10 Movie Moments That Actually Happened To Actors In Real Life
8. Alicia Silverstone Pronounced "Haitians" Wrong - Clueless
![Blade Runner 2049 Ryan Gosling](https://d2thvodm3xyo6j.cloudfront.net/media/2023/03/116b649c66459984-600x338.jpg)
One of the most memorable gags in Clueless occurs during the famous school debate scene, where Cher (Alicia Silverstone) has to argue for Haitians being allowed refuge in the U.S.
Except, Cher pronounces "Haitians" completely wrong, enunciating basically every letter of the word rather than the correct "hay-shuns." It's so perfectly in-character for Cher that it's impossible to consider that this was anything but a well-written gag expertly performed by Alicia Silverstone.
But in actual fact, in that moment, Silverstone was Cher, because she genuinely believed this was how the word was pronounced. Rather than correct Silverstone, however, filmmaker Amy Heckerling realised she had comedy gold in the can and did the exact opposite - she refused to tell her.
In Heckerling's own words:
"She had the script and she was doing her lines and as soon as I said 'cut,' the script woman and everyone in the crew started to walk up to her to tell her the right pronunciation and I had to run interference and go, 'Step away from the actress. Stand clear of Alicia Silverstone.' Because I didn't want her to know that she had it wrong, I wanted that assurance without her thinking this is funny or a joke - which changes how you say things. There's something you do when you're completely confident that just can't be replicated when you know you're doing something wrong."