Daily Dialogue — May 4, 2015

“On our very first day at Harvard, a very wise Professor quoted Aristotle: “The law is reason free from passion.” Well, no offense to Aristotle, but in my three years at Harvard I have come to find that passion is a key ingredient to the study and practice of law — and of life. It is with passion, courage of conviction, and strong sense of self that we take our next steps into the world, remembering that first impressions are not always correct. You must always have faith in people. And most importantly, you must always have faith in yourself.”

— Legally Blonde (2001), screenplay by Karen McCullah & Kirsten Smith, book by Amanda Brown

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Graduation.

Trivia: Neither the confrontation with Warner outside the courtroom nor the final graduation scene was a part of the original script. When the movie was tested, audiences were so wrapped up in Elle’s story they were disappointed that she never got her revenge on Warner, and they also wanted to know what happened to her in the end (did she become a lawyer after all?). The two scenes had to be shot in England, because Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Davis were both filming there (she was filming The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), while he was filming another project) at the time. Great Hall of Dulwich College in London played Harvard Law School. During the graduation scene, only Witherspoon and Davis are actually present. Shots of Jennifer Coolidge, Selma Blair, Luke Wilson and other supporting cast members were filmed in LA and the whole thing was edited together later. Both Witherspoon and Wilson are wearing wigs: she had cut her hair short since finishing filming and she is much paler than in court; he had shaved his head for The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and got a much deeper tan. However, since two years have elapsed in the film, this is acceptable.

Dialogue On Dialogue: A wonderful capstone to Elle’s transformation in a story in which she did, indeed, show faith in herself.