Reese Witherspoon praises Lexi Minetree in ‘Legally Blonde’ prequel

Reese Witherspoon is opening up about the search for the next Elle Woods, revealing why an open casting call was central to finding the lead for the Legally Blonde prequel series, Elle.

The upcoming Prime Video series stars Lexi Minetree as the younger version of Elle Woods, whose life changes after leaving Bel-Air for Seattle. Witherspoon serves as an executive producer and played a key role in developing the project, which premieres on Wednesday, July 1.

Executive producer Lauren Neustadter credited Witherspoon for the concept, telling PEOPLE, “I mean, this whole show was her idea. And then we just sort of took it and ran with it.”

Neustadter said Witherspoon was determined to hold an open audition.

“She really wanted to do an open call,” she explained. “She really felt like the Elle Woods thing to do was give every young woman an opportunity to try out if they wanted to.”

The casting call, launched in September 2024, attracted “thousands and thousands of tapes” before Minetree was announced as the winner four months later.

“We have amazing casting directors on the show, and they sent us a bunch of the self-tapes, but Lexi was just exceptional from the start,” Neustadter said. “Her slate was so funny. She did the Harvard admissions video, but her sort of spin on it, and then her reading was just incredible.”

She also praised Minetree’s performance, saying the actress “did an amazing job of not mimicking Reese, but channeling her,” adding that she “really honors the character in such a beautiful way.”