Lexi Minetree, who stars as Elle Woods in the series ‘Elle,’ a ‘Legally Blonde’ prequel.
Tory Stopler Photography
Lexi Minetree, 25, was born in 2001, the same year that the original Legally Blonde starring Reese Witherspoon hit theaters. Now, in 2026, she has taken on the mantle of Elle Woods, playing the sorority girl turned Harvard Law student before she headed off to college in Elle, the prequel series to the films that airs on Amazon Prime as of July 1.
“Elle Woods is one of my favorite characters that I’ve ever gotten to play,” Minetree tells me on Zoom. “I feel like we always kind of take on a little part of our character whenever we play them, and she’s the best character to have in your body.”
“I mean, she’s an optimist,” Minetree adds. “She sees the best in people. She’s hardworking. She’s cheerful. She’s silly. It’s all my favorite parts of myself that I get to just step into every day.”
While Minetree says that carrying on Elle’s legacy has “been amazing,” she admits, understandably, that she was nervous ahead of taking on the role. “She means so much to people, and I knew a lot of people would have eyes on this and high expectations,” she tells me. “And obviously I wanted just to do justice by her. But I was really proud of it, and I had a lot of fun getting to play her. And I think when you’re enjoying yourself, I think people can see that in the work—especially for a comedy. And I’m really, really, really proud of myself.”
Lexi Minetree on June 17, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by TheStewartofNY/GC Images)
GC Images“She Let Her Outfits Do More of the Talking, But the Face Was There To Elevate It”
While Elle is known for her wardrobe’s pink color palette, Minetree, for her part, prefers the color green. She’s a natural brunette, but serendipitously dyed her hair blonde “on a whim” after she graduated college, she told W. “I felt the drive to go blonde because I was like, ‘It’s summer, it’ll be fun,’” she said. “‘It’s a new era of my life.’ Then, a couple of months later, the open call came out [for Elle], so I was very glad for that timing.”
Elle takes place as Elle Woods turns 16 years old and is set in 1995—the same year that the world was introduced to Cher Horowitz in Clueless, a year when grunge was giving way to minimalism in fashion and eyebrows were thin and highly arched. While much is made of Elle’s style (as Minetree told W, “you don’t have Elle Woods without the fashion”), I wanted to talk about beauty with Minetree—both her character’s aesthetic and her own. If you’re paying attention as you watch, Elle features a number of product placements, with Business of Fashion even wondering if the show marked “the new blueprint” for doing so. The prequel series, according to the outlet, “is taking the ties between product and plot to another level.” The show even has an official makeup sponsor—L’Oréal Paris.
Laura Branik, brand president of L’Oréal Paris USA, tells me via email that becoming Elle’s official makeup sponsor “extended far beyond product placement.”
“We worked closely with Prime Video to develop a true 360-degree marketing ecosystem surrounding the series,” she says.
This included a phased influencer strategy “that evolved from fueling premiere anticipation to sustaining long-term cultural conversation,” Branik says. It also included immersive activations that brought longtime Legally Blonde fans into the world of Elle to experience the brand’s products firsthand. The brand reimagined the “Get Ready With Me” format, partnering with Minetree to create custom content “that didn’t just showcase a look, but transported fans directly into the aesthetic and world of Elle,” Branik explains. This fall, L’Oréal Paris will bring the collaboration to shelves, introducing what Branik describes as a “retail journey that empowers viewers to claim the Elle x L’Oréal Paris look and make it their own.”
The brand wanted its presence to feel like “a natural extension of the story,” she adds, weaving products into Elle—and Minetree’s—routine. Branik called the partnership “an incredible opportunity to bring the L’Oréal Paris brand to life in a way that felt authentic, cultural and emotionally resonant.”
“We loved how this series celebrates confidence, ambition and self-expression—all values that have always been at the heart of L’Oréal Paris,” she says.
While brands often partner with entertainment properties, Branik tells me that this level of fully integrated collaboration “is less common.”
“Today’s consumers expect brands to participate in culture in meaningful ways rather than simply advertise alongside it,” she says. “For L’Oréal Paris, we’re increasingly focused on partnerships where there’s authentic alignment between the story being told and our brand purpose. When that alignment exists, it creates richer storytelling, stronger consumer engagement and ultimately more meaningful business impact.”
While L’Oréal Paris was the official makeup sponsor for season one, she tells me that the brand doesn’t currently have an announcement to share at this time about season two involvement.
Elle embodies the brand’s “Worth It” spirit, Branik says—a nod to its longtime “Because you’re worth it” slogan. “L’Oréal Paris has a long history of championing women’s empowerment, confidence and self-worth, values that naturally align with the spirit of Elle,” she tells me. “We believe beauty is about empowering people to define success on their own terms, making the partnership feel like a natural extension of both brands.”
One specific L’Oréal Paris product Minetree’s makeup artist Jennifer Powell used was L’Oréal’s Infallible 8 Hour Pro Lip Gloss in the shade Tickled Pink. (Powell also told Allure that she used Benefit’s Benetint—the original version from the 1990s—and, if a gloss was needed, MAC Lipglass on top.)
“I feel like Elle loves a lip stain, and I love a lip stain because it kind of just looks like you ate a lollipop and it’s really cutesy, very demure,” Minetree tells me. “It’s like, ‘Oh, this is my natural lip,’ but it’s not. You know what I mean?” In her real life, “I was like, ‘I need to try lips more because I’ve been leaving them bare bones,’” Minetree says.
Elle is also on trend for the mid-1990s “no makeup makeup” look, very less is more or, in Minetree’s words, “highlighting the natural beauty.” She tells me that on set they used L’Oréal’s True Match Foundation and made it “just blend,” Minetree explains. “And it’s almost like if you looked at it, it would almost look like Elle isn’t wearing makeup, but she was.”
Minetree also tells me that her character used a purple eyeliner, “which I love, because of course Elle Woods would have a little purple eyeliner, but it was very subtle,” she says. “She let her outfits do more of the talking, but the face was there to elevate it.”
Lexi Minetree attends the ‘Elle’ U.K. special screening at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on June 30, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
Jeff Spicer/Getty Images“I’m Playing a Teenager—I Need To Do Everything I Can”
In her own life, Minetree loves “a good blush,” she tells me. “I’m a blush girl over contour for sure. When I wear contour, I look like I put dirt on my face. It just doesn’t work for me.” In true Elle Woods style, Minetree says, “Some of us are more blush girls. That’s okay. We should accept and love ourselves.” When it comes to blushes she’s into, she points to Milk Makeup, Merit Beauty and Ilia Beauty; she appreciates the latter because “it’s very natural,” she says. “It’s a stick, too. I love a stick moment. You just put it on and then I blend it with my fingers—which, I don’t know if that’s right or not. I just do it.”
She’s also a fan of “a lash moment, making your eyes pop, mascara,” Minetree says. She uses L’Oréal’s Voluminous Lash Paradise, which she “literally will swear by” and has been using for years. “It’s waterproof,” she tells me. “It has to be, because I’m a crier. It really has to be waterproof.” To illuminate her point, she adds that “It lasted through Hamnet. Enough said.”
For skincare, Minetree admits that her routine is “absurd”—“nine steps,” she tells me. “And I’m going on a hiking trip soon, and I’m scared because I don’t think I can bring it all with me. So we’re going to see what happens.”
Minetree swears by her NuFace microcurrent device, practicing the art of sculpting “because my face is very round, so I do what I can,” she says. “And I needed a little bit of help.”
At night, she’ll do an oil cleanser—“got to get off that mascara,” she explains—and double cleanses with her regular cleanser. Then it’s time for hyaluronic acid spray and a moisturizer. She’s also using a hydrating retinol from Canadian brand Skin Girls that she describes as “chef’s kiss, the best thing ever. It’s the only retinol that I’ve ever been able to use that doesn’t actually make my skin turn into a red welt.” Like me, Minetree has sensitive skin, and this retinol works so well for her, she says, that she’s sometimes used it multiple times a day. “You shouldn’t do that,” Minetree quips. “But I’ve done it, and it’s been fine.”
In the morning, she’ll use her moisturizer and a tinted sunscreen, as well. “I also have an eye cream that I wear because I’m playing a teenager,” Minetree says. “I need to do everything I can.”
Keep in mind that Minetree wasn’t yet alive in 1995, so as she played Elle, she learned that skincare wasn’t always as advanced as it is in 2026. “The thing that cracked me up the most, though, was there was one scene where she’s washing her face with soap,” Minetree tells me. “And I was like, ‘Maybe that was a ‘90s thing, but I would never.’” She adds, “They told me to do that, and I was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.’” When I tell her that the skincare market wasn’t nearly as saturated or elevated in 1995 as it is today, she says, correctly, “We’ve come so far. We really have.”
Lexi Minetree at Prime Video’s ‘Elle’ New York City premiere on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)
Variety via Getty Images“It’s Everything That We Loved About Season One on Steroids”
Minetree describes Elle as “heartwarming”; Amazon Prime has already picked up the show for a second season, which has already been filmed. In season two, she tells me, “we get extra silly. We get extra fun. We get extra kooky bananas. We had a good time. Me and the cast, we’ve talked about this. We might even like season two more than season one. Season one is amazing, but just, season two—it’s everything that we loved about season one on steroids.”
The writing is elevated, she explains; all of the actors understand their characters more. Season one was about introducing the people of the show, and in season two, “we can just go even deeper into all the relationships and everything,” Minetree says, teasing that she “got to do my own stunts”—but she leaves it there.
Minetree tells me that they wrapped season two of Elle and immediately went into press for season one. “It has been a whirlwind,” she says, telling me as we speak on Thursday that she just got back on Sunday, a few days prior.
“What’s been amazing is the reception of it,” she says of Elle. “I mean, you work so hard on something and to finally have it out in the world and for people to be able to enjoy it—it’s really special.”
Minetree is especially touched by little girls doing watch parties with their friends where they all wear pink. “It’s so special to hear,” she says.
As iconic a character as Elle Woods is—Minetree is just getting started. “Obviously, this was a really special character,” she says. “And I’m excited to show my range and dive into something else, too.”
Lexi Minetree is seen at NBC Studios on June 25, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Raymond Hall/GC Images)
GC Images“Stepping Into Shoes That Are Enormous and Pink and Six Inches Tall Can Be Scary”
Witherspoon has been “incredibly supportive,” Minetree told The Hollywood Reporter. Throughout Elle’s press run, Minetree—who had been told she looks like Witherspoon long before she landed the part of Elle—notably wore a Marc Jacobs dress that Witherspoon wore to the Legally Blonde premiere a quarter century ago. When Minetree’s stylist Molly Dickson pulled it out and Minetree tried it on, “it fit perfectly,” Minetree told W. “No tailor needed. It was kind of spooky, honestly.” Minetree also wore a pink strapless archival Stella McCartney gown to a U.K. screening of Elle that Witherspoon previously wore to the Met Gala in 2014.
Lexi Minetree and Reese Witherspoon on June 20, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Prime Video)
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Prime Video
On the July 22 episode of “The Who What Wear Podcast,” Dickson told Hillary Kerr, “At this point in my career now, my one big thing is I only want to work with nice people. And Lexi is literally the biggest sweetheart.”
After an hour and a half Zoom where they got to know one another, “We were talking about boys and, like, it was just—it was like two girlfriends catching up,” Dickson said. “I think we literally talked about fashion for maybe five, 10 minutes.” At Minetree’s first fitting—which lasted “six, seven hours,” Dickson said—Lana Del Ray “came to say hi,” Dickson added, “we got McDonald’s, and I’m like ‘This is how it should be.’ Like girls playing dress up. It should be fun, and we shouldn’t take it too seriously.”
In addition to sharing clothes with her, Witherspoon has had high praise for Minetree. On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Witherspoon described Minetree as “such a bright light” and elsewhere as “such an incredible person”; she’s also said that Minetree’s audition tape for Elle “took my breath away.”
“I was like, ‘I want you to understand the responsibility of what this means to people,’” the Oscar winner said in a video shared to her Instagram last month as she fought back tears. “‘Little girls are gonna come up to you, and it’s, like, massive responsibility.’”
Minetree told Cosmopolitan that “Stepping into shoes that are enormous and pink and six inches tall can be scary”—but she was determined to put her own mark on the character of Elle Woods and the Legally Blonde franchise.
“25 years later, and people are still talking about Elle Woods, quoting Elle Woods, going to law school because of Elle Woods,” Minetree told The Hollywood Reporter. “That’s crazy power for one character to have.”