Reese Witherspoon Was Mistaken for a Real Lawyer at Jury Duty Following ‘Legally Blonde’ Success

Reese Witherspoon got the shock of her life while serving jury duty in the years following “Legally Blonde.” In fact, the actress recalled being mistaken for a real-life lawyer by her fellow jurors after playing a law student in the movie on her recent episode of “The Graham Norton Show.”

“Listen, I did not want to do jury duty,” Witherspoon shared. “It was probably like seven years after ‘Legally Blonde.’ I got called for jury duty and it was in Beverly Hills and I thought, surely they’re not going to pick me… they picked me.”

Witherspoon then detailed the long trial, saying she was there for two weeks and that the real surprise of the case came at the end of the case.

“At the very end, they say, ‘OK, well somebody in this group has to be the foreman’ and they all unanimously are like ‘Her.’ And I was like, ‘Why did you pick me?’ And they were like, ‘You went to law school.’”

As it turns out, the jury mistook the actress for a real lawyer after portraying Elle Woods a few years earlier. Witherspoon insisted she never went to law school, even joking that she didn’t even finish college and could not really understand the confusion.

“I was like, ‘Y’all, this is really upsetting, I definitely did not go to law school. I did not finish college, I played a lawyer in a movie once,’” she said. “But they made me the foreman, and I started realizing people do not know much about the law.”

While the anecdote was full of laughs, Witherspoon also took the opportunity to offer a serious message about the experience and encouraged other American citizens to take the judicial process more seriously. 

“If you get picked for jury duty, please do it. Because honestly, some bad stuff goes down in there, y’all,” she noted. “They were like, ‘I think she is guilty because I did not like the way she looked.’ And that was very troubling.”

Witherspoon played Elle Woods in two films, “Legally Blonde” in 2001 and 2004’s “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde.” The first movie became an instant classic, and a highly-anticipated third installment is reportedly in the works. Amazon Prime also announced an upcoming prequel series, “Elle,” in partnership with Witherspoon and her production company Hello Sunshine.

You can watch the full “Graham Norton” interview in the clip, above.

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