Reese Witherspoon Personally Hand-Picked Lexi Minetree to Play Elle Woods. Does She Look Enough Like a Young Reese Witherspoon or Should They Have Casted Ava Phillippe?

After The Raine June 25, 2026

Reese Witherspoon said she watched Lexi Minetree’s audition tape and thought, “Are we the same person?” That tape, a playful riff on Elle’s Harvard application video from the 2001 movie, is what landed the 25-year-old USC theater grad the lead in “Elle,” the Prime Video prequel premiering July 1, 2026.

The series is a high school origin story set in 1995, six years before the events of “Legally Blonde.” Minetree plays a teenage Elle Woods navigating high school in Seattle after moving from Bel-Air. Witherspoon is an executive producer through her company Hello Sunshine and personally delivered the casting news in a now-viral video.

Blonde woman in a red mini dress and white sneakers posing on a city sidewalk holding a red glitter tote bag.
A full-length view of Minetree’s all-red look — a racerback mini dress paired with white sneakers — as she pauses outside 30 Rockefeller Plaza after her Today Show appearance. Photo by Eric Kowalsky / MEGA.
Blonde woman in a red mini dress smiling and carrying a red bag that reads 'LEXI' in glitter letters on a New York City sidewalk.
Lexi Minetree walks out of the Today Show in NYC clutching a red sparkle-lettered ‘Lexi’ tote bag, flashing a wide smile at onlookers on June 25, 2026. Photo by Eric Kowalsky / MEGA.
Smiling blonde woman in a red mini dress waving at the camera outside a glass-fronted building in New York City.
Minetree waves to the cameras outside the Today Show studios, her red mini dress and half-up blonde hair on full display, on June 25, 2026 in New York City. Photo by Eric Kowalsky / MEGA.

The resemblance debate kicked off the moment Minetree was announced. She has the blonde hair, blue eyes, and a similar facial structure to a young Witherspoon, and fans of the audition tape say she nails the mannerisms, the voice, even the slight lisp. Others argue the closer physical match was right there in the family. Ava Phillippe, Witherspoon’s 26-year-old daughter, has been called her mom’s mini-me for years.

Blonde woman in a sheer black lace and snake-print slip dress with gold earrings and visible arm tattoos posing at a Scream 7 premiere backdrop.
Dressed in a sheer snake-print slip dress and gold drop earrings, Lexi Minetree attended the global premiere of ‘Scream 7’ at Paramount Pictures Studios, Los Angeles, on February 25, 2026. Photo by MEGA.
Blonde woman in a pink strapless feather-trimmed corset gown and satin bunny ears headband laughing indoors, from the movie Legally Blonde.
Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods in her iconic pink bunny costume from the 2001 film ‘Legally Blonde’ — the role Lexi Minetree is set to take on in the new series. Credit: Legally Blonde.

Phillippe has only recently started taking acting seriously, with a 2025 debut on “Doctor Odyssey” and roles in “Ransom Canyon” and “Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me.” When casting was announced in early 2025, she didn’t have the credits for a lead in a major series. Witherspoon has said she was looking for someone who could carry Elle’s spirit, not just her look, and praised Minetree’s “beautiful heart” while talking about “passing the pink torch.”

Two blonde women in black strapless dresses smiling on a red carpet at the Critics' Choice Awards, one pointing at the other.
At The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Reese Witherspoon and her daughter attend the 29th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards on January 14, 2024, both dressed in matching black strapless gowns as Witherspoon points toward her daughter. Photo by MEGA.

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