The bend and snap does not work every time.
In fact, Jennifer Coolidge, whose character in Legally Blonde is taught the iconic move by Reese Witherspoon's Elle Woods, knows from experience. The actress, 60, even went as far as calling it "a moment in moviemaking I would just totally disagree with."
"I've never had bending over work for me like it did in that movie," Coolidge recently told Deadline. "I think that the bend and snap is misleading. But I'd have to say when I did do the bend and snap, I was wearing my underwear and I feel like in real life you have to leave it off."
To be fair, Elle Woods did say the maneuver has "a 98 percent success rate of getting a man's attention and, when used appropriately, it has an 83 percent rate of return on a dinner invitation." But despite the bend and snap's imperfect reception, it's safe to say 100 percent of fans fell in love with Coolidge's turn as Paulette Bonafonté, who she played in both the 2001 movie and its 2003 sequel.
The character is so beloved that even after all these years, there's still one line fans quote to her all the time.
"You know, it's so weird because there's something about the Fourth of July line from Legally Blonde 2," Coolidge said. "I get so many DMs and texts and people leaving things in my mailbox. And if I'm out on that day, people just go nuts. I don't know, it's probably that line Paulette said, where she goes, ‘You look like the Forth of July. That makes me want a hot dog real bad.' I hear that the most."
And while she's previously admitted she does get tired of hearing the line so often, make no mistake: Coolidge is grateful for her part in Legally Blonde—as she is for the many roles she's had over the years, which include roles in American Pie, Best in Show, and the HBO series The White Lotus, for which she earned her first Emmy nomination.
"The first most depressing lesson I ever learned on a set was when I went to do Legally Blonde, and there was an actor—a television actor that I'd seen on TV, a funny guy—and he was the parking attendant [for the studio]. And I remember thinking, we have to be grateful," she told Deadline. "I was thinking, I could do this movie here, and then it could be back to waitressing. Nothing is written in stone."
She continued, "So, I remember thinking what a privilege it was to get this job. I was thinking, God, you really have to have gratitude in this business. It's quite a rollercoaster ride being an actor and we have to be thrilled about getting these jobs, because sometimes they don't come around again for a long time. Or ever."