‘Legally Blonde’s Jennifer Coolidge Admits She “Stupidly” Thought She Was Auditioning To Play Elle

Although nobody else could play Paulette Bonafonté quite like her, Jennifer Coolidge went into Legally Blonde with other ideas.

While reuniting with her co-stars from the beloved 2001 comedy at Prime Video’s Elle World on Saturday, the Golden Globe winner admitted she “stupidly thought” she was auditioning for the titular role of Elle Woods, which was immortalized by Reese Witherspoon.

“Well, you know, I forgot that when we first started filming, I was only 17 years old,” she joked on a panel moderated by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers. “No, I was, and so I just can’t believe it. All this time has gone by.”

Coolidge continued, “No, but I do wanna say this, because I thought this was the funniest thing. I was so lucky to get cast in this movie, and it is one of my favorite jobs of all time, but I stupidly thought that when I was auditioning, I thought I was gonna be Elle.”

Marking the movie’s 25th anniversary and Prime Video’s new prequel series Elle, Coolidge reunited at Elle World with co-stars Witherspoon, Ali Larter, Selma Blair, Victor Garber and Matthew Davis, as well as musicians Hoku and Vanessa Carlton, whose songs “Perfect Day” and “A Thousand Miles” are featured on the original movie’s soundtrack.

Ahead of the show’s July 1 premiere, Elle stars Lexi Minetree, Zac Looker, Jacob Moskovitz, Chandler Kinney, Gabrielle Policano, Tom Everett Scott and June Diane Raphael were also in attendance, plus executive producer Lauren Neustadter.