Reese Witherspoon Got Tapped To Lead Jury For This Ridiculous Reason

One of Reese Witherspoon’s most recognizable roles once landed her the responsibility of leading a jury.

During a recent episode of “The Graham Norton Show,” the “Legally Blonde” star told fellow guests Ariana Grande, Will Ferrell and Don Gilet how her time playing perky Harvard Law student Elle Woods on the big screen led some people to believe she had real-life legal experience.

“Listen, I did not want to do jury duty,” Witherspoon confessed while on the show. “It was probably seven years after ‘Legally Blonde,’ I got called for jury duty and it was in Beverly Hills, and I thought, ‘Surely they’re not gonna pick me.’ They picked me for a long trial, y’all. It was like, probably two weeks.”

While she was not enthusiastic about her civic duty at first, the “Big Little Lies” actor said she quickly became “very invested in” the proceedings, which were focused on a dog bite incident.

But when all of the evidence was presented and it was time for deliberations, Witherspoon’s peers decided she should be the one to lead the process as the jury’s foreman.

“They all unanimously were like, ‘her,’” she said, pointing away and then back at herself incredulously.

Stumped as to why she ended up in charge, the star of “The Morning Show”
remembered being told, “You went to law school.”

Clearly having been mistaken for her 2001 film character, Witherspoon tried to explain the confusion to her fellow jurors.

“I was like, ‘Y’all this is really upsetting. I definitely did not go to law school. I didn’t finish college,’” she remembered. “I played a lawyer in a movie once, but they fully made me the foreman.”

Though the producer was less than thrilled to be tapped as the jury’s point person, she ended up being grateful to guide the group, who she recalled being a bit oblivious about how trials were supposed to work.

“I started realizing, people don’t know much about the law,” Witherspoon explained, much to the amusement of the audience and her fellow guests.

Urging everyone to step up if called to serve, she noted how, “some bad stuff goes down in there” and how some of the jurors on her case forgot the fact prosecutors had to prove a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

″[They] were like, ‘I think she’s guilty ’cause I didn’t like the way she looked.’ And that was very troubling. I was like, ‘You can’t say that. We don’t have enough evidence!’”

While the “Cruel Intentions” actor made it clear she wasn’t equipped to fully step into Woods’ shoes, she’s planning on revisiting the character in the near future.

Last May, Amazon Prime Video announced the streamer is working on a prequel series about the character, simply titled “Elle.” Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is set to produce the show, which will follow Woods during her high school years.

You can watch the star’s full story about her jury duty experience above.