Reese Witherspoon held back tears as she passed the "pink torch" to Elle star Lexi Minetree over the weekend.
The Oscar-winning actress immortalised the role of Elle Woods, a sorority girl-turned-Harvard Law student, in the 2001 film Legally Blonde.
Attending the Elle World pop-up event in New York City on Saturday to celebrate the film's 25th anniversary and the upcoming prequel series Elle, Reese assured fans the franchise is in safe hands with Lexi.
"So, I wanna say on top of being this incredibly disciplined, talented young woman, she has such a beautiful heart," the 50-year-old star shared during a panel appearance.
"And she told me things about her life and her family and things that just showed me her character, and I just could not be more proud to pass the baton or the pink torch to Lexi Minetree as the new Elle Woods. I love you so much. You have no idea. I'm just so proud of you."
Reese also recalled being blown away by 25-year-old Lexi's "divine" audition tape.
Lexi went to great lengths to make sure she stood out by recreating the iconic video Elle recorded for her Harvard Law School admissions application in the film.
"I have to tell you, When I saw Lexi Minetree in her video, it stopped me, it took my breath away. She understood - I'm gonna cry again - she's just such an incredible person," the star reflected.
"She had gone into her backyard with her mom and recreated the whole Harvard admissions video. She hadn't just filmed a tape, she was like, 'I don't even know if I'm going to get this part, but I'm going to put that extra effort into this.'
"She had the sparkly bikinis. She did the little walk and the guy touched her butt, and she's like, 'I object!' And there was something divine about it."
While Reese was confident Lexi was the perfect choice to play Elle in the upcoming Prime Video comedy series, she wanted to make sure the young actress was prepared for what the character means to so many people.
To check she was ready for the "responsibility", Reese spoke to Lexi before confirming she had the job.
"And I said, 'OK, well she's obviously incredible, but I wanna talk to her.' So we did a Zoom, and she didn't know she basically already had the job," Reese recalled.
"But I was like, 'I want you to understand the responsibility of what this means to people. Little girls are gonna come up to you and it's like a massive responsibility.'"
Elle is scheduled to premiere on Prime Video on 1st July.
