There are ones to watch and then there are ones who watch you. Are you going to see Emma Flynn in Clueless The Musical or to be seen by her?
“People come in not knowing the vibe and suddenly I’m talking directly at them,” she says backstage, kindly breaking her vow of silence (the voice!) to talk to The London Standard, “making eye contact with English people from the stage… it’s not their favourite thing. One of the funniest parts is seeing who can hold it and who can’t. I try to pick certain people to talk to and love it when they talk back.”
To say Flynn owns the stage in this production is wrong; she owns the stalls, the circles, the bar, the foyer and the street outside too. As Cher Horowitz, the role made famous by Alicia Silverstone in the classic 1990s high school riff on Jane Austen’s Emma, Flynn is an all-singing, all-dancing, all-interactive superstar.
She seems to have come out of nowhere but the word is out on her now, and the show has been extended to 2026 at the Trafalgar Theatre. Flynn was destined for this. Like, really.
“My mum was such a Clueless buff because she’s a Jane Austen fan, and she actually named me after Jane Austen’s Emma,” she says, “So I grew up as such a fan of the movie, I must have seen it a thousand times.
And then they were looking for a Cher in New York City. I happened to randomly decide to audition for something else but the casting director later called my agent and said could we bring Emma in to audition for this new musical called Clueless. I hadn’t really done anything yet. It was really a miracle.
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When I came into the audition room it was I had been prepared from my many years watching the movie. The stars aligned like crazy. You have dream roles and then there are roles that you didn’t realise could even exist for you.”
Originally from New Hampshire, Flynn actually has a performing arts education behind her and US stage credits, but this is now rocketing fame, life as a Hollywood movie. Not that it’s easy. She’s moved over here away from her family and friends, which is tough, and away from American food which is tougher — “I miss chemicals!” — and has to concentrate fully on a show which, for all its levity, is seriously hyperactive with huge highs, big lows, many costume changes and some killer slapstick.
“I 100 per cent have no other life,” she sighs. “When theatre people say they live like a monk, I bring it to a whole new other level. I work, I go home, I don’t speak at all, I sleep for 10 hours. Everything is maintenance. It’s a sacrifice and feels a bit vain, but it’s worth it because it’s a dream come true.”
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So you haven’t been out much?
“I look forward to seeing London, eventually. I mean, I love Trafalgar Square over the road and I see Big Ben on the way in. Oh and I do love a roast.”
Yes, everything is about the show, and when watching it you can feel her unleashing all this pent-up energy and relishing the chaotic high school milieu.
“Once it starts, it’s like a rollercoaster, there’s no getting off,” she says. “Things go wrong every night, a shoe will go flying, or a skateboard will roll by. You use everything. If I get 90 per cent of it, that’s perfect to me.”
Clueless, The Musical is at Trafalgar Theatre until March 2026, cluelessonstage.com
