Interview: 'There is So Much of Her Inside Me!': Actor Emma Flynn on The Life-Changing Role of Cher in CLUELESS THE MUSICAL

Thirty years after it first appeared on the silver screen, Clueless, the hit romcom based on Jane Austen’s Emma has arrived on the West End, now taking the world of Beverly Hills and putting it in a musical. Clueless the Musical is written by Amy Hecklering, who also wrote the original film - she is joined by KT Tunstall who provides the music and Glenn Slater who has written the lyrics. The show stars Emma Flynn as Cher Horowitz, a popular student who loves to help everyone live their perfect life, but things start going wrong when new girl Tai [Romona Lewis-Malley] comes in.

Recently, we had the chance to chat with Emma about taking on the iconic role of Cher. We discussed her journey with Clueless the Musical, what she thinks has made the original film so popular and how her own name is connected to the role.

How did you first get started in the world of theatre?

Oh, my goodness! Well, I went to college for theatre - I went to the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut. And then when I graduated, I moved to New York  and the whole world shut down because of Covid. But I luckily had a lot of relationships to summer stock theatres from being in school and auditioning in the summertime. I got started through high school theatre, but summer stock theatre was like the real segue into the career that I grew into.

And how did you become a part of Clueless the Musical?

Well, it's actually a crazy story! So they were looking for a Cher in New York, and I went to an audition for something else, completely unrelated, but that casting director happened to be casting Clueless at the same time, so she flagged my resume. She contacted my agent, she brought me in for Clueless and a couple weeks later, I found out I got the job and I was moving to London! It was the most surreal experience ever, especially because at that point in my life, I was between jobs and nannying - I was down on my luck. And so getting that phone call was completely life-changing. 

What was it like moving to London for this new role?

Oh my gosh, it was so exciting! I actually knew nothing about UK culture at all - I knew embarrassingly little about it. So when I came here, there was so many things I was surprised by, like the food and the culture. I really thought the UK was going to be like America, but with fancy accents! [Laughs] I had no idea how truly different the culture was here, so it was such a pleasant surprise.

It's been so amazing to be here. I've been mostly at the theatre - I haven't really had a chance to see England yet in its entirety. But I love the people here. I love London. In general, it's a pretty fast-paced city, but compared to New York, it just feels nice and quiet and slow and clean. The audiences are wonderful and the theatre community here is really great. So it's been amazing!

And had you been a fan of Clueless before joining the show? 

Absolutely! Growing up, I watched the movie thousands of times. My mom loved the movie. I give a lot of credit to my mom for raising me on the film and on the story of Emma, because she named me after Jane Austen's Emma! So I was very well acquainted with the world. And when I first got the sides, I was like, “Oh my God, I literally know every line,” because it was so ingrained in me. So I was a huge fan, and obviously a huge fan of Alicia Silverstone.

What was it like developing this role of Cher Horowitz and bringing it to life?

It's been so much fun to see how much it's grown since its out of town tryout in Bromley to the West End. It's been incredible. I feel so lucky to have a role like this to dig my teeth into. Even though it's a really light-hearted, joyful, easy-to-watch show, it's such a difficult role. It's very similar to an Elle Woods track in terms of the stage time - I just never leave the stage!

It's been incredible to have so much material to work on and to develop the character. I would say the biggest thing that I gained was through bringing myself to the character. There is so much of her already inside of me! And so this is one of those situations where I'm playing someone who's very close to who I am, as opposed to playing someone very different from who I am. So it's been a joy to bring elements of myself to to the character and also try to emulate the iconic movie. I try to honour Alicia Silverstone's performance as much as I can, but also bring my own heart to it. 

How do you make this version of Cher your own while also ensuring people recognise the character? 

Well, I had to figure out what it was that I loved about Alicia Silverstone and then figure out what parts of that were applicable to the stage. So something I loved about Alicia's performance was her speech - the way that she spoke and her use of her mouth. It's very Drew Barrymore, it's very California, the accent and her speaking patterns. I was able to take a lot of that into the stage adaptation, but then we have all these added elements of the music and the lyrics and the dancing. So it's figuring out, “Okay, how does Cher sing? What kind of sound does Cher have? What does the creative team think about the sound that Cher should have? How does she dance?” Having all those new languages to add on to the movie.

Because in the movie we have the amazing monologues, and we have some of them in the stage adaptation. It's really fun to bring a lot of Alicia Silverstone into those moments, but then also taking her into the songs. I think that the things that I love about Alicia are just how adorable she was and warm - it was finding out those qualities and then balancing them with my own personality, but also with the new elements to the story, which are the lyrics, the music, the dance . . . All those things!

And you were also working with the original writer of the film, Amy Heckerling, who’s written the musical as well. What was that like?

Oh my gosh, so amazing! Amy knows that I love her, but she's been such a huge source of encouragement and a source to go to and ask questions. She is the heart of the show to me! The world that she created didn't really exist. It's this fantasy, idealistic, 90s fun world that didn't actually exist but we love the nostalgia of. So having her there writing new lines and being there to ask, “Oh, could we say it like this?” She's been so flexible and amazing about collaborating. It's amazing how her brain works and how quickly she can write things. I'm just like, “Oh my gosh, how does she come up with this stuff? It’s so funny!” She just has a great sense of humour. And that's really what you need to work on a project for this long.

It's been in development for years and years and years, and to keep having the wherewithal to keep growing it and changing it, it's pretty amazing. And Amy is an amazing woman in general. So it's been amazing to work with her.

What has it been like seeing audience reactions to the show?

So great! I love when I look out in the audience and I see people dressed up like the characters - it means so much to me. And meeting our audience members and hearing how much fun they're having, because at the end of the day, this show is entertainment. It's just fun, it's light, it's easy to digest - it's really for everyone. So I'm just loving that people are understanding what it is and they're enjoying it. It's really exciting. 

Do you have any favourite scenes to either perform or watch?

I love “Reasonable Doubts,” because I love to watch Keelan [McAuley, who plays Josh] do a flip off the table - spoiler alert! I also love the beginning when I get to talk to the audience for the first time, and my first little reveal change is really fun. I love doing the striptease with Christian [Isaac J Lewis] - I can't ultimately say what she discovers, but I do love doing that scene! It always gets so many laughs, and it's fun to do because I love the man who plays Christian - Isaac is just hilarious. We're both so sweaty at that point in the show - both of our faces are melted - but it's so much fun to perform.

What do you think it is about Clueless that has kept it as part of the cultural zeitgeist for thirty years now?

First of all, we love nostalgia. We love the 90s - things are always coming back around. But at the end of the day, what has carried Clueless and all of those kinds of movies, and especially because its source material is Jane Austen, is the fact that it's a romantic comedy. There is an element to it that transcends time. We can all relate to the journey that Cher goes on. You could apply it to any era and it would still work, which is why it's so amazing that Amy chose Emma to base this story on and to play with because it really keeps it classic. It keeps it in that world of you can watch it anytime - it's comforting and nostalgic that way.

And then, of course, there's the nostalgia elements. We love to watch a time where people weren't just DM-ing selfies back and forth, to watch people communicate with each other and go to the Val party and not have any receipts from it - to truly go and experience each other, which is something that we don't really do anymore. We don't have the freedom because we're all so attached to our phones. So there is the nostalgia of that. And we appreciate the music from that time now more than ever! So that's what keeps it so fresh.

And finally, how would you describe Clueless the Musical in one word?

Nostalgia!

Read our review of Clueless the Musical here.

Clueless the Musical runs until 27 September at the Trafalgar Theatre.

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