Reese Witherspoon became a household name playing a lawyer in Legally Blonde, but that doesn’t mean she’s actually one — and that’s something the star has had to remind fans and juries alike.
During an interview on The Graham Norton Show on Friday, Witherspoon, 48, revealed she was once selected as a foreman on jury duty all because of her role in the beloved 2001 comedy.
“Well listen, I did not want to do jury duty,” she said. “But I remember it was after Legally Blonde. It was probably like seven years after Legally Blonde, I got called for jury duty and it was in Beverly Hills.”
“I thought, ‘Surely they’re not gonna pick me,’” she said. “They picked me for a long trial, y’all. It was probably two weeks. I was on the jury.”
The Oscar winner added that she was “very invested” in the case, but was surprised when her fellow members of the jury selected her for an important role. “We went every day and then we went to deliberation and so at the very end they say, ‘Okay, well somebody in this group has to be the foreman’ and they all unanimously are like, ‘Her,’” the actress said.
She added that the group said they picked her because “you went to law school” — although nothing could be further from the truth. “I was like, ‘Y’all this is really upsetting. I definitely did not go to law school, I didn’t finish college,’” Witherspoon continued. “I played a lawyer in a movie once but they fully made me the foreman and I started realizing people don’t know much about the law.”
In May 2024 Witherspoon announced a brand-new era of Legally Blonde for Amazon Prime Video. The streamer will bring an Elle Woods-focused prequel series to the small screen, and while a younger actress will portray Elle, Witherspoon will be on board as an executive producer.
“I had this crazy idea that the world might want to know the origin story of Elle Woods,” she told the audience. “So, here I am to officially tell you the most amazing news ever, which is that we’re going back to high school with Elle.”
“Before she became the most famous Gemini vegetarian to graduate from Harvard Law School, she was just a regular ‘90s high school girl,” Witherspoon added. “And thanks to Amazon and Hello Sunshine, all of you are going to get to know her in this new series on Amazon Prime Video. I’m so excited.”
The original Legally Blonde film followed Witherspoon as Elle Woods, a California sorority girl who applies to Harvard Law School in hopes of winning back her ex-boyfriend, Warner (Matthew Davis). Along the way, she subverts everyone’s low expectations, proving there is more to her than meets the eye. The now-iconic film spawned a 2003 sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, a 2007 Broadway musical adaptation and a 2009 straight-to-DVD spinoff, Legally Blondes.
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