What’s an actor to do when they’re trying to land one of the most iconic characters in modern pop culture? For Lexi Minetree, star of Prime Video’s Legally Blonde prequel Elle, the meta approach was the way to go.
Elle Woods, the headstrong sorority girl turned Harvard Law student played by Reese Witherspoon in the 2001 film, charms her way into the Ivy League law school through relentless studying and an out-of-the-box admissions video essay. The character famously filmed herself floating in the pool and living her best Southern California sorority girl life. Minetree couldn’t think of a more fitting way to prove to the Elle casting team that she was the girl for the job than by recreating the scene.
“What’s more Elle Woods than being extra AF and putting a whole on production for this little slate,” the 25-year-old actress tells The Hollywood Reporter on a recent Zoom. She’s promoting season one, released on Wednesday, but at the time of this conversation, she’s filming season two. The second season was picked up by the Amazon streamer earlier in the year.
The series finds Elle as a high school student who suddenly moves away from her posh life in Bel Air and is forced to acclimate to a much more casual — and much less pink — Seattle. Similar to the original film, Elle learns to leave behind some of the preconceived notions that her rich upbringing gave her and embrace authenticity.
