DRAFTING W/ CHANDLER KINNEY
Legally Blonde superfans are getting exactly what they wanted this summer with the highly anticipated prequel Elle, executive produced by Reese Witherspoon.
The eight-episode Amazon series premieres July 1 and follows Elle Woods’ coming-of-age story as she navigates high school and a move from California to Seattle. Lexi Minetree stars as the iconic blonde, alongside Chandler Kinney as Kimberly — the most popular girl in school, who clashes with Elle from the start.
Kinney is a name worth knowing. She most recently finished third on Dancing With the Stars Season 33 and built her résumé originating the role of Willa in Disney’s Zombies franchise, and starring in Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin and Summer School on HBO Max.
For DRAFTING, we get to know Kinney in new, intimate ways — a secret obsession, her summer plans and an unlikely work in progress.
Here I am on set with my go-to drink. I don’t need coffee when I have choccy milk, baby.
I’m a perfectionist in recovery. Something I’ve been practicing is embracing the process itself versus being tied to the product, and allowing it to not be perfect. One of my dearest friends Lexi Minetree and I decided to work on harmonies — finding and maintaining them — and here’s us messing around with Tennessee Whiskey in the middle of the night, as you can hear from the exhaustion in my voice. Lex on melody, me on harmony. (Also, as I was screen recording this voice memo, Lexi decided to send me some love, via text.)
My absolute favorite hobby: line dancing. I always have a hankering for a honky tonk and I’ve made it my mission (and everyone around me’s problem) to learn as much as humanly possible. Yeehaw.
A peek into my concept pitch for a blanket collaboration I have with Minky Couture (launching July 9th). When designing this blanket (now called “Sea to Sky”), I was inspired by rolling ocean waves and the idea that there is always something beautiful on the horizon, so long as you look for it. This is the first time I’ve done something like this — seeing a physical project through from ideation to production — so it was a really exciting, creative undertaking and challenge.
Having grown up as a child actor and working professionally from such a young age, I’ve compromised on parts of my upbringing that have resulted in gaps in my own relationship with myself. I’m still unpacking that. But I’ve recently started a list of “things I know” about myself, to encourage some self-exploration and discovery. Baby steps.
I forget how much better life is when you take time for rest, play and laughter. My friend is a Tomodachi Life fiend, and she bestowed the honor upon me of creating a character for her island. So I made Willa, the werewolf, and here she is modeling at the local clothes shop. That’s my alpha.
ELLE is set in a very grunge 1995 Seattle, and music helped me connect not only to that time, but my character, Kimberly, as well. She’s a sharp-tongued, sardonic girly, who has a lot of heart buried behind her protective shield of sarcasm. I was able to explore much of her emotional depth through this playlist — riot grrrl, alt-rock and a hint of shoegaze. Le Tigre, Bikini Kill, Heavenly, Sleater-Kinney, Alanis Morissette and Smashing Pumpkins, are some of my favs.
I’ve become the person that occasionally puts words of affirmation sticky notes on their bathroom mirror, and I like that person. Micro-habits like saying “hello!” to my mornings (shout out to my toothpaste) and setting a good vibe for the day has been a game changer.
I’m trying to have a Super Silly Sidequest Summer. Something I’ve historically been quite poor at is managing work/life balance, so I’m adamant about setting some time aside in these next couple months to live, laugh, love.
