Lexi Minetree is ready to bend and snap into this role.
4 months have passed since Reese Witherspoon posted a worldwide audition call for the young Elle Woods in the forthcoming Legally Blonde prequel series; she then declared her final choice on Instagram on the 13th of February.
In the video, Reese said to Lexi, “Your audition tape was fantastic, exactly as we discussed, and it was a very tough call for us to make the other day.” She continued, “We wanted to share this news with you in person because we know how hard you’ve been working, and here’s some great news: You no longer have to audition again because you’ve landed the role. Congratulations, you are Elle Woods!
They phoned Lexi’s mother to break the news, exclaiming about the actress’ audition, “It felt as though we were looking at a mirror image when I watched her video!
Regarding what we might find with Elle? Elle, being a high school student, probably won’t feel at ease incorporating legal terminology into her everyday conversations just now.
As an over-the-moon devotee, let me share this exciting news: You’re going to dive deep into the world of our cherished Elle Woods, as she maneuvered her teenage years with her extraordinary character and wit, only Elle can pull off! And the best part? It’s happening! Can you believe it?!
In a heartbeat, Elle’s captivating persona illuminates the world with an enchanting blend of self-assurance, vulnerability, and unwavering sincerity that leaves everyone spellbound. As I pen down this tale, my mind drifts back to the ’90s, where Elle will embark on a journey marked by her initial romance, shattering heartbreak, and the firm convictions that shape her moral compass.
In the upcoming series, a younger version of Elle will be portrayed by a different actress, but Reese Witherspoon maintains a significant role as executive producer. Handing over the character she played as a Harvard Law student in 2001 and 2003 to another performer was an exhilarating experience for her.
She expressed to People magazine in January that it’s a unique experience, almost like a journey. What makes it even more thrilling is observing these young girls who radiate enthusiasm and excitement. There are just so many exceptional ones, she said, which makes the decision difficult because there are numerous talented individuals to pick from.
For Reese, handling any offshoot of Legally Blonde with the utmost care was essential.
She shared with USA Today in July 2022 that she considers these characters as her friends, thus she takes great care of them. She emphasized that she wouldn’t settle for a lesser or average telling of their tale.
As we await more details about Elle, keep reading for all the fascinating facts of Legally Blonde.
1. Amanda Brown, the author of ‘Legally Blonde’, found her inspiration during a torts lecture. She shared that she aimed to create a parody of law school. In 2001, six years after leaving law school to write, she spoke about this with Stanford Magazine. Many details in the movie were drawn from her personal life, including several anecdotes that made it into the 2001 comedy. Although Elle Woods’ law school was changed from Stanford to Harvard as Brown’s alma mater refused to be associated with the film, some elements remained true to life, such as Brown’s fondness for pink paper and fuzzy pens, and her experience of listening to a fellow student argue that the term ‘semester’ should be replaced with ‘ovester’.
2. The toilet paper incident in the movie mirrored real life for Karen McCullah, one of the co-screenwriters. At Virginia’s James Madison University, she experienced a similar situation when administrators denied her sorority’s request for Charmin instead of generic toilet paper. She recalled to Montpelier Magazine that since they were all opposed to chafing, she offered her sorority sisters points for stealing replacement rolls from the administration building.
3. As Elle Woods a year after she left Stanford behind, Reese Witherspoon delved deep into the life of a college student, attending law classes at Loyola Law School and sharing meals with sorority members at the University of Southern California, likening it to an anthropological study. She shared this insight in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2001, stating that she learned about their eating habits, behavior, and child-rearing methods.
On the other hand, Matthew Davis drew inspiration for his portrayal of Elle’s soon-to-be ex-husband Warner Huntington III (the ambitious senator seeking a Jackie, not a Marilyn) from George W. Bush. He prepared for the role by reading up on the then-president’s biography.
4. Reese Witherspoon assumed the role mere months following the birth of her now 24-year-old daughter, Ava Phillippe, in September 1999, with then-spouse Ryan Phillippe. She shared with Cinema.com that some evenings, Ava would wake up sick and cry throughout the night, which meant Witherspoon had to soothe her back to sleep before reporting to set at 7 a.m. for makeup. Adding to the challenge was the need to portray a cheerful and energetic California preppy character who constantly smiled – a task that left Witherspoon feeling overwhelmed and questioning if she would survive the ordeal.
5. In reality, we nearly stumbled upon another famous blonde sporting last year’s Prada footwear. Interestingly, as the script for the role reached Christina Applegate during her final stretch on “Married… with Children,” she confessed to ETonline in 2015 that she hesitated to accept it due to fear of repetition. “What a foolish decision that turned out to be, wouldn’t you agree?
6. Meanwhile, Luke Wilson, interestingly enough, didn’t require an audition to portray Elle’s eventual love interest, Emmett. Co-screenwriter Kirsten Smith shared with Insider that they had been persistent in advocating for him, constantly sending faxes saying “Luke Wilson, Luke Wilson!”. After a table read where another actor played Emmett, they insisted again, “We need Luke Wilson!”, to which he agreed. We had been suggesting this all along!
Initially, Luke Wilson didn’t have to audition for the role of Elle’s love interest, Emmett. Co-screenwriter Kirsten Smith shared that they repeatedly emphasized their preference for him by sending faxes stating “Luke Wilson, Luke Wilson!”. During a table read where another actor played Emmett, they reiterated their choice, “We need Luke Wilson!”, and he agreed. It turned out that we had been advocating for him all along.)
Initially thought to join Elle’s sorority group, Ali Larter seized the chance to try out for the role of Brooke Windham, a fitness star accused of murdering her older husband.
While reading Brooke’s jailhouse liposuction confession (“It’s not like normal women can have this ass!”) for director Robert Luketic, she remembered thinking, “I need to convince him that I truly want this part and can make it believable and entertaining.” So, she boldly grabbed her behind as hard as possible and gave a passionate performance. The director responded, “Alright, you’ve got it, girl. You committed.” This took place during the cast’s October 2020 reunion.
8. Alanna Ubach had to think outside the box to secure the role of Elle’s sorority sister Serena. Jessica Cauffiel, who was already cast as Delta Nu member Margot, recalled meeting Ubach in the restroom during a chemistry read.
“She asked if I was part of this movie,” Cauffiel recounted during the October 2020 reunion. Having previously borrowed Cauffiel’s red lipstick, Ubach then made a more substantial request. Cauffiel remembered her asking for assistance in securing the job, saying, “I don’t have any money, I need to pay rent, can you help me with that?” She was both humorous and bold, so I agreed.”
To give Ubach a chance, Cauffiel claimed she needed to make a phone call but instead returned to the restroom to audition together. “We planned synchronized actions,” Cauffiel explained of their strategy to demonstrate their strong connection. “I intentionally threw the entire audition to help her get the role, and we’ve been best friends since then.
9. Ubach’s creativity proved useful on set as she mastered the manicure scene with the actress, Cauffiel. During a conversation at the cast reunion with a charming Vietnamese background actress, she mused, “I wondered, ‘What if we often visit this nail salon so much that I become fluent in Vietnamese?'” After an hour rehearsing her lines—”She’ll never get him back with those cuticles”—she asked director Luketic if she could attempt something. Ubach quipped, “He replied, ‘Sure, you’re strange. Just go ahead and do your thing; we’ll see if it sticks or not.’
10. In reality, Luketic welcomed any daring suggestion wholeheartedly. As Cauffiel put it, the first-time feature film director offered them a great deal of autonomy. Recalling the incident, she said Luketic approved her proposal for Margot to trip off a pedestal during the bridal salon scene. “I asked him, ‘Robert, could I fall?'” she remembered. To which he responded, “Fetch her a mattress! Fetch her a mattress!
11. Davis was equal parts scared and excited for his first major film role as Warner. “I was so out of my league,” he recalled during the 2020 reunion. “I literally was just off the back of the turnip truck out of Salt Lake City, Utah. I couldn’t get out of Utah fast enough and I stumbled my way into this movie called Legally Blonde.” Very green and harboring a bit of a thing for his costars (“I think he had a crush on everybody,” Cauffiel told The New York Times), “I was crapping my pants every step of the way,” he admitted.
His very first scene saw him break up with Witherspoon. “I sat down and all of sudden Elle Woods was there,” he shared, “and Elle Woods was so big and so full of life and I realized that all my choices were wrong.”
12. Two decades later, he still gets crap for the callous way Warner dumped his college sweetheart mid-dinner date (“If I’m going to be a senator by the time I’m 30, I need to stop dicking around”) before going on to propose to his “Jackie”, fellow Harvard law student Vivian Kensington (Selma Blair).
Though he’d go on to roles on Damages, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals and Legacies, “For years and years people would say ‘You’re that a–hole from Legally Blonde!'” he shared during the virtual get-together, prompting Witherspoon to come to his defense. “I’m here to tell people Matthew Davis is the nicest person!” she insisted. “He was just playing a character.”
13. Filming Elle’s law school application video turned out to be more challenging than securing a spot at Harvard Law, according to Witherspoon, due to the intense 400-degree heat experienced during filming of the pool scene in Pasadena. In this scene, Elle showcased her impressive ability to remember numerous crucial details swiftly, such as how Hope had been manipulated by Stefano on ‘Days of Our Lives’.
Margot’s seamless movement on her raft during filming was particularly tricky, leading Cauffiel to humorously comment, “Wasn’t there someone behind the scenes using a stick to move it?
14. It was equally swelteringly hot while Witherspoon filmed Elle’s initial day at law school, with UCLA’s campus standing in for Harvard. To convey a more autumnal Boston feel, she wore a button-down with a tie beneath a belted sweater. “I was drenched to the bone,” the actress admitted. The costume designer intervened, stressing that Elle needed to “look the part” completely, as Witherspoon recounted. “Sophie de Rakoff said, ‘You will wear this sweater. You will button up the collar… it has to be like this.'” And I replied, “Alright!
15. It’s only right that the Oscar winner got to retain every one of the 60 costumes she donned during the movie. As she disclosed on Instagram, they are all carefully preserved in tissue paper and stored securely. She takes great care to monitor them.
16. Almost every actor was rehearsing a musical number with bend-and-snap elements. Instead, for about a month, they worked on an extended scene from the nail salon that featured more singing and dancing. This part of the storyline showcased Elle showing off her signature move, which in her experience, led to a dinner invitation acceptance rate of 83%. However, as Witherspoon explained, it didn’t fit well since there was only one musical sequence.
17. The iconic move that people still ask Reese Witherspoon to demonstrate originated at a bar in Beverly Hills. Screenwritsters McCullah and Smith were brainstorming ideas for the B-plot that could take place in the nail salon, between meetings. “We were going off in strange directions,” McCullah told Insider. “Ideas like it getting robbed, all sorts of crazy stuff.”
Once they decided to create a more straightforward storyline about Elle helping Paulette win over her crush’s affection, Smith hopped off the barstool and demonstrated the move. The name was improvised on the spot. Smith jokingly suggested that there should be a sign there, honestly.
18. In post-production, the ending of the film underwent significant changes from what was originally scripted. The initial ending depicted Elle winning her court case and sealing her relationship with Emmett on the courthouse steps. Later, they showed a scene a year later where Elle and Vivian had become friends, Vivian had dyed her hair blonde, and they were founding the Blond Legal Defense Club. This was the ending in Smith’s original manuscript, but it didn’t sit well with test audiences who preferred a different conclusion. “We screened the movie multiple times,” McCullah said, “and every time people didn’t want to end it with a kiss. They felt it wasn’t about Elle getting a boyfriend, which was great to hear.”
19. Crafting Elle’s inspiring graduation speech required some creative problem-solving. Reese Witherspoon filmed her part at Dulwich College in London where she was working on ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. Other actors shot their scenes back in California. Since Witherspoon had changed her hair for her role in the Oscar Wilde adaptation, she wore a wig, as did Wilson who had shaved his head for ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’.
20. During the 2020 reunion, Witherspoon, who started her acting career after leaving Stanford midway through her freshman year, enthusiastically declared, “This is where I attended college.” She didn’t complete college, but she certainly completed the journey of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde.
People are still quoting her iconic lines (“What? Like it’s hard?”), but what truly delights Witherspoon are the countless success stories that stem from her career. During the same reunion, she expressed, “I don’t think any of us knew just how much impact this film would have or how many young women and people worldwide it would inspire.” What really moves her is when people tell her, “I went to law school because of Elle Woods,” which she finds incredibly heartwarming.
In fact, whenever someone mentions Legally Blonde, it brings a smile to Witherspoon’s face. At the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards, she told TopMob News, “Whenever anyone talks about Legally Blonde, it really resonates with me, so please keep sharing those stories.
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2025-02-14 00:25