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‘Legally Blonde’ Oral History: From Raunchy Script to Feminist Classic

Along the way, adult zingers were edited out, Jennifer Coolidge struggled with the “bend and snap” and the ending was changed at least three times.

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By Ilana Kaplan

In 2001, Reese Witherspoon was already on her way to becoming a household name. But it would be the feminist masterpiece “Legally Blonde” that would cement her status as a Hollywood star.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Amanda Brown , “Legally Blonde” follows Elle Woods (Witherspoon) from ditsy, sorority socialite to first-year law student in an effort to win back her ex-boyfriend Warner (Matthew Davis). But what transpires next surprises everyone, including herself: The perky blonde with a tiny Chihuahua named Bruiser and a flair for pink discovers she is actually cut out for the courtroom.

It’s been 20 years since Elle, against all odds, got into Harvard Law, fended off a professor’s advances and came to the legal defense of a sorority alumna. She remains an emblem for challenging stereotypes and embracing female empowerment in the face of misogyny. By refuting the “dumb blonde” trope, Elle has become beloved for her sincerity and her insistence on unapologetically being herself.

In 2021, “Legally Blonde” is more relevant than ever. Years before the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, the Robert Luketic-directed comedy tackled workplace sexual misconduct and power dynamics. High-profile fans like Ariana Grande and Kim Kardashian (who each paid homage to it in videos) have stoked its legacy, as has a 2003 sequel ( and a third movie due next year ), as well as a Broadway adaptation .

In advance of the July 13 anniversary of its release, I recently spoke with the film’s stars (including Jennifer Coolidge, Jessica Cauffiel and Matthew Davis), screenwriters and others about creating the “bend and snap,” Elle’s Harvard video essay and the movie’s enduring legacy. Here are edited excerpts from our conversations.

The original script was much raunchier.

KIRSTEN SMITH (screenwriter) We were sent a fiction manuscript by Amanda Brown [by] a couple of different producers and Marc Platt was one of them. It immediately struck us as one of the greatest movie ideas ever, and we pitched it as “Clueless” meets “ The Paper Chase ,” one of those law school movies from the 1970s. I might have worn a lot of pink in the meeting.

JESSICA CAUFFIEL (Margot, one of Elle’s best friends) The first script was very raunchy, to be honest, in the vein of “American Pie.” What we know now as “Legally Blonde,” and what it began as are two completely different films. It transformed from nonstop zingers that were very adult in nature to this universal story of overcoming adversity by being oneself.

KAREN McCULLAH (screenwriter) There were some differences in the manuscript. It wasn’t a murder trial, and she ended up with a professor, so we made some changes. It was a matter of finessing the details and adding a few characters, like Paulette and her friendship.

CAUFFIEL Originally, there was a line when [her friend] Serena says, “What’s the one thing that always makes us feel better no matter what?” And I say, “Cunnilingus.” That was actually a line in the film. We thought when we went to the premiere that it was still that edgy, raunchy edit.

Reese Witherspoon was always the top pick for Elle, but other big names were thrown around.

SMITH [Reese] was the first person who read the script. It seemed like she was just right on the edge [of fame]. We didn’t send it to any other actors.

JOSEPH MIDDLETON (casting director) We did “ The Man in the Moon ” and “ A Far Off Place ” when she was really young, so when Marc was bringing up names, and it was Reese, I already believed so strongly in her.

McCULLAH Christina Applegate said something about how she had turned down [the role of Elle]. Marc once [mentioned] Britney Spears, and I was like, “No, that’s not a good idea.” I think she hosted “S.N.L.” the night before, and his kids were into her, so he threw her name out there.

JENNIFER COOLIDGE (Paulette, Elle’s new friend and manicurist) I’ve heard rumors, and I don’t know if they’re true, that Courtney Love was up for [my] role. I heard Kathy Najimy was up for it.

SMITH I remember talk about getting Chloë Sevigny to play Vivian [a rival law student]. That didn’t work out, and we ended up with our queen Selma Blair. Selma and Reese were close, because they had done “Cruel Intentions” together. So their friendship is a great anchor for everything.

ALI LARTER (Brooke, a fitness instructor on trial for murder) They originally wanted me to come in for one of the sorority sisters. But when I read [the script], I just loved Brooke.

MIDDLETON I loved Paul Bettany for the Luke role, but he was British, and they felt like it needed to be a real American.

McCULLAH We always called [the love interest Emmett] “the Luke Wilson character” while we were writing it. They saw some other actors, and finally Joseph was like, “Maybe we should get Luke to play the Luke Wilson character.” I was like, “You think?”

There was a lot of field research done by the cast and crew: Smith and McCullah visited Stanford, while Witherspoon, Cauffiel and the costume designer Sophie de Rakoff spent time with a University of Southern California sorority .

SMITH We went to law school for a week right during orientation time. The scene where it’s a group of new students going around in a circle talking about it was from us eavesdropping on actual law students talking to each other for the first time.

McCULLAH The criminal law and constitutional law classes were the two that we sat in. Criminal Law was pretty interesting. Constitutional law, I remember crying a few times because I was so bored. But I did start writing some of the scenes for the scripts in that class, so some good came out of it.

SOPHIE dE RAKOFF (costume designer) [Reese and I] went to a sorority house for research while we were prepping. Everyone was wearing pink, so right then and there that gave us a throughline for the movie that became a huge part of the aesthetic and of Elle Woods’s personality and identity.

CAUFFIEL We [talked] an entire sorority into going out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Reese offered to buy them free margaritas all night. She leans over to me as the drinks are on the way and goes, “We’re not drinking anything. We’re drinking water.” We stayed sober as they got tanked, and we took notes.

Elle’s Harvard video essay was supposed to have a Judge Judy cameo.

McCULLAH There was an article somewhere that video applications became a common thing for a while [after the movie came out]. We just did it because it’s way more interesting to watch than hearing someone read an application essay.

ALANNA UBACH (Serena, one of Elle’s best friends) Judge Judy is supposed to be this amazing icon that Elle absolutely adores.

McCULLAH We wanted to shoot [Elle, Serena and Margot] chasing Judge Judy wherever she tapes her show and them being like, “Judge Judy! Judge Judy! Can we get an autograph?”

UBACH They cut that scene. They just couldn’t get Judge Judy on board. And I thought, “Reese, what if Ryan Phillippe played a really famous judge who had his own show, and we have him on billboards.” She said, “Alanna, no one’s going to believe that my husband’s a judge. Are you kidding me?”

The idea for the “bend and snap,” the maneuver Elle says has a “98 percent success rate of getting a man’s attention,” was conceived while the writers were drinking at a hotel bar.

SMITH Marc felt like we needed a big set piece in the second act, and we kept trying to think of how we could make it around Paulette and Elle. We were like, “Should the nail salon get robbed? Is there a mystery that happens?”

McCULLAH I was like, “What if it’s as simple as Elle teaches her a move to help her get the UPS guy.” Then Kirsten jumped off her bar stool and said, “Ooh, like this?” and she did the move. I forget which one of us said “the bend and snap,” but we probably both said it at the same time.

SMITH Karen is like, “Did someone teach you that?” I’m like, “No I made it up right now.” Then we went to Marc’s office, and I did the move. Toni Basil ended up becoming involved as a choreographer because once Robert read it, he got really excited to turn it into a full musical number. So, I found myself going to Toni’s studio and teaching her and a bunch of dancers the “step” I made up.

TONI BASIL (choreographer) I choreographed iconic things for David Bowie and Tina Turner. People interview me and they go, “You did the ‘bend and snap’?” It’s like, what, a one-and-a-half-minute number in the movie? But it was such an integral part.

SMITH Toni would call [part of the step] “the little chicken wings.” She was like, “More chicken wings, more chicken wings.” Jennifer does great chicken-wing hands. She puts the spin of hilarity and awkwardness on everything she does in the movie.

COOLIDGE Toni was incredibly frustrated with my ability to handle the choreography. Reese learned to “bend and snap” in about 10 minutes and I was the antithesis of that.

BASIL Jennifer changed it around. She pushed up her [breasts] instead of snapping because that’s what Jennifer does, because that was right for the character.

COOLIDGE One day I said to [Basil], “I’m not Elle, I’m the other character, Paulette, and I wouldn’t be really good at the ‘bend and snap.’ That’s not who I am.” And Toni said, “Jennifer, you need to learn this dance number and do your very best because even if you’re trying to do your very best you will still be the worst dancer.” It was a very sobering moment. But she was right.

Raquel Welch, playing the ex-wife of Brooke’s dead husband, wanted special lighting.

ANTHONY RICHMOND (cinematographer) She knew how she wanted to be lit. I had two sets of lights where I wanted them and one set where she wanted them, so she could look at herself in the mirror. I would dim one set down slowly and bring my own ones up so she never knew it was being changed.

DE RAKOFF She was obsessed with light. When I went through the fitting at her house, and we were talking about the courtroom scene, she was like, “I need to wear this hat.” It was a big, black straw hat; inside of that giant brim had a second layer of white straw that the light would bounce off so that she could get more bounce on her face. She basically created her own hat that had a built-in bounce board.

COOLIDGE All I know is she didn’t need her own lighting. She looks strangely youthful and sexy. Her face and her tiny hands, she made a deal with the devil. She looks like a billion bucks.

Some of the cast had real-life crushes during filming.

UBACH I discovered that [Matthew had a crush on Selma] during the trial scene. We could see that heart beating every time he was around her. He was so nervous, and I thought, “How could someone looking like that be as nervous as he is?”

MATTHEW DAVIS (Warner) I’ll adore her till the day I die. I will always cherish her taking care of me and looking after me because I was so damn green.

CAUFFIEL I think [Matthew] had a crush on everybody. At one point, he had a crush on Alanna.

COOLIDGE I had a crush on [Bruce Thomas, who played] my UPS man. But he was married and had a beautiful wife and children, so I had to shut that off. I didn’t have to act or get excited when he walked in — it was all true to life.

CAUFFIEL Everybody had a crush on Luke, but Luke was dating two supermodels at the time.

Test audiences didn’t like the original ending, so it was reshot to show Elle at her law school graduation.

CAUFFIEL The first ending was Elle and Vivian in Hawaii in beach chairs, drinking margaritas and holding hands. The insinuation was either they were best friends or they had gotten together romantically.

[Ubach remembers this as well but the screenwriters say they never wrote that ending.]

CAUFFIEL The second or third ending was a musical number on the courtroom steps, and as Elle came out, the judge, jury and everybody in the courtroom broke into song and dance. I’ve been waiting for somebody to leak that for 20 years.

McCULLAH We originally cut to a year later, Elle and Vivian were good friends, and Vivian’s now blond. They had started the Blond Legal Defense Club and were handing out fliers in the quad because that was the ending in Amanda’s manuscript.

SMITH One of the versions ended with Emmett and Elle kissing. We screened the movie two or three times, and every time people didn’t want to end it with a kiss. They thought it wasn’t a story about [Elle] getting a boyfriend, which was really cool to have people say that.

McCULLAH In the theater lobby of the test audience, Kirsten and I were like, “Why don’t we cut to graduation so we can do captions?” So we started writing that scene in the lobby with Marc.

SMITH Reese was shooting a movie in England at the time called “The Importance of Being Earnest,” so, [her] reshoot was done in England, and she was wearing a wig.

McCULLAH Luke had shaved his head for “The Royal Tenenbaums,” so he’s wearing a wig.

COOLIDGE It was so good, [Elle’s] speech at the end, Donald Trump had to steal from it .

The cast and crew say the film has lived on because it’s become more relatable over time.

SMITH It was the right feminist message and character to land when it did. It wears its desires on its sleeve: the contradiction [that] you can be a woman who’s fighting to be heard with a very clear point of view, who’s very strong and smart and also funny, fun and interested in different things, fashion and the law.

DAVIS I’m certainly biased, and this might sound hyperbolic, but I think “Legally Blonde” was one of the last great films in the sense that we shot it on 35 millimeter. It really captured the spirit, the grandeur and the magic of Hollywood. Reese is such a magnetic superstar, and it was a showpiece for her. I think we really captured lightning in a bottle.

LARTER You see this undeniable force, and that [Elle] never lets her self-doubt take her down. When you watch a movie like this, you believe in yourself a little bit more.

BASIL [The movie] is more relevant in a deeper way now than ever before. Women, equal pay and the #MeToo movement, so much has come around in the last 20 years that did not exist when these girls were creating this movie.

Fans constantly remind the cast and crew how the movie affected them.

COOLIDGE People come up to [Reese] and say, “I went to law school because of you.” People tell me that, too. I don’t think all these people could be lying: I think people really got inspired by that story.

DAVIS My friend set me up on a blind date once, and they were like, “You’ll love her, She’s cool. She’s a lawyer.” We had a beer, and we hit it off. I didn’t really talk too much about my story of being an actor. By the end of the night, we started making out. Right in the middle she pulls away and says, “I have to tell you something: ‘Legally Blonde’ is my favorite movie, and that’s why I became a lawyer. I wanted to tell you that all night long.”

McCULLAH When I was in Fiji, another guest told this honeymoon couple from Mexico who were lawyers that I had written “Legally Blonde.” The woman came running up to me, hugged me, and she’s like, “You’ve given me permission to wear pink every day of my life.” It was so cute.

COOLIDGE I can be in some environment that is not a “bend and snap” environment, walking through some dark subway tunnel, and someone comes up to me and does it. I could be on an airplane, seatbelted in, and they want me to get up and do it for them. Sometimes the requests are way more than you want to do during turbulence.

CAUFFIEL There are such hard-core “Legally Blonders” out there. I’ll be ordering a pastrami sandwich, and they’re like, “ Do you have your lucky scrunchie? ” I have my hat and gnarly mom clothes on, and they want to take pictures and talk about it. I love those moments because I see how something that we were also blessed to be a part of touches people’s lives.

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Legally Blonde Script - Dialogue Transcript

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How Legally Blonde Created a Feminist Hero Ahead of Her Time

Legally Blonde became an instant classic when it hit theaters in 2001, giving us Elle Woods—a feminist hero who didn't have to give up her traditionally feminine traits and pursuits to be seen as smart and strong.

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Twenty years ago, Legally Blonde ’s Elle Woods burst onto our screens with her infectious can-do attitude and an early-2000s penchant for all things pink and fuzzy, from her jacket to her phone. Reese Witherspoon ’s iconic sorority sister who goes to Harvard Law School in pursuit of an ex-boyfriend—dressed in head-to-toe pink, carrying a copy of the Bible (Cosmo, obvi)—didn’t jive with the era’s conception of a Strong Female Character, a la Trinity from The Matrix , Sarah Connor from the Terminator movies, or Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider franchise. Elle derives her strength from what many would deem her traditionally feminine character traits and pursuits, not in spite of them, like her undergraduate study of fashion and her focus on loyalty and cooperation rather than competition. While some fall for the trap of associating masculinity with strength and intelligence and femininity with conservatism and vapidity, Elle’s fans have always seen her for who she really is: a feminist ahead of her time.

Everything about Elle Woods is bubblegum pink femininity, from her wardrobe (“I don’t understand why you’re completely disregarding your signature color!”) and tiny purse dog Bruiser to her enthusiastic vernacular and name, derived from the 2000s teen fashion magazine, which also happens to be the French pronoun “she.” When Elle is frustrated, she channels the feeling into studying and achieving. When she’s rejected from a study group (essential to surviving law school), she politely takes her homemade treats and leaves. An early precursor to Annie Murphy’s Alexis Rose on Schitt’s Creek , Reese Witherspoon’s charm and relentless positivity help turn an archetype that’s normally considered shallow or even villainous into a fully-fledged character with depth and heart.

It’s easy to look at Elle Woods and the film Legally Blonde and discredit them both—and many have. She’s arguably let into the school based on her looks, and her own advisor made a mean joke about acing a class on polka dots, discrediting her fashion merchandising major. But don’t forget that she had a 4.0 GPA and a 179 on her LSAT (out of 180 possible points), making her a top candidate. She was also president of her sorority, involved in extracurriculars and philanthropy. Oh and that pink resume? It’s inspired by the true story of how the manuscript for the book that Legally Blonde was based on got scooped from the slush pile.

Legally Blonde doesn’t make fun of its heroine for her interest in feminine-coded pursuits like shopping or her penchant for the color pink. An early shopping scene, a spiritual sequel to the couplet in Pretty Woman , sets Elle up to be the butt of a saleswoman’s joke about stupid rich girls spending daddy’s money. Instead, Elle asks the woman a series of questions about the garment’s construction and provenance, the saleswoman agreeing to everything in pursuit of a sale, not realizing she has exposed her own ignorance and deception by doing so. Elle’s fashion education isn’t an air-headed pursuit, but a fulfilling interest as worthwhile as any other, one where accumulating knowledge can come in just as handy as knowing about political science.

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Legally Blonde is a fish-out-of-water story, so while Elle’s hobbies are no less important than how her Harvard classmates spend their time, they’re certainly different. She uses her specialized knowledge to figure out parts of the Brooke Windham case (Ali Larter), like realizing that gay men are more likely to know shoe designers than straight ones (even if that’s a bit, uh, reductive), and using her shared interests with Brooke to help make her time while incarcerated more comfortable and gain her trust, so that Brooke would share her alibi. The coup de grace, of course, is Elle’s use of perm knowledge to expose Linda Cardelini’s socialite daughter lying on the stand, causing her to crack and confess to killing her father, exonerating Elle’s client Brooke.

Throughout the movie, Elle is happiest in women-dominated spaces that focus on community and collaborative support, traits typically associated with femininity. When she was prepping for a proposal from Warner and then nursing the heartache afterwards, it was as much a Delta Nu experience as it was her own. Once Elle decides to go to law school, the entire sorority pitches in, helping her study for the LSAT and make her video essay. When Elle gets to Cambridge, she once again seeks solace at a nail salon, a place where women take care of one another and give advice, even if they are strangers at first. And it’s no coincidence that, when Elle quits working on the Brooke Windham case and wants to leave Harvard altogether, she cries her eyes out at the nail salon, where Professor Stromwell (a pitch-perfect Holland Taylor) overhears her plight.

Warner tells Elle, “If I’m going to be a senator, I need to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn.” In the world of Legally Blonde , women don’t have to choose. You can be a shy manicurist, but also have a killer bend-and-snap. You can be a strict law professor who also goes to the salon and has her student’s back when a colleague sexually harasses her. It’s fitting that, for Elle’s moment of triumph, when she takes the lead in Brooke Windham’s case, Elle makes her entrance in her signature color: vibrant pink. Since her first class at Harvard, Elle started cosplaying as a normie law student, her clothing getting darker and more traditional to match her surroundings. She traded in her pink-lensed sunglasses for reading glasses. When it was time for Elle to have her crowning moment of achievement, though, she did it by looking and acting like herself, and relying on the knowledge and drive that got her to Harvard in the first place—pink sparkles and all.

Elle’s mother doesn’t want her to “throw away” being the first runner up in the Miss Hawaiian Tropics contest to go to law school, but over the course of the film, Elle proves that she doesn’t have to choose between the two. Furthermore, she doesn’t have to choose between love and a career, or settle for a guy who doesn’t appreciate her for the powerhouse that she is. While Warner is the catalyst for Elle’s journey into jurisprudence, he quickly shows himself to be something of a “bonehead” once they’re both in Cambridge, telling Elle she’ll never be smart enough to win a coveted internship spot, encouraging Elle to break her word to their client once she does get the internship, and then never noticing the sexism of their professor who only asks the women to fetch him food and drink. Eventually, Warner does come around, like all of Elle’s classmates and teachers, but by then she has the self-worth to tell him to take a hike.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries: The Feminist Sherlock You Should Be Watching

Speaking of Warner, when he shows up in Cambridge he comes with his preppy fiancé Vivian Kensington (Selma Blair, in a mini Cruel Intentions reunion). Vivian and Elle were set up to compete over not only Warner, but grades and career opportunities, like Professor Callahan’s internship. The film’s first act sees a bit of bad blood and back and forth. As the rivals see one another’s legal prowess and come to see the sexism in their field from powerful men like Callahan (and the way less powerful men like Warner either don’t see or pretend not to), they grow closer. Eventually, Warner reveals his low character while Elle displays her loyalty by keeping Brooke’s alibi a secret, and the two drop Warner and their competition to become friends instead. For young women watching, it’s a valuable lesson that other women and girls aren’t your competition—they’re your allies.

Elle and Legally Blonde aren’t perfect—her journey started out in pursuit of her ex-boyfriend, and classmate Enid was probably right that many women in sororities would call her a dyke and mistreat her. It’s a shame Elle never finds common ground with the one woman in the film who’s an actual avowed feminist. But people grow, and Legally Blonde allowed its heroine the room to do that, even after the credits rolled. Elle Woods has inspired many women to become lawyers , and it’s easy to see why. She believes in herself and others, fights for her friend Paulette’s dog, and fights back against sexual harassment. But even for those who aren’t interested in the law, Elle’s way of winning people over by being kind, supportive, and “using her blonde for good” sends an important message that traditionally femme traits and esthetics are powerful in their own right.

Delia Harrington | @deliamary

Delia Harrington a freelance writer and photographer focusing on social justice and pop culture through a feminist lens. She loves post-apocalyptic sci-fi, historical fiction, and feminist comic…

The Drunken Moment That Led To One Of Legally Blonde's Most Famous Scenes

Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Coolidge as Elle Woods and Paulette

American actress Reese Witherspoon has had a long-spanning acting career — she is the recipient of multiple accolades, including an Academy Award and several Golden Globe awards. But when discussing Witherspoon's filmography, perhaps her most well-known film to date is "Legally Blonde," a comedy flick that found a surprising foothold on pop culture and pop feminism.

From Elle Woods' (Reese Witherspoon) bonkers Harvard admissions video essay to the rejection of her ex-boyfriend Warner (Matthew Davis), the very reason she decided to go to law school, there are many memorable moments in "Legally Blonde." But the greatest of them all, without a doubt, is Elle's "bend and snap," a move she learned from her mother and had used to pick up men ever since. It turns out the "bend and snap" wasn't always a part of the movie's script — it was added to the film after the creators came up with it during a drunken night at a bar.

And that's how you bend and snap ...

"Legally Blonde" fans have been bending and snapping ever since the 2001 movie was released, but the origin of the incredible (and apparently effective) move is not well known.

For the unfamiliar, the "bend and snap" move was introduced in the film when Elle tells her manicurist Paulette (Jennifer Coolidge) about a move that is guaranteed to get you a date. Elle sees that Paulette is desperate to woo the cute UPS guy who often stops by her salon and makes conversation with her, but she's always shy and can hardly say two words to him without melting into the ground.

When Elle realizes that Paulette needs to make a move — she demonstrates the "bend and snap," a physical movement where you extend your leg and bend over, pretending to pick up something and then snap right up at the end. "When used appropriately," Elle reveals, "it has an 83% rate of return on a dinner invitation." The scene has hilarious energy, and Witherspoon's convincing delivery certainly helped persuade many viewers to try it out at some point.

A little more bend, a little less snap

The "bend and snap" was added to the "Legally Blonde" script after producer Marc Platt decided he wanted a B plot for Paulette. The film's co-writer, Karen McCullah, shared with EW that the team spent a considerable amount of time figuring out how to pitch a new scene for actor Jennifer Coolidge.

"At first we were like, 'Should the store be robbed?'" said McCullah, and co-writer Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith added, "I think we spent a week or two trying to figure out what the B plot and this big set piece should be. There were crime plots. We were pitching scene after scene and it all felt very tonally weird."

Then one night, when the writers were out at a Los Angeles bar, McCullah had a "lightbulb" moment. She thought of how Elle could help Paulette get the guy, and her happy ending. "What if Elle shows [Paulette] a move so she can get the UPS guy?" the screenwriter recalled before demonstrating a version of the "bend and snap" to Smith in her drunken state.

"It was a spontaneous invention," Smith confirmed. "It was a completely drunken moment in a bar."

The scene helped spark a movement everywhere in the world but especially Italy. McCullah revealed that the bend and snap "became a dance move in gay discos in Italy," and Jennifer Coolidge herself witnessed it! The actress was in the country shortly after "Legally Blonde" was released, and watched several people enacting it on the dance floor. And, of course, the "bend and snap" would get immortalized in Broadway's "Legally Blonde the Musical" as a music number titled — what else — " Bend and Snap ." Pretty cool, huh?

The "bend and snap" is easily one of the best moments in the film, and it's pretty amazing to think of what one can come up with after a few rounds of cocktails. Hopefully, we'll see Elle and Paulette mimic it once again in the third "Legally Blonde" movie slated to release later this year!

Legally Blonde, Legally Fashionable: The Evolution of Elle Woods

It’s been 20 years since Elle Woods (played by Reese Witherspoon ) graced the big screen. Even though I didn’t know what movies were when this came out, I’ll never forget how much I fell in love with Legally Blonde – especially after seeing it for the first time, many years later in my government class.

Legally Blonde is a film for the underdogs. It’s also a feminist classic, representing the many women fighting for a voice and the chance to get the same opportunities as their male counterparts. And Elle does just that, but with clothing! We’re going to look at Wood’s outfits by the talented costume designer Sophie de Rakoff and see how they not only impacted her life but paved her way to success! You may not have realized it, but fashion played a massive role in Woods’ story.

The L.A Sorority Girl

We’re first introduced to Elle Woods in an amusing and playful opening scene. Elle is preparing for a very special date with her boyfriend Warner Huntington III (played by Matthew Davis ). She’s wearing a hot pink, cloud-patterned, fitted halter dress with a tie around her waist. The dress is paired with pink heart heels. She’s the President of CULA’s (California University of Los Angeles) Delta Nu sorority, so she proudly wears a gold pin on her dress.

For accessories, she has a bright sunflower pin in her hair and three significant reoccurring pieces of her costumes: silver studded earrings, a silver chain heart pendant necklace, and a matching silver chain heart pendant bracelet. I call this her “3-piece signature set”. This is the first outfit that Elle wears in the film. It’s established that Elle absolutely LOVES pink and is a very happy, bubbly, and lovable person. She also LOVES her adorable Chihuahua, Bruiser Woods (played by the late Moonie ), who has various matching outfits with Elle throughout the movie.

Here’s a fun game: Count how many times you see the 3-piece signature set throughout the article!

Low Viscosity Rayon

In the next scene, Elle heads to the store with her two best friends to pick out a special outfit for the date — in hopes that it ends in an engagement! She tries on this gorgeous, blue sequin dress with straps and a silver chain belt. Elle also has on pink heels. Assuming that she’s unintelligent, the store employee walks over to Elle with a stunning, one-shoulder red gown and tries to scam her by claiming that it’s new and one-of-a-kind.

Elle’s knowledge pays off, though, when she stumps the employee with a fashion-related *question, letting her know that the dress was in the June edition of Vogue a year ago. Elle makes it very clear in this scene that she’s into fashion. She also has extensive knowledge of it and can use it to her advantage—this is an important detail to note. You’ll see why!

*Note to self: You can’t use half-loop top stitching on the hem of a low viscosity rayon dress. It will snag the fabric!

The Breakup

Later that night, while on a date with Warner, Elle shows her love of pink (and halter dresses) by wearing another fitted, hot pink halter dress with a black pattern across it. The high-low dress has a beautiful ruffled hemline that falls almost to the floor as it meets Woods’ black, backless open-toe heels. You’re able to see the entire outfit later on in the date, but unfortunately, it’s as Elle stomps away, upset because Warner broke up with her.

Post Break-Up Makeover

After Elle’s breakup with Warner, this is where we start to see a slight change in Elle’s style. Elle steps away from hot pink halter dresses and turns to a more casual style. Because Elle has been in her room all day torturing herself with romantic movies and chocolate, her friends decide to take her out to the spa to get manicures and pedicures. Elle can be seen wearing a rainbow tie-dye spaghetti strap top with light pink pants, a red belt, and blue high heels. While at the spa, Elle gets an idea! To win Warner back, she decides that she should become a Harvard Law School student.

Elle meets with the Admissions Advisor at CULA, wearing a blue tank top, silver belt, and bright red pants. This look is similar to what she wore at the spa: a sleeveless top, belt, and pants. Because Elle is majoring in Fashion Merchandising, the advisor tells Elle that she’s not the best candidate for Harvard. But due to Elle’s persistence, the advisor gives her information anyways on how to get in. When she gets back to her dorm, Elle starts to return to her cheery self. She’s sitting on the floor studying for the LSATS wearing a blue, gray, and white striped tank, red and white belt, and black jeans. She continues to model the style of the last two outfits.

Welcome to Harvard

After telling her parents about her new plan while wearing a blue sequin bikini, Elle creates an admissions video essay for Harvard. Elle’s original style of wearing hot pink starts coming back as well. In the introduction of the video, Elle wears a hot pink, sequin, halter bikini top in her backyard pool. She wears another sequin dress in the next scene, but this time it’s gold. She’s explaining her strengths to Harvard, noting how she’s “skilled at commanding the attention of a room,” which she certainly does while wearing this gorgeous dress. To me, it looks very 1920s-inspired.

While in the pool again, Elle wears a green, sequin, halter top bikini, the same as the pink and blue one. These first four sequin looks remind me of the blue sequin dress that Elle tried on earlier for her date. But what truly reminds me of her original style is a hot pink halter dress that she wears. It gives me 70’s vibes, especially with its deep V-neck. The outfits in this admissions essay tend to be shiny and attention-grabbing, which most of her outfits are.

This last outfit isn’t in the admission’s video, but it appears in the scene where Elle is opening up her final LSAT scores. She’s wearing a hot pink shirt with dark wash blue jeans. This gives a hint that Elle is returning to her happy self. She’s no longer in a funk and feels more optimistic, especially since she’s one step closer to getting Warner back. Now I won’t say her final LSAT score but let’s just say Elle’s heading to Harvard!

The Gemini Vegetarian

People don’t take too kindly to Elle when she first arrives at Harvard. She’s way different from everyone else, and it clearly shows through her clothes. While the other students and faculty are wearing neutral and monotone colors, Elle shines through — literally. Elle arrives, with Bruiser, of course, in an all-pink outfit. It consists of a pink long sleeve jacket with faux fur and a matching pink pencil skirt with a front slit. She has brown, pointed high-heeled boots and carries a red purse with a patterned scarf tied around the strap. Like the 3-piece signature set, this purse also becomes an essential staple in many of Elle’s outfits and her habit of tying scarves around bag straps.

It’s evident, though, that Elle’s outfits have impacted the way people view her. A student describes her as a “Malibu Barbie” as she enters the school. She’s not taken seriously and gives off a vibe to everyone that she’s unintelligent and only cares about clothes. This idea continues in the next scene, where Elle is checking in for her class materials. She walks up to the desk wearing a very bright outfit. She has an off-the-shoulder, purple, dark blue, and pink striped shirt with a pink newsboy hat and pink pants. She’s wearing a silver belt and is carrying around two bags: A red purse with a scarf tied around the strap and a tan and brown purse that she takes Bruiser in.

The student who is at the desk looks her up and down, giving her a strange look. He also makes a rude, sarcastic remark when she asks about Warner, telling her she should “check with the cruise director on the lido deck.” Despite his comment, my favorite outfit in this scene is where Elle sits around with the other Harvard students. You can clearly see the contrast between their outfits. While the students wear solids and darker colors, Elle’s outfit is the complete opposite, filled with patterns and exciting color choices.

Fresh[wo]man Woods

After her unsuccessful welcoming, Elle attempts to fit in with the rest of the students by toning down her style and wearing an outfit that will make her “look the part” of a Harvard law student. She wears a long, teal, black sweater that reminds me of a mix between a Hogwarts uniform and a mermaid. Elle also wears a teal and black pencil skirt and brown boots. She carries her signature red purse with a scarf tied around it and black glasses to finish the Harvard student look.

Elle attends her first law class that day in this outfit. Still, she gets a reality check from Professor Stromwell (played by Holland Taylor ) and fellow student Vivian Kensington (played by Selma Blair ) when asked to leave due to not being prepared for an assignment. After class, Elle meets up with Warner, who introduces her to his fiancé, Vivian! Elle is speechless and storms off. We later see the pink button-up shirt and entire purple, blue, and yellow plaid tie that’s underneath Elle’s sweater when she breaks down and rants to nail technician Paulette Bonafonte (played by Jennifer Coolidge ) at Neptune’s Beauty Nook Hair and Nails.

Third Time’s A Charm?

After her talk with Paulette, Elle is inspired to win Warner back from Vivian. She starts wearing more pink again, similar to the beginning of the movie. Trying to get Warner’s attention, Elle shows up to one of Warner’s football practices in an eye-catching outfit. Her pink, cropped faux fur coat stands out the most, along with her pink, sequin, halter bikini top that she wore earlier in her Harvard admissions video essay. She also wears pink pants that are secured with a pink belt and beautiful silver wedges.

For her second attempt, Elle wears pink again while trying to win Warner’s heart (and tummy) at the library. She brings a basket full of muffins to his study session, wearing a sleeveless cheetah V-neck top that pairs nicely with her pink pencil skirt. But it’s not enough — at least for Vivian — and she’s turned away. Attempting one last time to impress Warner, Elle accepts a “costume” party invitation from Vivian. Elle arrives in a playboy bunny-like costume with a pink lace corset, and a strapless bodysuit with pink faux fur lining. The bodysuit is paired with hot pink fishnet tights and pink metallic heels. She wears a thin, hot pink choker, a huge bunny ears headband, and a light, fluffy bunny tail. To finish off the look, she carries a small pink handbag with a fluffy pink lining.

The outfit is cute, but everyone’s reactions aren’t. As soon as Elle steps into the room, she’s met with a surprise – she’s been lied to. No one else is wearing a costume. Elle confronts Vivian then finally meets up with Warner. But after he offends her, telling her that she can do something more valuable with her time instead of law school, Elle realizes that she’s never going to be enough for him. She sets off to prove him wrong.

I’ll Show You

Elle gets more serious about law after her revelation with Warner. Her other professor, Callahan (played by Victor Garber ), has mentioned that not only will the class be competing for the highest grade, but for an internship spot at one of his firms, where they’ll get to assist on actual cases. Determined to prove her worth, Elle starts studying more. She also begins to wear less pink and more purple, orange, blue, and red.

She briskly walks past Warner, Vivian, and their friends on her way to the library. She’s wearing this dark blue velvet jacket with a long-sleeved purple sweater underneath and dark blue jeans. Around her neck is a long, purple, red, and pink fringe-edged scarf. She also wears a lavender beanie with a white stripe across it and a big purple flower on the side. And, of course, she’s carrying around her signature red purse with a scarf tied around it. This color scheme continues in the next few scenes. She wears a lavender top in class, an orange top while working out, a red top while she’s at the salon, and a 70’s inspired red, pink, and purple dress shirt with a red sweater over top of it while she’s in class again.

Lastly, Elle ends up taking on her small case. Paulette’s ex-husband has her dog, so Elle tags along with her to get the dog back. Elle wears a very similar outfit to the one that she wore in the library. Her outfit consists of a long, purple fuzzy coat, black pants, a red turtle neck with a pink design, and the same lavender cap with a flower and white stripe across it. Elle adds black glasses this time, though, to create a “lawyer” look.

Lawyer-In-Training

After all of Elle’s hard work, she earns one out of the four spots for the internship at Callahan’s firm! She’s even going to be working on one of the most prominent cases at the time. With significant milestones come big changes as Elle starts to switch up her style again, making it look more professional. She continues to wear button-ups but incorporates blazers and darker colors into her outfits. This time though, her outfits are less forced and more Elle! It’s almost as if she’s reverting to her “Harvard law student” outfit that she wore earlier when trying to blend in with the other students.

Elle showcases her new style on the first day of the case. She struts down the hall wearing a black, button-up quarter-sleeve dress. Underneath, she wears a white polka-dotted shirt that has ruffles falling from the collar and a red flower in the center. The dress also has a gold and black striped, ruffled bottom, and Elle adds black stockings along with black heels. She carries a black briefcase that isn’t as colorful as her purses but still maintains her tied scarf tradition.

Elle wears a black V-neck sweater and skirt with a pop of color on her shirt in the next scene. It’s red, black and white with a swirl design. This is when Elle meets the defendant, Brooke Taylor-Windham (played by Ali Larter ), who’s on trial for the death of her husband. Elle knows Brooke and believes that she’s innocent, but her fellow interns disagree. Elle’s outfits are primarily black at this time which is an extreme contrast from her previous looks. It seems as though her color palette changes throughout her emotions. She’s in a more serious mood now, so her outfits tend to be on the darker side.

The Bend and Snap

Elle steps out of her internship role for a moment as she meets with Paulette again. In this infamous scene, Elle performs “The Bend and Snap” move to get Paulette and everyone else at the salon to gain more confidence and learn how to grab other’s attention. Even though she’s wearing darker-colored pants, Elle adds brighter colors to this look by pairing it with a hot pink spaghetti strap top and a yellow, floral-patterned, see-through top. Elle is in a more relaxed state at this time, and her outfit perfectly blends in with the vibe and color scheme of Neptune’s Beauty Nook Hair and Nails.

O n The Case

Elle returns to work in her business outfits. She’s been spending a lot of time on the case, talking to and interviewing witnesses. Throughout the following few scenes, Elle wears a lot of gray, black, and white. Bright colors have disappeared from her outfits, but she still does manage to feature many patterns. She wears a gray top with a white collar while discussing the case with her colleagues, a gray blazer with a black design on it while meeting with Brooke, and a long black velvet coat with a black velvet skirt, a black belt, and a G-patterned white blouse while she’s out with her colleague Emmett Richmond (played by Luke Wilson ).

The Trial

It’s the first day of the trial, and Elle is ready to take on the world. She’s still wearing business clothes but starts to add subtle hints of color. She shows up with a dark blue jean blazer with a white button-up shirt. On the second day of the trial, she returns with a black blazer, loose black skirt, large fishnet stockings, and black high heels.

She also wears a black, red, and white dress shirt with hints of pink on it. Yes pink! Is this a sign that hot pink Elle is coming back? Well, Elle happens to find out a critical piece of information that will turn this entire case around. But unfortunately, Elle is left with no choice but to leave after Callahan hits on her and tries to take advantage of her. Elle is disgusted at how she was used for her looks and attempts to return to Los Angeles.

Lawyer Woods

After some wise words from Professor Stromwell, Elle returns to the courtroom, but this time as Brooke’s lawyer! The hot pink Elle is back and ready for justice. Elle catches everyone’s eye as she walks down the courtroom in a hot pink dress with a light pink collar and cuffs. Her hot pink heels shine with their glittery buckles. She also wears a glittery belt that ties around her waist and hangs off to the side. And goodbye briefcase, because Elle is back with a matching hot pink purse.

Elle has always been an optimistic and bright person, but here it seems she’s her true happy self, just as she was in the beginning. I love how Elle maintains her love of pink in this outfit and displays a more mature version of herself. And just as she did earlier in the movie, Elle uses her knowledge of glam and fashion to win the case!

What, Like It’s Hard?

Elle graduates from Harvard two years later and will be joining one of Boston’s most prestigious law firms. This is the first time that we see Elle wearing the same thing as everyone else, haha! But we all know that she’s special. Everyone is! And if there’s one thing that this movie has taught me, it’s that you should flaunt your differences and be who you are. Even though Elle was treated a certain way because of how she looked, dressed, and acted, she found a way to turn it into a positive and ended up proving everyone wrong. It’s cool to see how her style went on a journey with her as she found her way back to her roots. Thank you, Sophie de Rakoff, for bringing us this massive collection of costumes that we can cherish forever. You have inspired so many people!

Please check out the Art of Costume Blogcast if you love Legally Blonde and want more of it. There’s a super fun Legally Blonde episode! And I have some great news. Not only is there a Legally Blonde 2, but a Legally Blonde 3 in the works set for May 2022! I can’t wait to see the brilliant costumes.

Legally Blonde | Netflix

Guillaume, Jenna. “Every Outfit In ‘Legally Blonde’, Ranked From Good To Goddamn Iconic.” BuzzFeed , BuzzFeed, 1 July 2021, http://www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaume/every-outfit-in-legally-blonde-ranked-from-good-to-iconic .

2 responses to “Legally Blonde, Legally Fashionable: The Evolution of Elle Woods”

[…] Blogcast, Elizabeth and Spencer celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the 2001 American comedy film, Legally Blonde! Join us as our hosts discuss the classic costumes designed by costume designer Sophie De Rakoff. […]

[…] Tänk Julia Roberts sin stora kavaj eller magtröja i Min bäste väns bröllop. Eller en Elle Woods i helsvart. Goals ändå. […]

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Kim Kardashian Re-Creates Elle Woods’ Harvard Video Essay From ‘Legally Blonde’ For Halloween (Video)

She nailed every detail, even the “I object!”

Kim Kardashian went all out this Halloween, not only dressing up as Elle Woods from “Legally Blonde” for the spooky holiday, but also re-creating Elle’s full Harvard video essay down to every little detail.

“My name is Elle Woods, and for my admissions essay, I’m going to tell all of you at Harvard why I’m going to make an amazing lawyer,” Kardashian says. “As president of my sorority, I’m skilled at commanding the attention of a room and discussing very important issues.”

Kardashian also tweeted photos of herself in the various costumes from the 2001 comedy, including the iconic green sequined bikini and the pink slip dress. Bruiser, of course, was in tow.

In real life, the reality TV star is studying law without attending law school. Her late father, Robert Kardashian, was an attorney and part of O.J. Simpson’s defense team during the football player’s infamous 1997 murder trial.

A third “Legally Blonde” film is officially in the works, with Reese Witherspoon reprising her iconic role. Jamie Suk is directing the film, which is expected to hit theaters next year.

Watch the video below.

Elle Woods Harvard Video Essay pic.twitter.com/PNMBs2dl0C — Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) October 31, 2019

Legally Blonde pic.twitter.com/7deqdWVv60 — Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) October 31, 2019

Legally Blonde! pic.twitter.com/8OIffq7f3f — Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) October 31, 2019

The genius of Legally Blonde has endured for 20 years

When Romance Met Comedy

With When Romance Met Comedy , Caroline Siede examines the history of the rom-com through the years, one happily ever after (or not) at a time.

Maybe there has never been a great time to be a teenage girl, but the 2000s were a particularly rough decade. It was an era where late night hosts treated young women like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan as verbal punching bags. Where The Man Show and South Park dominated Comedy Central. And where the styles being sold to young girls kept getting more and more feminine, even as culture increasingly treated anything and everything “girly” as inherently worthless and embarrassing. The explosion of bubblegum pop in the late ’90s (itself a reaction to the subversive riot grrrl feminism of the early ’90s) unleashed a deeply misogynistic backlash that would last for over a decade.

Needless to say, it was a pretty surreal time to come of age—one that Millennial women like me are just starting to fully unpack now. But looking back at my own teenage years, what’s even more remarkable is the brief burst of early ’00s comedic filmmaking that seemed to offer a preemptive lifeboat for the choppy waters ahead. In the span of just a few years, Miss Congeniality , Bring It On , Josie And The Pussycats , The Princess Diaries , and Bend It Like Beckham briefly reclaimed the much-mocked “chick flick” with a sneakily subversive edge of female empowerment. It was a trend that peaked with the overt messaging of Mean Girls in 2004. But the crown jewel in the “self-love rom-com” canon is unquestionably Legally Blonde , which turns 20 this week.

Based on a manuscript by Amanda Brown, the story of sunny sorority girl Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) and her surprise success at Harvard Law School immediately endeared itself to a generation of viewers. Legally Blonde grossed $141.8 million worldwide, launched Witherspoon as a full-blown movie star, and eventually spawned both a lackluster sequel and a charming Broadway musical adaptation. Legally Blonde is a cultural touchstone whose popularity has never really wavered. The movie reportedly compelled a bunch of real-life women to go to law school, and has definitely inspired any number of graduation speeches. A highly anticipated third installment is set to hit theaters in May 2022 .

In the 20 years since its release, people tend to talk about Legally Blonde in one of two ways: as frothy, featherlight fun or an underappreciated feminist masterpiece . It’s either Animal House for girls or Norma Rae in pink. But while the former makes it sound trivial and the latter makes it sound didactically moralistic, it’s the way that Legally Blonde ’s form and message intersect that really make it something special. Legally Blonde isn’t just a revolutionary feminist text of early ’00s cinema; it’s also one of the savviest, best-paced comedies of its era.

To begin with, the whole movie is a bait and switch. Legally Blonde very much opens as a rom-com. When Elle’s hunky, law-school-bound boyfriend Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis) dumps her because he needs to “marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn,” she’s convinced that all she needs to do is follow the classic romantic heroine playbook: Use some gumption and just a tiny bit of stalking to follow Warner to Harvard, thwart his new brunette fiancé Vivian Kensington (Selma Blair), and win him back. It’s not hard to imagine a version of Legally Blonde that plays that story straight, or at least pivots to a major love story for Elle and Emmett (Luke Wilson), the sheepishly supportive young lawyer she meets on campus. (The latter is the structure the Broadway musical uses, much to the detriment of Elle’s agency and independence.)

But as Elle comes to realize that marriage doesn’t have to be her sole goal in life, Legally Blonde slowly morphs from a romantic comedy to a courtroom one. The movie’s form evolves to suit its function in a way that speaks to the savvy, subversive nature of its storytelling. Legally Blonde is, frankly, smarter than it needs to be, both in its message and economic plotting. Though contemporary reviews wrote it off as a lesser riff on Clueless , the similarities are fairly surface. What makes Legally Blonde work is the sense of ambitious intelligence that immediately emanates from Witherspoon’s bubbly yet sharp take on Elle, who shares a touch of the same drive Witherspoon had brought to Tracy Flick a few years earlier.

Right off the bat, the script by 10 Things I Hate About You screenwriters Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith makes a point of establishing that Elle is smart. When a saleswoman spies an opportunity to take advantage of “a dumb blonde with daddy’s plastic,” Elle immediately sees through the manipulation. It turns out Elle’s fashion merchandising degree isn’t just for show, she knows it’s impossible to use half-loop top-stitching on low-viscosity rayon. And she can spot when someone is trying to sell her last year’s dress at this year’s price. Unlike Alicia Silverstone’s charming guileless Cher Horowitz, Elle isn’t clueless. She’s just got an aesthetic and a set of interests that don’t align with the mainstream idea of serious adulthood.

In that sense, Legally Blonde is a closer spiritual successor to 1953’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , in which Marilyn Monroe played another “dumb blonde” with a surprising depth of specialized knowledge. And as in that Howard Hawks film, there’s a level of self-aware camp that first-time feature director Robert Luketic brings to Legally Blonde. The film’s opening tracking shot wanders through an absurd fantasia of life at the Delta Nu sorority house, where cheerleading practice, group workouts, and mid-afternoon margaritas are the norm. Witherspoon’s performance and Luketic’s direction work together to create a finally honed tone where you can still laugh at Elle, even as you’re rooting for her too. Her earnest, bikini-clad Harvard admissions video essay (directed by “a Coppola”) is patently absurd, but so is the way that everyone around her keeps underestimating her.

Legally Blonde is about the type of people we deem “important” and the type of people we thoughtlessly write off in a world that considers bubbly femininity to be inherently vapid. Though Elle has an arc about learning to own her intelligence and ambition, she mostly functions as a character like Paddington Bear or Ted Lasso , who makes the world a better place by the sheer force of her confidence and optimism. Legally Blonde takes an archetype who in any other film would be a catty, judgmental mean girl, and instead makes her one of the only characters who doesn’t judge a book by its cover. Elle is kind to everyone she meets—from scatterbrained beautician Paulette Bonafonté ( Jennifer Coolidge ) to a nerdy classmate struggling to land a date. Her sorority-honed sense of sisterhood is clearly a net good for the world. And while she’s no pushover, Elle is incredibly magnanimous when it comes to giving people a second chance.

The single most revelatory thing about Legally Blonde is the way Elle and Vivian slowly start to become friends as Vivian warms to Elle’s unflappable integrity and compassion. Transforming women from romantic rivals to allies was the sort of thing that very rarely happened in late-’90s/early-’00s pop culture, where female characters were often deemed worthy by the way they stood in opposition to other kinds of women. Though there are elements of Legally Blonde that haven’t aged well—particularly its reductive, very early ’00s depiction of gay men—I’m still always kind of blown away by the scene where Vivian first extends an olive branch to Elle. As Vivian and Elle share a laugh over their thoughtless boss and Warner’s general incompetence, Blair and Witherspoon lock into a conspiratorially giddiness that rings so true to interactions I’ve had with other women when some external form of sexism has given us an unexpected sense of solidarity.

While there’s never any doubt that Legally Blonde is the type of movie where everything is going to work out okay in the end, Vivian’s redemption is one of several places where there’s some genuine surprise to how it gets there. The other is the way the screenplay unexpectedly reverses the position of Holland Taylor ’s Professor Stromwell, who’s introduced as an uncaring authoritarian, and Victor Garber ’s Professor Callahan, who’s introduced as a tough-but-fair mentor. The moment Callahan calls his blonde protégée into his office only to sexually harass her is a brutal twist that hits the audience as hard as it does Elle. Like 9 To 5 , Private Benjamin , and Working Girl , Legally Blonde is part of a long line of “fluffy” female-led comedies that tackled workplace abuse and harassment long before the #MeToo movement made the topic mainstream.

The fallout from the harassment scene is where Legally Blonde is at its smartest. Elle handles herself confidently in the moment, deflecting Callahan with a cutting quip. But the experience completely rattles her confidence and almost causes her to drop out of law school entirely. Legally Blonde understands the snowball effect of harassment and abuse—the way that even women who ostensibly escape “unharmed” can, in fact, be deeply harmed by the sense that the only thing they’ll ever be valued for is their sexuality. And Legally Blonde understands how women can participate in cruel systems of victim blaming too. Despite the thawing of their relationship, Vivian immediately jumps to the assumption that Elle is sleeping her way to the top.

In the end everything is made right by Stromwell and Emmett—one of cinema’s best male feminist allies. (As McCullah explained , “We always called this the Luke Wilson role as we were writing it. They auditioned a bunch of other guys and we’re like, ‘How about auditioning Luke Wilson for the Luke Wilson role?’”) But it’s Legally Blonde ’s willingness to get into some heftier territory that makes its goofily buoyant, My Cousin Vinny -esque courtroom climax land so effectively. Rolfe Kent’s sweeping, old Hollywood score lends the perfect mix of earnest emotionality and winking self-awareness to Elle’s hair-care-inspired legal victory. And while the idea that Elle is a “diversity candidate” for Harvard is a joke, the notion that diverse lived experiences can help improve our legal system has a kernel of truth to it.

If you were making a list of all the things a “feminist” movie should try to do right, Legally Blonde checks off nearly all of them—particularly by the standards of 2001. Yet, crucially, it never feels like a movie that exists first and foremost to tick boxes. There’s an artistry to the way it zips along on its own comedic wavelength while keeping its feminist themes churning below. In fact, the filmmakers even reshot an unsatisfying original ending that foregrounded Elle and Emmett’s relationship for one that delivered the ultimate example of what screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna calls “and-a-man” rom-com storytelling. Legally Blonde ’s closing graduation speech puts Elle’s self-actualization front and center, and uses her sweet, subtle chemistry with Emmett as the cherry on top.

Like Elle herself, Legally Blonde ’s bright, buoyant aesthetic made it all too easy to dismiss by those who didn’t want to see the film’s depths. Yet for those who did, Legally Blonde offered a hot pink life raft in an increasingly dark cultural moment. Between its endlessly quotable dialogue and instantly iconic costuming, Legally Blonde earned its place in pop culture history with a confidence worthy of its protagonist. And 20 years later, Elle’s star is still as bright as ever.

Next time: With Jungle Cruise on the horizon, we look back at the “adventure romance” genre—from The African Queen to Romancing The Stone to The Mummy.

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Legally Blonde: Elle Woods' Harvard Video Essay

'Legally Blonde' at 20: The cast and crew break down why Elle Woods remains one of the best protagonists of all time

It's been two decades and Elle Woods' "What, like it's hard?" can still be heard any time someone gets into law school.

" Legally Blonde ," directed by Robert Luketic, followed LA sorority girl Elle ( Reese Witherspoon ) as she enrolled in Harvard Law School in an effort to win back her snobby ex-boyfriend, Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis). Along the way, she won her first case through her wits and knowledge of perms.

"It felt like it was wildly under the radar," screenwriter Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith told Insider of the 2001 film.

"There wasn't a ton of hoopla around it by any means," she said of penning the script with longtime writing partner Karen McCullah. "The studio input was really pretty minimal and supportive and it felt like we were being trusted to do what we wanted for the most part."

In honor of the film's 20th anniversary, screenwriters Smith and McCullah along with star Ali Larter (who plays Brooke Windham) looked back at the movie that inspired generations of women to unapologetically pursue law and wear head-to-toe pink without judgment.

On paper, a wealthy homecoming queen who describes herself and her chihuahua, Bruiser, as "Gemini vegetarians" might not be an obviously likable protagonist.

"The pretty, wealthy, popular girl is not usually the underdog," McCullah said. "We flipped it and the humanity of the character because she was so kind to everyone and so optimistic and unfazed."

But beyond her financial status and privileged life, Smith saw Elle as a "big, bold character who was so full of joy and positivity and bubbliness in such a conservative, uptight environment."

Elle's unflinching optimism in a cynical world was woven throughout the narrative. She drew the judgment of her classmates when she pulled up at Harvard's campus in a black Porche with a "22BLONDE" license plate and a shotgun-riding, pink-sweater-wearing Bruiser.

In another scene, she arrived at a party wearing a skimpy bunny costume after being tricked by Warner's fiancée, Vivian Kensington (Selma Blair). Despite the prank and obvious humiliation, she brushed it off and masterfully confronted Vivian for being a "frigid b----."

"She's such a confident girl that we thought it would be funny if she just immediately went over and said something to Vivian about the part she played and then just play it off and stay in her costume the whole time and not worry about it," McCullah said.

"Elle Woods let everything roll off her shoulders when people would insult her," said Larter.

"She didn't let it knock her down or swipe her feet out from under her. She always just kept trekking forward," the actress continued. "That is definitely one of the keys to what makes that character so special and makes people continue to watch the movie over and over again."

McCullah and Smith didn't have any specific actors in mind for the role of Elle when writing and revising the screenplay, based on Amanda Brown's 2001 book of the same name.

But they were thrilled when Witherspoon signed on after the script was complete since they were big fans of the actress' prior projects.

At the time, the actress had starred in movies like "Election" and "Cruel Intentions." A few years after "Legally Blonde," Witherspoon would earn her first Oscar for her performance in "Walk the Line."

"We loved her in 'Freeway.' She had so much moxie in that," Smith said. "She had the perfect balance of comedic ability, the intellectual vibes, and the real dramatic chops, too. She's the entire package."

The duo also wrote the character of Emmett, an associate at Professor Callahan's (Victor Garber) law firm, with Luke Wilson in mind.

"We spent a lot of time faxing the casting director, like 'Luke Wilson, Luke Wilson!' And then finally after the table read where a different actor played Emmett, we were like 'Luke Wilson, Luke Wilson!' And he was like, 'That's a really good idea.' We were like, 'We've been telling you!'" Smith explained, adding that Wilson was offered the role outright without auditioning.

However, the casting director wasn't as certain about Larter's role, as he believed she was too young to play Brooke, the actress recalled. But Larter was determined to play Brooke, a Delta Nu graduate who built a fortune through "Brooke's Butt-Buster Workout" and was accused of murdering her 60-year-old husband.

Brooke's high-profile trial was at the center of the movie and it was revealed that she wasn't responsible for her husband's death because she was getting liposuction — an alibi that would destroy her reputation if people learned that her body was unattainable.

During her audition, Larter recalled "reaching my arm around and really grabbing a hold of my butt to really sell this idea that she would not have this if it wasn't for liposuction."

"I just thought that was funny and I love a bit of physical comedy," she added. "I've only gotten to do it a few times in my career, but when I do those moments, they just make me laugh."

Larter said that "Legally Blonde" was appealing to her because it was simultaneously grounded while also featuring weighted moments, like the scene where Brooke finally told Elle her alibi from a prison phone booth.

"I loved that she was willing to do whatever she had to do to protect her secrets and how heightened that became," Larter said. "It was a really fun character and I loved that she was a Queen Bee, but also a total soul sister. She saw her best friends as her family and would do anything to protect them and have their back too."

Working with Witherspoon was another highlight for Larter, who described the " Big Little Lies " star as "extraordinarily talented" and a big team player off-camera. Larter recalled Witherspoon showing up to set "fully prepared," making it a point to learn the names of the crew members and asking them about their weekends.

Larter added that she appreciated being able to "have a great time" with Witherspoon "and not have this undercurrent of competitiveness that sometimes people think there is" between actresses.

"She's just a really incredible human being," Larter added.

We were trying to come up with a B-plot that happened in the nail salon and we were working in weird directions. Like, maybe it gets robbed. Karen McCullah

"Legally Blonde" was McCullah and Smith's fifth screenplay together, with their first produced credit being the beloved 90s movie "10 Things I Hate About You."

Although there wasn't too much room for improvisation in the script, the screenwriters still recalled the stars adding small touches to their characters.

During rehearsals, Jason Christopher came up with the line "You b----!" which his character shouts before stomping out of the courtroom in response to his boyfriend Enrique (Greg Serano) denying their relationship in his testimony.

McCullah and Smith said that Alanna Ubach, who played Elle's friend Serena, came up with the idea for her character to be fluent in Vietnamese and speak it at the nail salon.

And the famous bend-and-snap move was invented at the L'ermitage Hotel bar in Beverly Hills.

"There really should be a placard there, honestly," Smith joked.

"We were in between meetings and working on the script," McCullah recalled. "And we were trying to come up with a B-plot that happened in the nail salon and we were working in weird directions. Like, maybe it gets robbed, all sorts of crazy stuff."

They then realized they were overthinking it and could add a simple storyline where Elle tries to help manicurist Paulette (Jennifer Coolidge) get her crush's attention by teaching her a move (one that Witherspoon still gets asked to do ).

"Kirsten jumped off her barstool and was like, 'Like this?' And then she did that move," McCullah said, revealing that Smith named it the bend and snap on the spot.

"It just cracks us up that that's become such a lasting thing that people remember. It's literally the silliest thing in the movie," McCullah added.

The cast and crew had no idea that "Legally Blonde" would be a box-office hit, much less a pop-culture staple.

"It was predicted to open at $12 million, then it opened at $20 million," McCullah recalled. "It definitely defied expectations."

Two years later, a sequel was released following Witherspoon's character to DC to fight for animal rights. A musical adaption hit Broadway in spring 2007 and Witherspoon went on to produce a spin-off movie called "Legally Blondes."

Even now, its legacy lives on.

In October 2020, a majority of the cast hopped on Zoom during the coronavirus pandemic to reminisce about the movie and raise money for World Central Kitchen. And when the film was added to Netflix back in April, it quickly jumped to No. 1 on the streamer's list of the 10 most-watched movies at the time.

Celebrities have also shown their appreciation for the flick over the years: Ariana Grande recruited Coolidge to perform a new version of the bend and snap in her "Legally Blonde"-inspired "Thank U, Next" music video while aspiring lawyer Kim Kardashian dressed as Elle for Halloween in 2019, sharing her own take on the famous Harvard admissions-essay video.

But 20 years after the first film was released, we still haven't seen the last of the pink-clad lawyer. A third "Legally Blonde" movie is currently in the works, penned by Mindy Kaling and Dan Goor ("Brooklyn Nine-Nine," ("Parks and Recreation").

However, McCullah and Smith said that it's unclear if they'll be involved in the project — especially after Amazon acquired MGM , the studio that released "Legally Blonde."

"We don't really know what's happening with 'LB 3' at the moment," McCullah said of the film, expected to be released in May 2022. "Hopefully, it will come out. The world needs more Elle Woods."

Until then, the screenwriters hope that fans watching the film nowadays can take a page out of Elle's book as they navigate the world.

Watching people gravitate toward the character's "blithe spirit" and "undaunted" demeanor has "really been meaningful to us," Smith said. "We're happy to be your nostalgia queens."

"It's how we should all exist in life, honestly," McCullah added. "Just be completely oblivious to anyone throwing shade at you."

'Legally Blonde' at 20: The cast and crew break down why Elle Woods remains one of the best protagonists of all time

Olivia singh .