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Alicia Silverstone has opened up about the time she was “booed off stage” at an animal rights convention.
The vegan actor, who is perhaps best known for starring in 1995 film Clueless, spoke about the experience on the Plant Based News (PBN) podcast with Robbie Lockie.
They were discussing the best ways to convey the vegan message to meat-eaters. Silverstone said that she didn’t know how to broach the subject “gracefully” at first.
She revealed that, in her early days of veganism, she would often discuss graphic depictions of animal cruelty during media appearances. She added that she later realized doing so was “not helpful” to as it “turned people off.”
Silverstone then detailed how she once gave a speech at an animal rights convention. In the talk, she argued that vegans should convey the message in a more “kind” way. It was then that she says she was booed off stage. “I got taken into a room to be with the main people at the event. Because the people in the audience were p*ssed,” she said. “It was a specific group that was very upset with what I was saying. So, even within the animal rights movement, you could get in trouble.”
She went on to say that she thought it was “really stupid” of them, as it could have made her drop out if she wasn’t so committed to the cause. “Because it was scary,” she added. “But luckily they have a true believer here, I’m on board. They can’t shake me.”
https://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:281993584/sounds.rssFor this episode and more, visit Plant Based News on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.
Alicia Silverstone’s vegan advocacy
Silverstone has been an outspoken advocate in the vegan movement for a number of years.
She was vegetarian on and off from the age of eight. She went completely vegan in 1998 when she was 21 years old.
Silverstone has written two books on veganism. The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet became a New York Times bestseller after it was released in 2009. Her second book, The Kind Mama, focuses on pregnancy and fertility.
Opening up on what she believes are the best ways to convey the message to the general public, Silverstone told Lockie: “I learned over time that the only way to make change is to make it look desirable. To be a poster child for health, so people want to know why you look and feel so happy and well. I also was spending so much energy trying to convince those who were not interested. And I found that’s not helpful either.”
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