Before Elle Woods was a Zeta Lambda Nu sweetheart and president of Delta Nu with a bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising and a diploma from Harvard Law School, she was a teenager. Imagined by Laura Kittrell, the prequel to Legally Blonde finds Elle Woods as Seattle, Washington’s newest resident. Starring Lexi Minetree, Elle is a coming-of-age story set around the beloved, blonde Elle Woods. 

Minetree steps into the role bearing a positive attitude similar to Woods, with an excited energy surrounding her breakthrough role. She’s a doppelganger to the original Elle Woods, a young Reese Witherspoon, and has a dedication to the accurate portrayal of the adored character. Like Woods, she spent her undergrad in California. Minetree graduated from the University of Southern California and has been featured in supporting roles with Elle being her breakthrough role. In an interview with V, the budding actress shared her hopes for Elle, her strongest personal inspirations, and moments that felt surreal surrounding the project. 

Ailbhe Killalea: Elle Woods is such an iconic character; we all grew up with her as a role model. Who are some of your role models?

Lexi Minetree: My Aunt Emily is one of my biggest role models…and dare I say friends. She is a generous human. She’s wonderful and lovely and someone who gives people grace. I think we all need someone like that in our lives.

She’s also just so cultured and interesting. She’d hate that I’m saying this, but it’s true. She’ll say words that I immediately write down in my notes app cause I want to try and implement them in my own life: dithering, punctilious, raconteur to name a few. Like, wouldn’t I sound so smarty pants if I dropped the word “abstruce” in a conversation? She’s a novelist, and she was a curator for a museum before. I’m always in awe of people who really understand the culture of the world and are constantly immersing themselves in it. She sees the world in a beautiful way.

My little brother is also a role model of mine. He has Down syndrome, but I rarely see him upset about his disability. He just loves the world. He can make friends with anyone. We call him “the mayor” because every time he walks into a room, he just dazzles everyone.

AK: I saw the video where you found out you got the role. What did that moment feel like?

LM: It was very surreal, and honestly, it didn’t even feel real. When something that huge happens, it takes a while to process it. I got really lucky because they didn’t announce it until the next day, so I had about 24 hours to really take it all in and appreciate that all my hard work had paid off. I was so excited to dive into this character, and then I got really nervous because I was like, “Oh my God, this is going to be a lot.” But I was just excited to jump in and see what was going to happen next. Eek!

AK: What part of Elle’s life/personality are you most excited for people to see in the new prequel? What do you think people misunderstand about Elle’s story?

LM: I’m most excited for people to see her vulnerability and her having to learn in real time. I think especially in high school, we’re all traversing uncharted waters, and Elle is no exception. She really is another fish out of water in this story.

I think something people might misunderstand is that growth is never a straight line. I’ve seen people wondering, “How can she go through the same struggle multiple times?” Or, “Why should we get invested in these relationships if we know they’re not going to matter later?” But I actually think that’s what makes it feel so real. Personally, progress has never been a straight line for me. It’s always been a bumpy road. It’s like the game Chutes and Ladders—sometimes you hit a ladder and shoot up, and sometimes you hit a slide and go all the way down. There are many relationships from my past I no longer interact with but that doesn’t shake the indelible impact they’ve had on my life.

In Legally Blonde, Elle is already so confident. She’s this force, and everyone else is kind of catching up to her. She’s someone who is unequivocally kind to people, even people who aren’t kind to her, but she also has a little bite to her. I think what’s so fun about the prequel is that you get to see where all of those things come from and how she grows into them.

AK: I actually grew up in Seattle and regularly wore a hot pink Juicy tracksuit to my private Catholic school. Looking back, it was both ridiculous and totally amazing. What about Seattle drew the story to relocate there? How does stepping outside of Southern California further develop the character of Elle Woods?

LM: DIVAAAA!!!! First of all, you’re my hero, and I feel like we’d be friends. That is absolutely incredible. I hope your classmates thought you were an icon too.

I think Elle Woods only exists as a fish out of water. You need to see her out of her
ELLEment—no pun intended. And I think putting her in Seattle during the grunge movement was perfect. Laura Kittrell, the creator, was a genius for that because it really couldn’t be further from Elle Woods.

Especially in high school, she’s been in this Bel Air bubble of privilege, and then she goes to this school where everyone is a little bit more nonconformist and against “the man.” Trying is almost uncool. So I think it’s really cool to see her navigate people who are basically her antithesis and figure out how to find a common language with them.

AK: Did anyone tell you that you look like Reese Witherspoon prior to getting this role? The resemblance is uncanny.

LM: It was kind of a shocking amount of times. I would say it started my junior year of high school, and random people would just come up to me and tell me I looked like her. I always took it as such a huge compliment because she’s obviously gorgeous. But I never, ever would have thought that I’d actually be playing her.

AK: Reese Witherspoon is the blueprint. What kind of conversations did you have with her about the series? How do you hope to carry on her legacy as Elle Woods?

LM: I was really lucky because Reese gave me so much trust with this character and let me take the reins when it came to creating the high school version of Elle. We obviously would message and talk about the core of what makes Elle Woods, Elle Woods. But I also think Reese saw something in me from the get-go that was already the essence of the character, and I just kind of honed that as the process went along.

AK: Elle’s character arc in Legally Blonde was the ultimate post-breakup glow-up. What are your tips for glowing up after a breakup?

LM: Cut your bangs. Get a new haircut.

They say hair tells a story, and hair holds memories. So when you change your hair, it kind of feels like you’re entering a new era. The first thing I did when I finished the press tour for season one was ask Rory, my hairdresser, to please-and-thank-you cut my bangs. I’ve done it enough times myself and instantly regretted my choices because I have no idea how to cut hair. So I thought, “I’m going to leave it to the professionals this time,” and he delivered. I’m obsessed with them.

It felt like a good symbolic way of reclaiming my autonomy and being like, “You know what? This was such an incredible moment, and now I’m entering a new one.”