Every fan of the film definitely remembers the scene. Elle Woods helps her manicure Paulette (Jennifer Coolidge) get the attention of the UPS delivery driver she has a crush on. She explains that Paulette has to use her confidence, bend over and resume brazenly. Her girl power instructions become a musical number that involves everyone in the living room. 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. The film is loosely based on the true story of a woman named Amanda Brown and her experiences in law school. But some hilarious parts of the film were improvised along the way, including the infamous “Bend and Snap” scene. 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. She teaches Paulette to bend over and crack, where she slowly bends down and then quickly stands up in a pose. The aspiring lawyer claims that the move has a “98% success rate at getting a man`s attention.” However, Coolidge no longer agrees. “I never had to bend like I did in this movie,” she admitted. “I think bending and snapping are misleading. But I have to say that when I made the turn, I was wearing my underwear and I feel like I have to leave them out in real life. Jennifer Coolidge`s “Bend and Snap” scene in “Legally Blonde” is pretty iconic, but the actress herself doesn`t feel like the movement makes sense in real life.

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 White Lotus star explained that while the “bend and snap” is memorable, it`s far from the most cited line of the two films. The bending and slamming scene was a happy coincidence. “[Producer] Marc [Platt] wanted a B-plot for Paulette,” Karen McCullah, co-writer of Legally Blonde, told Entertainment Weekly. It`s crazy to think about the fact that the whole folding and cliché scene wasn`t even part of the original script. 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. Although it leads to a hurtful reward in the story (Paulette breaks her nose but gets her husband), it presents itself as a stupid and participative punchline in itself, which has been repurposed and revived for theater shows, music videos, and even Italian gay nightclubs. To those involved in the scene, including a high-profile choreographer and several young actors and dancers, his creation feels just as magical, requiring weeks of rehearsals and filming to reflect McCullah and Smith`s unique vision.

The actress shared a video of herself taking the curve and snap for fans in honor of the film`s 15th anniversary. Will bending and snapping be part of Legally Blonde 3? We can only hope! “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.” But then the magic happened. McCullah took a snapshot during a brainstorm at a Los Angeles bar. “What if Elle [Paulette] showed a train so she could pick up the UPS man?” she asked. Smith came up with the idea and tried the bending and breakdown technique. “It was a spontaneous invention. It was a completely drunk moment in a bar,” she said.

“I remember reading it and thinking it was the most hysterical thing ever,” she said of the move. “It`s still the most frequently requested request from people. Even last year, when I was giving speeches or talking about anything, they always asked me, “Are you going to bend over and crack?” I feel like I`m going to turn the corner and crack until I`m 95. It`s been almost two decades since the first Legally Blonde was released, but the classic bend and snap are still on everyone`s lips. In a 2016 interview with ET, Witherspoon recalled that she always receives bending and snapping requests for fans. 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. Upon the release of the video, Smith was “stunned” by the level of detail and generally the overall endurance of the scene. (The film, which grossed $141 million worldwide on its $18 million budget, “now attracts young girls because it`s about empowering women and destroying patriarchy,” McCullah says.) Cantwell says he`s still known for his line on drag performance, and his only regret is that Luketic has drastically reduced the scene. “It was a complete production figure,” he says. “Look at all the shapes, sizes and ages of people. Everyone is having fun. My dream has always been that one day they will realize the vision of this great director. Coolidge is currently in the midst of a string of successes. Not only does she reprise her role as the adorable nail technician Paulette in “Legally Blonde 3,” but she also returns to her role as Tanya McQuoid in the second season of “The White Lotus.” And while “folding and snapping” may not have worked for her in real life, the lead role in “American Pie” apparently did. “Bending over and taking pictures is a moment in cinema that I absolutely disagree with,” Coolidge said in a recent interview with Deadline. “I never had to bend like I did in this film.

I think bending and snapping are misleading. 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.” The phrase fold and engage began with a few mojitos. 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.