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Christina Applegate Turned Down the Role of Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods: “What a Stupid Move”

Christina Applegate could have been Elle Woods
Christina Applegate had the chance to play Elle Woods in Legally Blonde

Christina Applegate came very close to playing one famous Gemini vegetarian. The Vacation star, 43, revealed in a new interview with Entertainment Tonight that she had the chance to play Elle Woods in Legally Blonde but turned the role down.

The opportunity came along soon after Applegate had wrapped her turn on Married… With Children in the late '90s. The Mars Attacks! actress famously played Kelly on the sitcom, the ditzy daughter of the Bundy family, and was carefully plotting her next move. 

Related: PHOTOS: Christina Applegate Then and Now

"The script came along my way and it was right after I had just finished Married and it was, you know, a blonde who was, in that first script dimwitted but ends up going to Harvard," Applegate said of the chance to star in Legally Blonde. "It was just, I got scared. I got scared of kind of repeating myself."

As any Cosmo girl would know, the role of the Ivy League blonde bombshell ended up going to Reese Witherspoon. The Election star famously led the comedy to huge success, as it spawned two sequels and a musical, and brought in more than $140 million at the international box office on its $18 million budget.

Related: PHOTOS: Reese Witherspoon's Cool Mom Street Style

"What a stupid move that was!" Applegate lamented of her choice to turn the role down. "That's okay, you know what? Reese deserved that and she did a much better job than I ever could, so that's her life, that's her path."

While Applegate may have made a questionable decision at the time, she went on to find her own path, returning to TV with roles in Jesse, Friends, Samantha Who? and Up All Night, and hitting the big screen with parts in View From the Top, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and The Sweetest Thing.

Watch Applegate talk Legally Blonde in the video above!

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