After much anticipation, Elle has premiered on Prime Video. Set in 1995, the prequel series takes place six years before the events of 2001's Legally Blonde, exploring Elle Woods' teenage years as a high school student in Seattle before she became the ambitious Harvard law student audiences came to love.
Reese Witherspoon played the iconic character in the two Legally Blonde films. Now, she is passing the torch to newcomer Lexi Minetree.
Who Is Lexi Minetree?
Lexi Minetree is a 25-year-old American actress from Atlanta, Georgia. She was born on 20 April 2001, the same year Legally Blonde was released. The actress said she had a 'normal upbringing' and described herself as both a theatre kid and a nerd.
'I had a very normal upbringing. I am a total theater kid and a total nerd. I was really into gaming and Pokémon. If you had met me, you would never in a million years be like, "Yep, that's going to be Elle Woods,"' Minetree told Cosmopolitan.
Minetree knew from a young age that she wanted to become an actress. She recently discovered a diary entry confirming that acting had always been her dream.
'It said that I was 10 years old, and I wanted to be an actress,' she said during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The actress also told Cosmopolitan: 'I was also very emotional as a kid. I felt things strongly, and acting was the first place I could use those emotions for good, where you're applauded for showing feelings. Then I said every parent's worst nightmare: "I want to be an actor."'
Minetree studied at the University of Southern California, where she double-majored in theatre and public relations. She graduated in 2024 and, before booking Elle, her biggest screen credit was a guest appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where she played Elodie, a law student — just like Elle Woods.
Stepping Into Reese Witherspoon's Iconic Role
Witherspoon and her production company, Hello Sunshine, conducted an extensive search to find the perfect actress to play the younger version of Elle. When Minetree heard about the casting call from friends, she knew exactly what she had to do.
'I have to recreate her Harvard admissions video, where she's in the hot tub in her pink sequined bikini instead of writing an admissions letter. She's going above and beyond and doing her version of it,' Minetree told Cosmopolitan.
By submitting her own version of Elle Woods' Harvard admissions video, she landed the iconic role, beating out 5,000 other actors.
'I have to tell you, when I saw Lexi Minetree in her video, it stopped me. It took my breath away. She understood. I'm gonna cry again, she's just such an incredible person,' Witherspoon said.
Minetree also revealed that, even before she dyed her hair blonde, strangers often compared her to Witherspoon.
'Even when I was a brunette, random people would come up to me and say, "You know, you know who you look like? You look like Reese Witherspoon,"' she said during her Tonight Show appearance.
Witherspoon herself shared that when she watched Minetree's audition tape, 'I was like, "Are we the same person?"'
Reflecting on the iconic character, Minetree told Cosmopolitan: 'What I love about Elle is that even though she still does the work, she speaks so positively about herself and is so confident in her abilities that she almost manifests them.'
With Elle already renewed for a second season, fans can look forward to seeing Minetree reprise her role as the young Elle Woods when the story continues.
