Jun 23, 2026 8:00pm IST
‘Elle’ Actor Lexi Minetree on Rewatching ‘Legally Blonde’ 150 Times, and Reese Witherspoon’s Advice to Get Elle Woods Right
It’s time for all “Legally Blonde” fans to bend and snap into place, because “Elle,” Prime Video’s prequel series based on the beloved 2001 film, comes out on July 1, 2026. Actor Lexi Minetree will be stepping into Reese Witherspoon’s pink stilettos to play a younger version of “Elle Woods” in this coming-of-age throwback. And just like the older version, younger Elle, too, will have to navigate friendships, love, fashion and prejudices against blondes, armed with sheer joi de vivre and her undimmed spirit, but this time in high school.
It’s a good thing that Elle Woods has never been afraid to put in the hard work. Because just as she poured over books and did practice tests to ace the LSATs and get into Harvard Law (What? Like, it’s hard?), Minetree made the film her bible to get the character's mannerisms, charm, and sunny optimism right.
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“I must have watched Legally Blonde over 150 times during the casting process,” Minetree confesses, “and then even more after I got the role. At one point, I could probably do a one-woman show of it. For me, I didn’t just want to get her attitude and resilience and charm; I really wanted to nail her voice, mannerisms and movement. That’s such an important part of the character.”
For an entire generation (and even those after), Elle Woods has been a heroine, a girl’s girl who overcame misogyny and prejudice without suppressing her femininity. Yet, she is often perceived as a ‘bimbo’ or ‘plastic’, until she proves her haters wrong. Minetree elaborated on getting the physical aspects — such as her voice, posture and overall energy — on point and the practice that went into it.
“It would be so easy to play her as a stereotype or do a valley girl accent, but Elle doesn’t have any of that. She’s very specific. There’s a melodic quality to her voice and a really perky physicality. Every single morning, I’d do a voice and body warmup. When you wake up at 4 am, you can sound pretty rough, and I needed to get my voice to a bright, lifted place. I worked with this wonderful voice coach, Kate Wilson, who helped me find the right placement. It’s all connected — the attitude, the energy, and the voice all work in tandem.”
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Did older Elle, Reese Witherspoon, offer any advice to nail down the younger version of the character that will always be synonymous with her? “Reese has been so wonderful throughout this whole process,” Lexi reveals. “One thing that really stuck with me was a moment she pointed out from the movie — when Elle is talking to Warner after everything, and he suddenly wants her back. She has every opportunity to call him out, and she doesn’t. She never goes low. She always takes the high road. She’s never a bully, even to people who are unkind to her. Reese reminded me of that, and for me, that’s the core of who Elle is. I try to hold onto that in scenes when she could easily lash out.”
Created by Laura Kittrell, “Elle: From the World of Legally Blonde” stars Lexi Minetree as Elle Woods alongside June Diane Raphael, Tom Everett Scott, Jacob Moskovitz, Gabrielle Policano, Chandler Kinney, Zac Looker, Amy Pietz, David Burtka, James Van Der Beek and Sharon Taylor, amongst others. The eight-episode season will stream on Prime Video from July 1, 2026.
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