Elle Wood’s perfect day at the conclusion of “Legally Blonde” could have looked completely different — at least according to two of the film’s actors.
And Selma Blair recently said on Evan Ross Katz’s podcast, “Shut Up Evan,” she would’ve “loved” this alternate ending.
Most remember the conclusion of the beloved 2001 movie with Reese Witherspoon (Elle) speaking at her Harvard Law School graduation. After she gives a speech about seeing past first impressions and believing in oneself, overlaying text explains what transpired for the movie’s major characters. One of the biggest revelations was that Elle and Blair’s character Vivian — who began the movie at odds with one another, spurred by their interest in the same man — are now best friends. It also noted that Elle was dating Luke Wilson’s character Emmett.
But according to an oral history of “Legally Blonde” to celebrate its 20th anniversary in the New York Times published last year, two of the film’s actors, Jessica Cauffiel (Margot) and Alanna Ubach (Serena), said the film once had a completely different ending.
“The first ending was Elle and Vivian in Hawaii in beach chairs, drinking margaritas and holding hands,” Cauffiel told the Times, and Ubach agreed. “The insinuation was either they were best friends or they had gotten together romantically.”
The Times notes that the film’s screenwriters, Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith, denied this claim, and later said they never wrote that ending during an interview with Yahoo in 2021.
When Blair was told about this alternate ending while appearing on the “Shut Up Evan” podcast this month, she was into the idea. But admitted she had never seen or heard of this ending in the past.
“No, but I love that idea! What fun,” Blair said, adding that she’s friends with the writers. “I would’ve loved that so much.”
This ambiguous ending wasn’t the only one Cauffiel and Ubach shared with the Times. They said there was a version in which Vivian dyed her hair blonde and another that concluded with a big musical number.
Smith did note there was an ending that was tested for audiences in which Elle was kissing Emmett as the final shot.
“We screened the movie two or three times, and every time people didn’t want to end it with a kiss,” Smith said. “They thought it wasn’t a story about [Elle] getting a boyfriend, which was really cool to have people say that.”