A ‘90s heart-throb some millenials frothed over back in the day looked truly unrecognisable in New York earlier this week.
Stepping out on the red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival, Jeremy Sisto appeared worlds away from the clean-cut, Beverly Hills rich kid, Elton Tiscia, he portrayed in the iconic 1995 film Clueless.
Now 51 years old, the actor sports salt-and-pepper hair and a matching bushy goatee at the event to promote his new film Rain Reign – a family drama about neurodivergent 12-year-old girl whose routines are up-ended when a storm ravages her small town and her beloved dog Rain goes missing.
The film reunites Sisto with his Clueless co-star Paul Rudd, who was also made an appearance at the festival.
The castmates posed for a photo together on the red carpet, which comes 31 years after they first appeared on screen together on Clueless.
In the teen flick, Rudd played Josh Lucas, the college-aged former stepbrother of Alicia Silverstone’s character Cher Horowitz, who she develops feelings for.
While reflecting on the film last year with TV Insider, Sisto revealed that he originally auditioned for the role of Josh.
“Initially, they had asked me to read for Josh,” Sisto shared. “I think I wanted to make fun of these rich kids, which I probably resented from my own childhood.”
The actor was just 19 at the time when 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 realise that that was a really good thing for her,” he said.
“When I got the script, I wanted to play that character [Josh]. I thought it was the funniest.”
But landing the role of Elton and being part of Clueless – which became a surprise box office smash and made a whopping $US88 million against a production budget of just $US12 million – was enough for Sisto.
“I’m just sort of honoured to be a part of it,” he added. “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.”
Sisto went on to star on hits on the small screen, including Six Feet Under and Law & Order and currently stars in the crime drama FBI and its offshoot series CIA.
