Reese Witherspoon had a strange inspiration behind making the prequel to her hit film series Legally Blonde. According to the actress, Jenna Ortega’s Netflix show Wednesday — which is a complete contrast to the genre of Legally Blonde — had something to do with the idea. 

On January 29, the Big Little Lies actress appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote her upcoming film You’re Cordially Invited. She also teased the highly anticipated Legally Blonde prequel series and revealed what gave her the idea to bring a younger version of her iconic character, Elle Woods. 

“It was kind of this idea … I saw that Wednesday Addams show, you know, and I was like, ‘Oh!'” Witherspoon told host Jimmy Fallon. She loved the fact that in the Adams Family spin-off series, Wednesday was shown as a high school girl trying to navigate her powers. 

“I thought it was amazing. And I was like, ‘We should do Elle Woods in high school!'” she revealed and that’s exactly what the plot of the Legally Blonde spin-off is. The Morning Show actress admitted that once she had the idea, she grew curious to explore it. 

Her character, Elle Woods, is defined by the time she spent as an attorney and studying at a law school. However, Witherspoon wanted to explore the character before she was pulled into the legal world, and what better place than high school to do that?

She revealed that a bunch of creative writers got on board and after several pitches, the show was picked by Amazon Prime and is currently in the making using Elle as the working title. As for the actress, she is one of the producers of the show. 

Speaking to People magazine earlier this month, the Emmy nominee admitted that the process of casting a younger version of herself has been a “trip.” She revealed that auditioning young girls “filled with enthusiasm and excitement” was exciting.