Clueless is a 1995 American coming-of-age romantic comedy film written and directed by Amy Heckerling. It stars Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Paul Rudd and Brittany Murphy, and was produced by Scott Rudin and Robert Lawrence. It is loosely based on Jane Austens 1815 novel Emma, updating the setting to modern-day Beverly Hills.[4][5] The films director, Heckerling studied real Beverly Hills high school students to get the lingo and feel for how real teens in the 1990s talked. The famous quote as if! came from Heckerlings study of these teens.