One of the more (kind of) modern cinema classics, its easy to see why audience adored Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods.
The movie, which premiered in 2001, followed the sorority girl as she applied (and got into) Harvard Law School to be with her former flame…before realising that she was way, way too good for him.
Along the way, she made some new friends, taught other characters (and the audiences) how to bend and snap, and taught us that skills learned in one area of life can be adapted to other parts.
The final moments of the movie saw Elle standing proudly in front of her fellow classmates as she gave her feel-good graduation speech – which saw her get a standing ovation.
But it turns out that there was actually an alternative ending that fans didn’t get to see.
And, we’ve got to say, we’re kind of happy we didn’t.
The fim’s co-writer Karen McCullah told Entertainment Weekly:
“Originally it ended at the courthouse right after the trial.
“Everyone was congratulating Elle, and Emmett came up and gave her a big kiss.
“Then there was a tag where it was a year in the future and she and Vivian, who was now blond, had started the Blonde Legal Defense Fund and they were in the quad handing out pamphlets.”
But it turns out that the test audiences didn’t love the ending, which led to McCullah and her co-writer, Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith, redeveloping the ending.
McCullah said:
“The test-screening audience didn’t feel like it was an exciting enough ending for her, success-wise. The kiss made it seem like it was a rom-com.”
Smith added:
“They knew that this was not a movie about a girl getting a guy.”
Despite Reese Witherspoon filming The Importance of Being Earnest in England (with short hair, too) and Luke Wilson having shaved his head for The Royal Tenenbaums, they re-shot the ending.
So there were wigs galore, basically.
They actually ended up shooting the graduation scene in London, with the reaction shots being spliced in from the Burbank soundstage footage.
But there was one thing that the writers really wanted to see happen when they re-shot the ending.
McCullah said:
“When we decided to redo the ending I’m like, ‘She still needs to be able to tell Warner off.'”
