- 17 hours ago
Lexi Minetree takes us behind the scenes of 'Elle' for a full day on set. From the hair and makeup trailer to stepping in front of the camera, Lexi shares an inside look at the beauty routines, on-set rituals and preparation that transform her into her character as young Elle Woods.
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00:00Hi, Lore. I'm Lexi Minitri. I am playing Elle Woods. We are here on the set of Elle, and this
00:07is All Access.
00:12So it starts in 1995. Young Elle Woods, she's 16 years old. She has the perfect life in Bel Air,
00:22and something happens with her dad where he botches a nose job,
00:28and they have to lie low in Seattle. Elle, we're moving to Seattle. No. It doesn't sound right.
00:38If anyone doesn't know, Seattle in 1995 is the heart of the grunge movement. Pretty in Pink Elle Woods in
00:48the grunge movement is quite a fun thing to witness, and she's definitely thrown for a loop.
00:54Hello, I am Jennifer Powell, and I am the head of the department of makeup on the TV series Elle.
00:59Approaching the makeup for Elle Woods, I went to, of course, the original series of Legally Blonde.
01:05I was inspired by Sex and the City, Reality Bites, Cameron Diaz. Her makeup is relatable. It shouldn't distract. It
01:12shouldn't be satirical.
01:13It's a clean approach to a young girl that just loves her little beauty routine.
01:18We're able to sort of do a lot of prep to sort of keep the skin looking great and fresh
01:25all day.
01:25So Lexi is so good at taking care of her skin already. She came to me with beautiful skin, which
01:30I'm grateful for.
01:31But we go to the Skin Girls and Lisa Marie, and she gets her beautiful facials done there.
01:36We go and get tans regularly at Tan Coover. Yes, it's called Tan Coover.
01:41And that also minimizes Lexi's chair time, and she always has that California girl glow.
01:47Then I went back to my MAC roots for the 90s, and MAC has been incredible at sort of really
01:54supporting sort of the whole classic 90s makeup.
01:57So these are some classic. We've got Jest here, Trax, Hoax, Pink Swoon by MAC for that California innocent flesh
02:05of Elle Woods that we love.
02:07Lexi's favorite mascara is waterproof L'Oreal Paradis, and we go through a lot of that.
02:13And classic 1995 Benetint. I love it. I think it gives Lexi like it's a long lasting lip. It's a
02:20stain.
02:20And it gives her a really natural lip because she's 16. We're not trying to gild the lily, as I
02:25say.
02:26And Buxom in Danny. I think this is our third tube of Buxom in Danny.
02:30It's amazing when I am on location and people sort of see the makeup bag for Elle and they're like,
02:35what's that lip gloss?
02:36Osea. It's clean. It stands for Ocean, Sea, Earth, and Air. This bottle was actually in Legally Blonde, too.
02:42We do have the classic Frenchies, the French tips.
02:48Thank you, Tony.
02:49Thank you, Tony.
02:50We weren't going for anything modernized. We wanted a thick, squared nail, just like I wore in 1985.
02:56That's our inspo, classic French, you know, and baby pink on the toes.
03:01Which I picked off, by the way. There's only like three toes left.
03:05I was hoping you would do that.
03:09I really wanted to capture her voice and her movement because it's so specific.
03:14Because she's not a valley girl. A lot of people I feel like might think that Elle's a valley girl,
03:18but she is not.
03:19But she has this rhythm to the way that she speaks.
03:22So I would watch the movie and I would write down her little isms and how she would react to
03:28things and her highs and her lows.
03:32And when she had certain emotions, her voice would go a certain way.
03:35And so that was really exciting to me because I've never played a role where I kind of was copying
03:43someone else or playing an homage to them.
03:45So one of the most iconic lines is, what, like it's hard.
03:49But the way Elle says it is, what, like it's hard?
03:53What, like it's hard?
03:54So it has a, like an arc to it. It's really hard to say.
03:58So I would just practice every day drilling it in.
04:00So now I feel like whenever the cameras start to roll, I just drop into it.
04:07Today we're filming episode six.
04:10We're doing some of the detention scenes, which is so fun.
04:13Because it's an homage to The Breakfast Club.
04:16And it's one of the first scenes where we all get to be together, all the young cast members.
04:21And we just have a grand old time together.
04:25Wait, they're coming in. Who's in?
04:26Okay, so that's, that's Jacob.
04:29He's like, he's playing Miles.
04:33Don't, he's camera shy.
04:35And then we have Chandler at the end.
04:38She plays, she's the best.
04:41She plays Kimberly.
04:42She's nothing like her character, which is amazing.
04:47Kimberly's really mean.
04:48And Chandler is the sweetest human known to man.
04:52Love you.
04:55Normally I just do my script work during this time.
04:58I have my little system with my little tabs.
05:01I go through each episode, each scene.
05:03You did have a playlist.
05:05I do, I did, you're right.
05:07You did, you did make a playlist.
05:07I have a, I do have an Elle Woods playlist.
05:09And it's a great playlist.
05:10That is pretty good if I do say so myself.
05:13We have Material Girl by Madonna.
05:16Supermodel by Jill Sobuul.
05:19Hold On by Wilson Phillips.
05:22We got a little bit of Alanis Morissette.
05:25Elton John.
05:26Bonnie Tyler, Total Eclipse of the Heart.
05:29Hootie and the Blowfish, Only Wanna Be With You.
05:31That's definitely a me pick.
05:32I just had to throw it in though.
05:34The Promise by Win in Rome.
05:35I photoshopped a little picture.
05:40Putting my PR degree to use.
05:43Did Reese give you any helpful advice?
05:46She did.
05:47She's been so wonderful this entire process.
05:50She sent me this little clip of Elle.
05:53And she was saying how in the clip.
05:56She's always soft, but always fierce.
05:59And she stands up for herself.
06:01And even though Elle is such a kind, caring person.
06:03It doesn't mean that she lets people walk all over her.
06:06I think that is what stuck out to people so much about Elle Woods.
06:09Because she has those different sides to her.
06:12I think people think that someone who's very feminine.
06:15And cares about style and their looks.
06:17And who is kind.
06:18They aren't strong or they're naive.
06:21I just don't think that's the case.
06:22I think that is her super power.
06:24And Reese is the one who reminded me of that.
06:26To keep that in mind.
06:27This is the part where Lexi goes down to hair.
06:30And then after hair we will just do one more little zhuzh.
06:33But this is the Elle Woods glow.
06:39What is that shield?
06:41Hey!
06:44What a wonderful angle.
06:47And you still look amazing.
06:55Hey Zach!
06:58Oh!
06:59Zach joined the pilot!
07:01Woo!
07:03Some people wear wigs to show.
07:06But not me.
07:07It's all natural, baby.
07:09This is the lovely Flo.
07:13Who is the one who makes my head look gorgeous.
07:19Hi, my name is Laurencie Cepeda.
07:21I'm head of the hair department on the series Elle.
07:23You'll see in the beginning of the series when we see the opening of Elle coming to the school,
07:27you're going to see a lot of bleach blonde box dyed color.
07:30And we actually went in with real box dye.
07:33So it would give it that 90s untoned look.
07:37Like, hey, I just bought this at the store and I decided let's go for a new look.
07:40It's not perfect.
07:42It's perfectly imperfect.
07:44It's real.
07:46Part of the series takes place in Bel Air.
07:49So we had a lot of inspiration from 90210, Melrose.
07:54And then when we came to Seattle, it's more Seattle grunge.
07:59Things that are a little bit more lived in.
08:00Things like growing out roots.
08:02A lot of our inspiration came from shows like My So-Called Life.
08:06We do have some cast wearing wigs.
08:09I won't say who.
08:10But the wigs that we do use are great.
08:14They're amazing.
08:14I wonder if anyone's going to be able to tell.
08:16Because I know that there's a few times that I heard whispers of some people that they thought were wearing
08:22wigs that maybe weren't.
08:22So I think that's going to be fun to see if people can figure it out.
08:27As you see here on the mirror, we have a lot of different images of Elle from Legally Blonde the
08:32movie.
08:33So we wanted to make sure that we incorporated many different styles.
08:38And a lot of the styles that we did were intentional.
08:40So there's some moments of maybe a little bit of wanting to fit in.
08:43A little bit of rebellion.
08:45A little bit of frizz from the weather.
08:48We just wanted to make sure that we added a lot of the timeless looks.
08:52If you notice in the movie, Elle does a ton of different hairstyles.
08:57And they're not necessarily geared towards any era.
09:00They're just timeless looks.
09:01So we wanted to incorporate that when designing Elle's hair on the series.
09:04A lot of this episode is based in detention.
09:08Elle actually didn't legally get into detention.
09:11She just chose to do it for the cause.
09:16So she's in there and the kids are causing a lot of ruckus.
09:20But it's for a good cause.
09:22We love to use a few different volumizing products.
09:25It's the Grandiose Hair Plumping Mousse by Orbe.
09:29Another product that we love, we spray through the hair.
09:32It's the Bumble and Bumble Thickening.
09:34And it's the blue, the blue bottle.
09:37We love this for texture and volume.
09:40And it's also a bit of a treatment.
09:42So it helps with protecting the blonde hair.
09:45Cause as you can see, she's been through many processes.
09:47Her hair is in great condition, but she's naturally a brunette.
09:51She's quite brunette.
09:52So it's, yeah, it's a process.
09:56Yeah, she's brunette.
09:59Brunette.
10:00How long did it take you to get her to this color?
10:02It was a huge process.
10:04So she had a little bit of color correction that we had to do.
10:07We had somebody fly out from LA.
10:09I guess it's one of Reese Witherspoon's hair colorist.
10:13She flew out here, did a few color corrections that were in the trailer for hours.
10:17We got to a good starting point.
10:18We wanted to give her a little bit of a break.
10:20So when we transitioned to go a little bit lighter,
10:23managed to do it here in house.
10:24A total of, I think three sessions to be where we wanted it to be.
10:29Flo's not afraid of a challenge.
10:31I'd say probably one of the most challenging parts of the series is maintaining her roots,
10:38almost like trying to work with the lighting.
10:40Because if you notice the scenes that are based in LA,
10:44they're very bright and very glowing sun.
10:47But then when you get to Seattle, things are very moody and dark.
10:50It's gloomy, rainy.
10:51So we noticed that even if she had a fresh roots, you're going to see a shadow in her base.
10:57So kind of trying to balance that out.
10:59We sometimes will go in with like powders to just kind of take away some of that edge of the
11:04shadow of the lighting.
11:06She gets her hair done probably every two weeks just to maintain her natural looking blonde aesthetic.
11:12With this particular style, we wanted to just make sure that we blew out some of that texture.
11:17Of course, you could see it's not like perfectly smooth,
11:20but we just wanted to get to a good base so that when we added the curls, it would be
11:24nice and smooth.
11:25One of the products that we use for one heat styling, it's a protectant.
11:28It also helps to hold the curl is Redken Hot Set.
11:32My favorite hairstyle is anytime Flo gives me a middle part.
11:37The side part really throws me back.
11:39It's my very awkward, real high school days, but Flo does a beautiful, beautiful job with it.
11:45So I accept it with grace and gratitude.
11:49And I love, there's been a couple of times that we've done this look where we pin it back and
11:55we put little clips and stuff.
11:57I love that.
11:57Butterfly clips.
11:58It's kind of like if you see that picture right there with Elle in the pink.
12:03It's just such a classic Elle look.
12:05It makes me feel so cute.
12:07It is quite flattering.
12:09I love it.
12:10Skin is looking really good.
12:12Yeah.
12:13I'm an acne prone girl, so that can be tough, especially in the film industry.
12:18But you do what you can and I'm just very lucky to have a good team around me.
12:23And sometimes you just accept it.
12:24You're like, you know what?
12:25I'm playing a teenager and there's going to be days where, you know, you have a little fun little texture
12:31to it.
12:32And it's very human.
12:33They should write down into the script that Elle gets a pimple.
12:36Elle gets one singular pimple.
12:38They should. Season two.
12:40Season two.
12:40Season two.
12:42Season two.
12:44Season two.
12:45Season two.
12:46Season two.
12:47Season two.
12:47Season two.
12:47Season two.
12:48Season two.
12:50Season two.
12:50Season two.
12:50Season two.
12:52Season two.
12:54Season two.
12:55Season two.
12:57Season two.
12:58Season two.
13:00Season two.
13:02Season two.
13:07Season two.
13:08who is going to college and then going into the workforce.
13:11We are going back in time to 1995.
13:15And so that is a whole cultural shift.
13:17And we're looking at things through a different cultural lens.
13:21The 90s of references that we used for this owl was truly
13:26like what was going on in pop culture.
13:28You know, we looked at Bridget Bordeaux.
13:31We looked at Claudia Schiffer.
13:33I mean, if you think of 1995, supermodels
13:37literally ruled the world.
13:39So a lot of that was kind of what would be on her wall,
13:43who she was looking at as a 16 year old.
13:46Elle's detention look actually has an amazing story behind it.
13:50You know, we found this vintage one shoulder knit top
13:56that was from the 90s that we were all obsessed with.
13:59But we do have this arc for Elle throughout the season
14:03and her color tones shifted throughout the season.
14:06So it really just wasn't the color that was right.
14:10But we couldn't let go of the fact that this shirt was just incredible.
14:13So I immediately was on the phone with our custom knitters and our dyers.
14:18And we remade, you know, this nostalgic piece in the color tone that we wanted.
14:24And it went perfectly with the vintage Chanel belt that she wears.
14:31I think those are from the original movie and then there's the blue cloud robe that she wears when he
14:37breaks up with her.
14:38Oh, yeah.
14:39And you could say that was in your Bel Air bedroom when you were getting ready for Smeets.
14:44Oh, yeah.
14:46That's true.
14:47Some of the original clothing.
14:49I wear it.
14:51Smack.
14:53Hi.
14:54Well, this is the finished look.
14:57As you can see, we have a classic 90s off the shoulder moment.
15:03One arm warm, one arm cold.
15:06We love to see it.
15:08We've got some boosted flip-flops, sandals.
15:12I'm quite a shorty, so that's always nice to have.
15:15And, of course, we've got a cute little vintage Chanel belt as well.
15:19My favorite part of this look is the watch.
15:22It is Hermes, which is fancy.
15:25And, uh, look who I ran into.
15:28Oh, my God.
15:29What are you guys doing here?
15:31What are you guys doing here?
15:31No idea.
15:32You were coming to work today.
15:33Can you guys introduce yourselves?
15:35We sure can.
15:36Please.
15:36Pretty please.
15:36Pretty please.
15:37Hi.
15:38I'm Gabby Policano.
15:39And I play Liz.
15:40And I'm Chandler Kinney.
15:41And I play Kimberly.
15:42We all sort of have the Seattle grunge thing going on.
15:46Yeah.
15:46With the exception of our sweet, sweet, sweet Princess Pink ear.
15:49I have a Walkman that I carry around with me everywhere.
15:52It's my favorite thing ever.
15:53It's a cassette player Walkman.
15:54I love it.
15:55You're super 90s.
15:56I'm super 90s.
15:58Flannel, everything, every day.
16:00Doxies.
16:00Chip nail polish.
16:01Which, I love the juxtaposition of, like, my nails to Lexi's.
16:06Totally different worlds here.
16:08And I also have hands.
16:10So, right now we are standing in the hallway for our school, which is called Rainier West High,
16:18which is a little Easter egg for those of you who want to think about it a little bit.
16:23The letters, maybe?
16:24R-W.
16:25Maybe think about some others.
16:26You know?
16:26Think about some iconic people who have played Elle Woods in the past.
16:30Some boss lady.
16:31Some boss lady.
16:31Our boss.
16:34As you can see, this is my locker.
16:38Ta-da!
16:39I throw a lot of dirty looks towards Elle in this hallway.
16:43It's my favorite place to do it.
16:46And I also, you know, I add my own touch to Elle's locker.
16:51We sure do.
16:51I think I just enhance it a bit.
16:53You know?
16:54Enhance, analyze.
16:54Decorate.
16:55Decorate.
16:55Right.
16:56Is another word.
16:57Yeah.
16:57It's a good one.
16:58That I think is appropriate in this scenario.
17:01So we have one final Easter egg.
17:06Oh wow.
17:07Thank you, Mom.
17:10Ta-da!
17:11Woo!
17:12Yay!
17:12Elle still uses the same pen.
17:16Okay, they're calling us to set.
17:17We have to go.
17:18Thank you, Allure.
17:20We love y'all.
17:20Can we do it?
17:21Mwah!
17:22Enjoy the show!
17:24Okay.
17:32Thank you, guys.
17:43Thank you, guys.
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