You know Elle Woods' inspiring graduation speech at the end of Legally Blonde? Well, believe it or not, it almost didn't happen.
In honor of the 20th anniversary of the film's release, a few of the movie's stars revealed little-known facts about the 2001 hit, including some of its alternate endings.
Jessica Cauffiel, who played Elle's best friend, Margot, told The New York Times the original's movie ending included Elle (played by Reese Witherspoon, of course) and Vivian (played by Selma Blair) in Hawaii in beach chairs, drinking margaritas and holding hands. She added, "The insinuation was either they were best friends or they had gotten together romantically."
Alanna Ubach, who played Elle's other bestie, Serena, said she remembered this as well, but interestingly enough, the screenwriters say they never wrote that ending.
But wait, there's more! Another alternate ending involved a High School Musical-esque number to close out the film.
"The second or third ending was a musical number on the courtroom steps," Jessica said. "And as Elle came out, the judge, jury and everybody in the courtroom broke into song and dance. I've been waiting for somebody to leak that for 20 years."
Karen McCullah, who served as a screenwriter, also revealed yet another ending was in place for the movie. "We originally cut to a year later, Elle and Vivian were good friends, and Vivian's now blonde," she revealed. "They had started the Blond Legal Defense Club and were handing out fliers in the quad because that was the ending in Amanda's [author of the novel] manuscript."
In addition, screenwriter Kristen Smith, said one ending sealed the deal with a kiss between Elle and Emmett (Luke Wilson), but that viewers wanted the story to be all about Miss Woods. "One of the versions ended with Emmett and Elle kissing," she shared. "We screened the movie two or three times, and every time people didn't want to end it with a kiss. They thought it wasn't a story about [Elle] getting a boyfriend, which was really cool to have people say that."
These weren't the only insights the cast members and writers shared. Did you know there was almost a real-life Warner and Vivian? Well, sort of.
"I discovered that [Matthew had a crush on Selma] during the trial scene," Alanna revealed. "We could see that heart beating every time he was around her. He was so nervous, and I thought, ‘How could someone looking like that be as nervous as he is?'"
And Matthew Davis, who played Warner, agrees wholeheartedly with the sentiment. "I'll adore her till the day I die," he said. "I will always cherish her taking care of me and looking after me because I was so damn green."
But according to Jessica, Selma wasn't the only one he was crushing on during filming. "I think [Matthew] had a crush on everybody," she said. "At one point, he had a crush on Alanna."
Who knows? Maybe in Legally Blonde 3, we'll see some of these crushes make their way back onto the screen. Here's hoping!