In a new interview with the cast and crew of Legally Blonde, The New York Times has uncovered the very gay original ending to the movie that almost was.
The instant classic debuted in 2001 and follows Elle Woods (played by Reese Witherspoon), a blonde and bubbly aspiring lawyer who climbs the ranks of Harvard Law school despite the efforts of her peers and professionals who continuously underestimate her. The comedy, hailed as a feminist masterpiece at the time and still today, has a devoted LGBTQ+ following even twenty years later.
NYT sat down with cast members Jennifer Coolidge, Jessica Cauffiel, Matthew Davis, Alanna Ubach, and Ali Larter, screenwriters Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullah, casting director Joseph Middleton, costume designer Sophie De Rakoff, choreographer Toni Basil, and cinematographer Anthony Richmond for an oral history of the film, and this is where some queer origins were revealed.
The film ends with Elle graduating from Harvard Law, though writers considered wrapping up the film with her kissing Emmett. "We screened the movie two or three times, and every time people didn’t want to end it with a kiss," recalled Smith. "They thought it wasn’t a story about [Elle] getting a boyfriend, which was really cool to have people say that."
But according to Cauffiel, who played Margot in the movie, the original ending depicted "Elle and Vivian in Hawaii in beach chairs, drinking margaritas and holding hands. The insinuation was either they were best friends or they had gotten together romantically," she says.
Wait, WHAT? Elle and Vivian... together? What a power couple they would have been!
Other alternative endings are even gayer, depending on who you're asking.
"The second or third ending was a musical number on the courtroom steps and as Elle came out, the judge, jury and everybody in the courtroom broke into song and dance," Cauffiel concluded. "I’ve been waiting for somebody to leak that for 20 years."
It's strange to imagine the film any differently, as it's already so iconic, but we certainly love learning about Legally Blonde's undisclosed queer innards. Now if you'll excuse us, we need to sit down for a rewatch and look for all the Elle/Vivian subtext.
