\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a bit woo-woo,\u201d she warns with a laugh. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it was the universe or a connection to this character, but I knew who she was. I saw a lot of myself in her.\u201d To make her case to the casting directors, Minetree recorded her own version of Elle Woods\u2019s iconic Harvard admissions video essay<\/a> in Legally Blonde,<\/em> complete with hot tub and string bikini. \u201cI have to tell you, when I saw Lexi Minetree in her video, it stopped me,\u201d an emotional Witherspoon told the crowd<\/a> at a fan event earlier this month. \u201cIt took my breath away.\u201d<\/p>\n Created by Laura Kittrell (previously a co-producer on Insecure<\/em><\/a>), who serves as co-showrunner alongside Caroline Dries, the Legally Blonde<\/em> prequel follows a pre-Harvard Elle Woods in 1995. That\u2019s the year Elle and her parents, Eva (June Diane Raphael<\/a>) and Wyatt (Tom Everett Scott), are forced to move to Seattle when a client\u2019s botched nose job at Wyatt\u2019s plastic surgery practice forces the family into a Beverly Hills 90210<\/em> version of witness protection. Elle was popular in her sunny, upbeat Bel-Air bubble, but a total outcast among the Nirvana-loving, grunge-wearing student body at her new high school in downcast Seattle, \u201cthe city God and Gucci forgot,\u201d says Elle.<\/p>\n Lexi Minetree plays Elle Woods in ELLE<\/em>.<\/span>Jessica Brooks\/Prime Video<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n Just as Elle must learn the language of her new constituency, Minetree brushed up on all things Legally Blonde<\/em> after she was cast, watching the original film upwards of 150 times<\/a> to study Witherspoon\u2019s voice and mannerisms. She also examined the way dumb-blonde tropes from the early 2000s, when Paris Hilton<\/a> and Britney Spears<\/a> were fixtures of the tabloid circuit<\/a>, had influenced her perception of Elle. \u201cI had this conception about Elle that a lot of people still have\u2014this blonde sorority girl bimbo who follows a guy to Harvard and then learns to be smart and hardworking,\u201d says Minetree. And that\u2019s the exact point the movie is making. \u201cThe more I watched it, the more I realized she was confident in herself the entire movie. It was everyone else<\/em> who was getting to her level.\u201d<\/p>\n Minetree has adopted Elle\u2019s positive view of herself, especially considering that the character has been revived several times since the film\u2019s release, first in the 2003 sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde,<\/em> then a Broadway musical in 2007, the direct-to-video Legally Blondes<\/em> in 2009, and finally, an MTV reality series about casting the replacement for Laura Bell Bundy, who originated the role of Elle Woods onstage. \u201cRemakes [and] prequels make people nervous\u2014as they should,\u201d says Minetree. \u201cBecause it\u2019s a story that is very precious to people.\u201d But if those 100-plus rewatches of Legally Blonde<\/em> taught her anything, it\u2019s that \u201cwe let other people\u2019s opinions pave the way for what we think we\u2019re capable of,\u201d says the actor. \u201cSomething I\u2019ve learned from Elle is that you first have to believe you can for you to actually be able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n