{"id":4017,"date":"2026-07-11T21:06:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T21:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4017"},"modified":"2026-07-11T21:06:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T21:06:18","slug":"elle-bosses-on-lexi-minetrees-elle-woods-transformation-and-how-the-late-james-van-der-beek-rewrote-his-characters-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4017","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Elle\u2019 Bosses on Lexi Minetree\u2019s Elle Woods Transformation and How the Late James Van Der Beek Rewrote His Character\u2019s Ending"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nSPOILER ALERT: <\/strong>This story contains key plot details, including the ending, for \u201cElle,\u201d now streaming on Amazon\u2019s Prime Video.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Byron Allen Donates $100,000 to Nolan Wells Family\u2019s GoFundMe as Tyler Perry Covers Funeral Costs<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tWhere most showrunners spend the days before their series\u2019 debut worrying whether audiences will tune in, and whether they\u2019ll ultimately get renewed, \u201cElle\u201d bosses Laura Kittrell and Caroline Dries had a different problem: navigating the press without spoiling the already-shot Season 2.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn January, Amazon renewed the \u201cLegally Blonde\u201d prequel series, which follows Elle Woods in high school, that transformative period before the plucky co-ed applied for Harvard Law School and solved her first case by tapping into the fundamentals of perm maintenance. And the studio\u2019s confidence was rewarded: Amazon reports that \u201cElle\u201d was the most-viewed show on Prime Video in its first week of release.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt has been quite a time,\u201d Kittrell who created the show, said, joining Dries over Zoom on the eve of \u201cElle\u2019s\u201d July 1 debut. \u201cAmazon wouldn\u2019t want it any other way,\u201d Dries joked.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are very lucky,\u201d Kittrell added. \u201cThe two weeks leading up to the premiere, all our cast were in a panic, like, \u2018Can we watch Season 1 again? We have no memory of what\u2019s new, what\u2019s old, what\u2019s a spoiler, what\u2019s not.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, there are plenty of twists and turns in Season 1. The Prime Video show takes audiences back to 1995, when Elle\u2019s (newcomer Lexi Minetree) world gets flipped upside down as her family unexpectedly moves from Bel-Air to Seattle after her plastic surgeon father, Wyatt (Tom Everett Scott) botches a procedure. Much like her first days at Harvard, the peppy, pink-attired Elle struggles to fit in \u2014\u00a0this time, with the grunge-obsessed kids in the Pacific Northwest. The first season\u2019s eight episodes \u2014 titled with quotes from the Reese Witherspoon-starring 2001 movie, like \u201cWhoever Said Orange Is The New Pink Was Seriously Disturbed\u201d \u2014 follow as Elle navigates her newfound friendships and crushes, while also uncovering a conspiracy over the misappropriation of school funds.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s where James Van Der Beek comes in.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe late TV star, whose name is synonymous with the millennial teen drama, \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek,\u201d joined \u201cElle\u201d to play school superintendent and mayoral candidate Dean Wilson. Elle\u2019s mother Eva (June Diane Raphael) \u2014 whose life is also thrown into chaos by the move \u2014 finds purpose in aiding in Wilson\u2019s campaign, but it all turns out to be for naught when Elle reveals that he was the ringleader of the whole scheme.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were so flattered that he wanted to do this show to begin with,\u201d Dries said of Van Der Beek. \u201cLaura and I are such big fans of his, so just getting to work with someone who was a hero when I was growing up was a treat. And getting to watch him take a character and elevate it was so exciting as a writer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cElle\u201d executive producer Jason Moore had worked with the actor on four episodes of \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek.\u2019 \u201cWhen his name was up on the audition, it was great. Since he turns out to be a bad guy, I was like \u2018What fun for him,\u201d Moore recently told Variety<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd the gig ultimately gave Van Der Beek, who was in treatment for Stage 3 colorectal cancer while filming, as much as he contributed to the crew behind the show. \u201cIt really is a time where I don\u2019t feel my pain,\u201d Moore says Van Der Beek told him about performing. \u201cFocusing on work, I really actually am completely distracted, not only when the camera rolls, but just when I\u2019m around all those people. As he got sick, he got really wanted to hold people close and bring people together. He was always really good at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe role was to be the actor\u2019s final performance. Van Der Beek died on February 11, 2026, at age 48. His work on the show was commemorated with a special dedication.<\/p>\n

\n\tRead on as Kittrell and Dries break down more about the making of \u201cElle\u201d Season 1 \u2014 from how Lexi Minetree channeled Witherspoon\u2019s Elle Woods, the show\u2019s \u201890s musical homages and \u201cBreakfast Club\u201d episode, and how Van Der Beek rewrote his character\u2019s ending.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tLexi is an incredible find. It\u2019s almost uncanny how much she has the mannerisms of Elle down \u2014\u00a0she practically transforms into Reese Witherspoon at times. What was the moment when you thought, \u201cOh, wow! This person is the reincarnation of Elle Woods.\u201d\t<\/h5>\n

\nLAURA KITTRELL:<\/strong> It was day one. There are Elle-isms that we\u2019ve given her that are intentional. Like, \u201cCan you say this one thing from the movie?\u201d and she nails those. It was one of the things I was the most stressed about going into making the show: \u201cOh my God, how are we going to be able to find this person?\u201d And it\u2019s one of the bigger questions people have before they watch: \u201cIs she going to be able to do it?\u201d It\u2019s amazing now that people have started seeing it. I feel like 30 seconds in, people are like, \u201cOh, she\u2019s got it, it\u2019s fine,\u201d and then you don\u2019t worry about it anymore. That was the experience that we had on day one on set. It was just like, \u201cOh yeah, we\u2019re good, we don\u2019t have to worry about that part. Great!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\tWhat was your favorite Elle-isms that she nailed?\t<\/h5>\n

\nCAROLINE DRIES: <\/strong>The way she smiles and the way she walks. That is really where it\u2019s uncanny. Also, her typing. That was a detail that Lexi had noticed in watching the movie a million times: Elle has a very specific way of typing on a computer. They didn\u2019t take a typing tutorial in high school back then.<\/p>\n

\nKITTRELL: <\/strong>I was gonna say the typing, because it\u2019s so Elle Woods. But it\u2019s also so Lexi. Like that\u2019s the level of detail she\u2019s picking up. Like, \u201cI watched the two seconds that she types, she does this, and so that\u2019s how the character types.\u201d She has a \u201cYes!\u201d that is very of the movie.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\tThis isn\u2019t the \u201cYes\u201d you\u2019re referencing, but she also cheers in the \u201cThe Breakfast Club\u201d episode. That movie is oft-referenced in teen movies and shows. What was it like to create an episode that pays homage to that classic?\t<\/h5>\n

\nKITTRELL:<\/strong> It\u2019s funny, it is both paying homage to \u201cThe Breakfast Club\u201d and to all of the teen things that have done \u201cBreakfast Club\u201d before. But I can\u2019t think of another example where the kids know that they\u2019re doing a \u201cBreakfast Club.\u201d That was something that we always got a kick out of \u2014 them seeing the poster and going, \u201cWe are doing \u2018Breakfast Club\u2019 today,\u201d and acknowledging that that\u2019s the episode that they\u2019re in. We got to a point in the season where we needed them to do a bit of a caper and needed a way for them to get into the school. \u201cThe Breakfast Club\u201d came naturally as what gets them all there on a Saturday.<\/p>\n

Read more Myanmar-Set \u2018Fruit Gathering\u2019 Wins at Karlovy Vary: \u2018Harrowing Drama of Obsession and Queer Desire\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tWe are a very pop culture reference-heavy show. When I was working on \u201cInsecure,\u201d there was a big debate in the writers\u2019 room, where Issa [Rae] put a reference in a script, and half the room understood, and half didn\u2019t. She was like, \u201cFor the people who understand what this is, they\u2019re gonna love it, and the people who don\u2019t understand, they\u2019re either gonna look it up after and have a new thing that they\u2019re interested in, or it\u2019s gonna be two seconds, and they\u2019re not gonna care, and we\u2019re gonna move on.\u201d She was always like, \u201cI want the characters to be talking about the things that they would be talking about if the audience wasn\u2019t watching.\u201d I always think about that with pop culture references, and I also think about the shows I watched when I was a teenager that made me learn about different movies or music, and could serve as a gateway. I hope that there are some teenagers now who watch our show and then seek out \u201cThe Breakfast Club\u201d afterwards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\tThat is the interesting thing about this show being a \u201990s-set prequel. There are a lot of references, but you have to balance them, so it\u2019s not always in your face. What was the trickiest reference to pull off?\t<\/h5>\n

\nKITTRELL: <\/strong>The trickiest one, tonally \u2014 like, \u201cCan we make jokes that are this dark?\u201d \u2014 was in the pilot. Elle is wearing a Nirvana shirt, and Kimberly says to her, \u201cYou wearing that shirt is the second worst thing to ever happen to Nirvana,\u201d which is a very dark joke. And if you get what that joke means, you think it\u2019s quite funny. But that was a comedy litmus test of \u201cAre we able to make jokes like this?\u201d And the answer was yes.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tCaroline, what is your favorite?\t<\/h5>\n

\nKITTRELL:<\/strong> I know what yours is: Marlena.<\/p>\n

\nDRIES: <\/strong>Marlena, for sure. That\u2019s what made me want to work on the show. When I read the script, they lock you in a room and take your phone. I got to page five, and she\u2019s referencing Marlena\u2019s possession [a major storyline on \u201cDays of Our Lives\u201d from 1994 to 1995], and I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, if you need any references about this, I\u2019ll just tell you what happened.\u201d What we really wanted was not just to talk about it, but for the audience to really see what it looked like for a character on daytime TV to be possessed in the \u201990s. We just ate it up as fans of \u201cDays of Our Lives,\u201d and that was just normal TV that you would watch when you got home from school. So yeah, that is by far my favorite.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\tNo Doubt\u2019s \u201cTragic Kingdom\u201d was a particularly important part of 1995 for me. So that \u201cJust a Girl\u201d karaoke moment is pretty special. You have so many different \u201990s songs \u2014 songs that people perform and needle drops. Tell me about paying homage to the sound of the \u201990s.\t<\/h5>\n

\nKITTRELL: <\/strong>We had a pop culture timeline that our assistant put together that we referenced in the writers\u2019 room a lot, and a lot of times it was us breaking an episode or outlining something and going, \u201cOh, we need something for this moment; [then] looking at the timeline and going, what could it be?\u201d My memory of \u201cJust a Girl\u201d was the reverse of that: us looking at the timeline of everything and going, \u201cOh my God, \u2018Tragic Kingdom\u2019 came out in 1995. How can we work this into the show?\u201d When we got to this episode where Liz was going to teach Elle not to care what other people thought about her, we had the idea of her doing karaoke and putting herself out there and doing something potentially embarrassing. It was like, well, that\u2019s<\/em> the perfect \u201cTragic Kingdom\u201d moment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\tNot to mention that you get a little \u201cThat Thing You Do\u201d Easter egg with Tom Everett Scott singing.\t<\/h5>\n

\nDRIES: <\/strong>Totally. The \u201cWonderwall\u201d mash-up, our writer [Asmita Paranjape] had that in the script, and we\u2019re like, \u201cThese songs don\u2019t match.\u201d But Sammi Cohen, who directed that episode, went and did all this editing, like, \u201cIf we go in on this note and then do this note, it\u2019s gonna match.\u201d And sure enough, it was amazing.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe joy of our show is that Elle\u2019s musical tastes are sort of this Bel Air, pop, \u201890s Mariah Carey, Ace of Base, and then you have the Seattle grunge, which is obviously its own thing, and they just flow together perfectly. It was fun that we didn\u2019t have to stick with a specific genre.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\tI heard there\u2019s a story about how Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cFantasy\u201d ended up in the show, too.\t<\/h5>\n

\nKITTRELL: <\/strong>We had a group text with Jason Moore [who directed the first two episodes] that was constantly us pitching songs to each other \u2014 usually at like midnight. \u201cFantasy\u201d was one of the first things that we pitched for that opening. We tried an Ace of Base song at some point, like we tried things just to try them, but it always kept coming back to \u201cFantasy.\u201d Thematically, it was the most appropriate, and it immediately puts you in [time]. We almost don\u2019t need the chyron that says \u201cBel-Air 1995\u201d because we\u2019re starting with that song.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\tYou\u2019re immediately transported. You have so many references to the \u201990s, but then cast who is the epitome of the decade: the late James Van Der Beek. At the premiere, you shared how you gave him something to enjoy despite how sick he was becoming. What did it mean to you to have him on set and as a character who is key to the season one arc?\t<\/h5>\n

\nDRIES: <\/strong>We were so flattered that he wanted to do this show to begin with. Laura and I are such big fans of his, so just getting to work with someone who was a hero when I was growing up was a treat. And getting to watch him take a character and elevate it was so exciting as a writer. We\u2019re still pinching ourselves that we got the opportunity to work with him, and having him on set was such a surprise, because to us, he\u2019s such a star. He treated everyone with so much kindness and was so gracious. He loved showing his daughters craft services and saying, \u201cHere\u2019s where the writers sit. That person\u2019s the director.\u201d I don\u2019t know that they had ever experienced anything like that before, so I was thrilled for him that he got to take his daughters. It was cool, and it made people like Laura and me realize we should be very grateful that we get to work our dream jobs every day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\tLet\u2019s talk about the twist. Was it particularly delicious to make him a bad guy?\t<\/h5>\n

\nKITTRELL: <\/strong>Yes, it was. I\u2019m thrilled that people get to see how funny he is, and that he gets to be a little bad in a way I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen him do outside of \u201cRules of Attraction,\u201d which is an incredible performance from him. But it was a different flavor on him that I am excited for people to get to see.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tEven though Dean Wilson gets arrested, the ending leaves the possibility for him to return. Was that a bit of hopeful positioning, if James were to have been able to be a part of Season 2?\t<\/h5>\n

\nDRIES: <\/strong>We wanted to wrap up the school conspiracy story for Season 1. To say, \u201cElle solved her case.\u201d So, we were pretty sure that that storyline and that character would end in Season 1. But it was important to James that, even as the character was leaving, he could have a moment with Eva [June Diane Raphael] to sort of explain himself, and to say at the end of the day, he actually is a good guy, he was just misguided and overwhelmed by circumstance. That was James\u2019s idea to write that in; he called me on the weekend and was like, \u201cHey, can we add a little extra beat to give him an ending?\u201d I love that was his instinct, because, of course, I was like, \u201cYeah, he should be, \u2018Gotcha!.\u201d And James was like, \u201cOr maybe he\u2019s like, \u2018This is what I was working with. I had to do this. I\u2019m sorry. I made a mistake.\u201d I was like, \u201cThat\u2019s better.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\tJune Diane Raphael is incredible in this show. I love the parallel of Elle\u2019s coming-of-age arc with her mother\u2019s. It\u2019s interesting to watch this in my 30s and flash back to my younger years, but also connect with an older character. How did you conceive that idea?\t<\/h5>\n

\nKITTRELL: <\/strong>It was always baked into the DNA of the show that the people who saw the movie when they were teenagers had a character closer to their own age who was going through their own journey. So that was always the intention of Eva. I would love to think that I have my shit figured out more than I did when I was 16 years old, and in many ways I do not, so that felt pretty natural. In the pilot, this very disruptive thing is happening in both of their lives, and when something like that happens, you have to look around and go, \u201cWhat is the life that I\u2019ve made that\u2019s getting disrupted? And how can I respond to this big change?\u201d So, it felt like a natural place to take this woman who, just as much as Elle, had lived in a bubble her entire life and never had to really challenge herself in any way. We thought, \u201cWhat does that look like as a teenager?\u201d but \u201cWhat does that also look like as an adult woman?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\tIt\u2019s fun to see Elle\u2019s friends, like Liz and Kimberly, come of age with her, too. \u201cLegally Blonde\u201d didn\u2019t have much queer representation, but in this series, we get to see two young women restart their love story. Why was their arc important?\t<\/h5>\n

\nKITTRELL: <\/strong>I came out when I was in high school, around the time that I saw \u201cLegally Blonde\u201d for the first time. There were TV shows that were really important to me that really helped me come out, and so now it\u2019s very important to me to have in our show, about teenagers, that representation, because I know how important it was to me. I have such a distinct memory of this very small moment in the movie where Vivian [Selma Blair] uses a slur about Enid [Meredith Scott Lynn], and Elle says, \u201cI would never use that word.\u201d Even tiny moments like that in pop culture, I would just grab onto as like, \u201cIt might be OK out there,\u201d and I might be safe to enter the world as an openly gay teenager now. The gift that had been given to me in that tiny way by the movie made me really want that to be in the show. And it becomes more important to the foundation of the show as it goes on.<\/p>\n

\nDRIES: <\/strong>What I like about the way the dynamic between Liz and Kimberly works on our show is that Liz did not exist in my \u201990s queer story. There wasn\u2019t a girl who was super comfortable [with her sexuality] and who had a great relationship with her mom about it. And it doesn\u2019t seem to faze her that she\u2019s kind of a loner outsider. I was much more of a Kimberly, so I really related to the aspiration of being a Liz, and then the reality of being a Kimberly. So it was easy to write those characters, and it was also important for us to have an existing story that happened before Elle showed up at the high school. All of these characters had lives, and then Elle entered their life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\tWhat is your overall plan for the show? Will you go all the way through college or fast-forward so Reese can make a cameo?\t<\/h5>\n

\nKITTRELL: <\/strong>We\u2019re going as long as Amazon will let us go, is really the answer. But we\u2019ve intentionally moved very slowly throughout her high school experience. There\u2019s a version of Season 1 that was her entire junior year, and it is only a semester for a reason. We\u2019re trying to take our time.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Moana\u2019 Creatives on Working Closely to Honor Polynesian Culture and Traditions, and Why Representation Matters in the Live-Action Film<\/a><\/p>\n

\nThis interview has been edited and condensed. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Elle’ creators Laura Kittrell and Caroline Dries on finding Lexi Minetree, ‘Legally Blonde’ references, James Van Der Beek’s last role and Season 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[2967,3276,3277],"class_list":["post-4017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv","tag-elle","tag-james-van-der-beek","tag-lexi-minetree"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Elle\u2019 Bosses on Lexi Minetree\u2019s Elle Woods Transformation and How the Late James Van Der Beek Rewrote His Character\u2019s Ending - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4017\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Elle\u2019 Bosses on Lexi Minetree\u2019s Elle Woods Transformation and How the Late James Van Der Beek Rewrote His Character\u2019s Ending - 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