While casting director Joseph Middleton admits that he loved the 'WandaVision' star for the Emmett part, the actor is said to have missed out because he is not 'a real American.'
- Jul 12, 2021
AceShowbiz - Paul Bettany almost played Emmett in movie classic "Legally Blonde", but missed out because he's not "a real American."
The romantic-comedy franchise's casting director Joseph Middleton has revealed Luke Wilson ended up landing the role of Reese Witherspoon's alter ego Elle Woods' love interest over the London-born "WandaVision" star.
Joseph told the New York Times, "I loved Paul Bettany for the Luke role." Co-writer Karen McCullah added how they dubbed Emmett "the Luke Wilson character."
She continued, "They saw some other actors, and finally Joseph was like, 'Maybe we should get Luke to play the Luke Wilson character'. I was like, 'You think?' "
Meanwhile, it was also revealed there could have been a queer romance between Elle and Selma Blair's character, Vivian Kensington.
Jessica Cauffiel, who played Margot in the film, told the newspaper's 20th-anniversary special, "The first ending was Elle and Vivian in Hawaii in beach chairs, drinking margaritas and holding hands. The insinuation was either they were best friends or they had gotten together romantically."
The pair were originally sworn enemies in the 2001 classic after Vivian started dating Warner (Matthew Davis) - Elle's ex, who told her she wasn't intelligent enough to study law at Harvard.
Luke himself has previously stated that he would love to reprise his role as Emmett in the third movie. "Of course [I'd do it]. As for the 'Legally Blonde' that we're hearing about now - I don't know anything than the usual man on the street," he told Us Weekly. "And that's really the truth. I've heard they're writing it and trying to put it together, but they're keeping it pretty firmly under wraps."
