By TYLER McLEOD --

BEVERLY HILLS -- By night, a buttoned-down executive. By day, a costumed superhero protecting a city.

At least, that's the way Alicia Silverstone seems to describe her life last summer.

"It was like a day and night job," Silverstone recalls. "When I was working on Batman, my heart was in Excess Baggage."

So while Silverstone was filming Batman and Robin, this summer's most anticipated (and disappointing) blockbuster, she was really only thinking about her Excess Baggage - the first of two films she's been contracted to star in and produce by Sony Pictures.

"In my case, as producer, it's like being co-director. Doing everything it takes to get the movie to be the best movie it can be."

For Excess Baggage, the 20 year-old says she was responsible for everything from casting to deciding on the final cut. As Batgirl, on the other hand, Silverstone merely had "to put on the costume and wait."

"I think what's so fun about Batman is the hype. And after about a day of that, it's not really fun any more," Silverstone says. "It's an honor to be asked to play Batgirl - I was excited - but then the hype kicks in and everybody's so Batman crazy. It's a little overwhelming."

The hype started months before Silverstone even stepped on set as the media jumped on the Clueless star's Oscar appearance for having gained weight. And then rumors of Silverstone's tyrannical approach to producing started and suspicions about her manager, Carolyn Kessler, arose.

"If I was really paying attention to that stuff, I would probably be a very unhappy individual," she shrugs. "But I can't monitor what people are thinking or saying about me. I pay a lot of attention to just being a 20-year-old girl trying to get by with her life."

That includes making dinner with her friends and playing with her dogs - of which she now has five. Samson, her pit bull-Dobermann accompanied her to Vancouver to shoot Excess Baggage, which opens this Friday.

The fact she had already shot two films in Vancouver (Hideaway and The Crush) helped Silverstone as she adjusted to a producing role. Silverstone also says having a great co-star was key.

"I wouldn't have wanted to do the movie without him. That's how much it was about Benicio."

Benicio Del Toro caught Silverstone's eye in The Usual Suspects. ("I wasn't interested in any other character.") She decided Del Toro and no one else could portray the car thief who accidentally kidnaps a rich heiress.

Silverstone is Emily, who stages her own abduction to grab the attention of her father. After placing the ransom call and throwing herself in the trunk of her car, Emily thinks her dad is on his way to tearful reunion. Del Toro is an unfortunate interloper.

"She's a strong character and there aren't a lot of female characters that are," Silverstone says.

"Emily starts off as this girl who you want to tell to shut up, but she evolves."

The movie also stars Christopher Walken, Harry Connick Jr. and Nicholas Turturro.

"I think Emily has things in her that everybody can relate to - the need to find out who you are and the need to be loved. These are pretty understandable things."

One could almost look at Emily as the anti-Cher. An antidote to her character in Clueless.

"Emily doesn't have any moral guidelines. Cher is all about living up to these ideals stuck in her head about being a good girl," Silverstone considers. "And her daddy is really nice to her; she loves her life. Emily has survival skills, Cher doesn't."

How does Silverstone relate to these two rich girls?

"I don't think of it like a personal thing and I would never ever discuss a personal thing like that here."

Suppose that's how those superheroes keep their secret identities a secret?


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