Shortly after Platt approved of the turn and snap scene, Luketic began to think musically. The director had just finished his 1997 short Titsiana Booberini, a musical that debuted at the Telluride Film Festival, and was eager to incorporate Smith`s movement into a dance sequence. Luketic hired Toni Basil – the veteran dancer responsible for „Hey Mickey“ – to choreograph the short scene. However, before she could start, McCullah and Smith Basil had to show off her move, so they visited her dance studio to perform the basic mechanics. „[Toni] had other dancers there, and she said, `Okay, can you do it again? Watch! No more chicken wings at the top!` Smith recalls. „I thought, `What`s going on? It`s so crazy. The White Lotus star explained that while the „bend and snap“ is memorable, it`s far from the most cited line of the two films. Under the direction of director Robert Luketic, the spontaneous two-part seduction eventually became a musical number in its own right, words bending and catching in pop culture history books. The scene takes place in the middle of Legally Blonde, when Elle (Reese Witherspoon) wants to give Paulette (Coolidge) a boost of confidence after an unpleasant encounter with her delivery crush (Bruce Thomas). She shares a lesson from her mother, explaining the basics of „bending and slamming,“ a maneuver that has a „98% success rate at getting a man`s attention.“ (And, not to mention „when used correctly, an 83% return on a dinner invitation.“) Soon, she begins teaching the entire living room how to move, with a dance session (full of all sorts of curves and snapshots) bursting into a joyful celebration. In a matter of minutes, Legally Blonde transforms into a surreal panorama covered in candy. Of course, there remains a possibility that the „bend and snap“ will return in Legally Blonde 3, which Smith and McCullah say is still in development after writing an early draft. But even they admit that it would be almost impossible to live up to the chemistry of the original, an idea of the 11th hour that continues to prove timeless.
„It got to the bottom of it,“ Smith says. „Thank God for the mojitos.“ Along the way, many people tried to tell Her that she could only be what society thought. Her parents, her classmates at UCLA and Harvard, her professors, they all wanted her to stay in her role as a pretty blonde sister. They were unable or unwilling to accept her femininity, feminine style, and joyful behavior in their serious masculine world of the law. She heard what they said loud and clear, and then decided not to listen. To end the scene, Luketic enlisted John Cantwell to play Maurice, a salon employee who sees everyone dancing. „Oh my God, the `folding and snapping`! Works every time! “ he says, before the camera shows two dogs barking approvingly. „As an openly gay comedian and actor, there were a lot of one-liners,“ he laughs about the Legally Blonde era.
And although the artist (now a drag queen) didn`t get a chance to show his own turn, he enjoyed it a bit. „It just tells you – gay hairdressers, we know everything.“ „I`ve never had a penchant for working for myself like in this movie,“ Coolidge said at the outlet in an interview published Saturday, Aug. 13. „I think bending and snapping are misleading.“ Grande and Davis decided that a nail salon would be an ideal backdrop for parts of the video`s Legally Blonde tribute, and quickly built an identical set with the same hair dryers, trash cans, and paints. „In the end, we used trans light outside the windows to look like a street,“ Davis says. „It took another time to watch the film and study the scene, and it was so much fun to go back and see it with new eyes.“ With a variety of background dancers, Coolidge eventually joined the set — Grande had formed a relationship with her after Grande`s impression of the actress went viral — and suddenly, the „Bend and Snap“ (renamed „Thank n Next“) got a new life. „[Paulette] took what she already had and applied it in a whole new way,“ Davis says of aligning the scene with Grande`s lyrics. „That hasn`t changed; She just made a better version of who she was. She is against it! Jennifer Coolidge explained whether Legally Blonde`s iconic „bend and snap“ movement has ever worked for her — and which line of film is most cited. Originally from Massachusetts, she played Paulette, a nail salon employee, in Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde. In the first film, her character is challenged by Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) to make the „bend and snap“ move to land the delivery man she fainted on for months. She`s not the only woman in this film who learns to stop trying to live up to other people`s standards and starts living up to her own.
Vivian moves away from competitive games for a man and realizes that women need to support and uplift each other. In the now iconic shot of Elle walking through the doors of the courtroom in her pink dress, we can see how far she has come. She no longer tries to be what others expect of her, to no longer be what she thinks she should be. She is finally who she is and who she wants to be. It`s a beautiful moment. Instead of trying to fit into a particular form of stereotypical blonde sister or stereotypical serious lawyer, she brought together the best aspects of each and became herself. „I have to say that when I did the `fold and click`, I was wearing my underwear and I feel like you have to leave them out in real life,“ she added. Uninhibited by the rum-based cocktails she had drunk, Smith suddenly jumped out of her seat and began to make an attention-grabbing move. She stretched out her leg, bent down as if to grab something, and then quickly straightened up. „I laughed so hard I almost fell off the bar stool,“ McCullah says.
„The bartender probably stopped talking to us because he didn`t know what we were doing.“ Soon after, the two were in Platt`s office and showed him their idea. „I don`t mind making a fool of myself,“ says Smith, who recalls Platt making fun of her. „I really felt like a dancer or a very rotten waver, and it was burping somewhere in my psyche.“ The phrase fold and engage began with a few mojitos. The film, released 20 years ago, remains a relevant feminist portrait of the ditzy stagecoach, but „fold and slam“ it lives as a parallel phenomenon.