “I’m just sort of honored to be a part of it. I don’t even understand why it is as special as it is because when I watch it, I was there and I can’t sort of get my head around the magic of it, but whatever that magic sauce is that makes it able for anyone going through that time in their lives to connect to and just enjoy [it] so much is really specific and very difficult to pull off.”

Watch the full video above for more from Sisto about his audition for Clueless.