At 14, June Diane Raphael Had A Very Sloppy First Kiss

For June Diane Raphael, style comes before all else — at least when she’s playing Elle Woods’ instantly iconic mother, Eva, in the Legally Blonde prequel TV series. “There’s a line about how optimism, like bone structure, is inherited,” she tells Bustle of her character’s hard-and-fast style rules. “There are also things like ‘The Woods girls don’t wear green.’” Indeed, the actor is wearing a Barbie-like pink latex dress for our interview at New York City’s Plaza Hotel.

However, she doesn’t think her high-school self was nearly as fabulous. “I always say to Lexi [Minetree] about Elle, if I only had her confidence,” she recalls. “I was not like Elle Woods at 14. I’m 5-foot-9-and-a-half-inches, and I was my full height at 10 years old. You can only imagine what that was like.”

The 46-year-old actor, who starred in beloved comedies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Grace and Frankie, may have more in common with her onscreen daughter than she thinks. In Elle, now streaming on Prime Video, the future lawyer’s parents drop a bombshell: They’re moving to Seattle. Sure, she doesn’t tower over her peers, but Elle feels like an outsider, with her grunge-loving classmates refusing to see beyond her pretty-in-pink looks. Luckily, she has Eva as her No. 1 cheerleader.

“There’s something so special about showing a mother-daughter relationship on screen that is ultimately so fueled by love, and uncomplicated in that way,” Raphael says. “I just love that Eva rides so hard for Elle. Every decision’s not perfect, but she’s there for her, and she is amazed by her.”

For Raphael, the role feels like kismet, as watching Reese Witherspoon play Elle blew her away when she saw the original movie in 2001 in her hometown of Long Island, New York, with her sisters.

“Seeing Reese do physical comedy and play such a big character with so much heart was like a magic trick that she pulled off,” she says. “As a younger comedian figuring out the comedy world in New York, it felt very male to me. To see someone like her play a character that’s so hyperfeminine and funny was really important.”

Below, Raphael takes us back to her freshman year, opening up about her most embarrassing stories, biggest celebrity crush, and what she’d tell her 14-year-old self today.

Take me back to 1994, when you were 14 in Long Island. How were you feeling as a freshman?

I was a lot of limbs. I remember at night lying there and being like, “Ow, ow, ow. It hurts. Oh, my God.” I had growing pains. I was towering over the boys and some of my teachers. I just wanted to be cute and little like Lisa Conrad, who was my classmate, and I just wanted the boys to call me cute because she was so cute.

Of course, no one did. Later on, Paul Scheer called me cute on our first date, and I married him.

I read that at 14, you were working as an HIV/AIDS peer educator. What inspired that?

I got into it through my drama teacher, Jen Monsour. I would go to different high schools and explain white blood cells, how the virus works, when it becomes a disease, and safe sex. We would pass out condoms. I remember my dad picking me up from one of the schools. I was searching for something in my backpack, like, “I don’t know where it is, Dad,” and I was pulling out just sheets of condoms.

Not concerning at all. How did you like to dress back then?

I have such a memory of mock turtlenecks. And a headband?

Not the headband.

Yeah, it wasn’t great. And a perm?

Not a perm.

I didn’t trust the hairstylist when she said “OK, it’s going to look really short,” because my hair was long. They permed it, and it went up 3 inches, super curly, but she was like, “It’s going to drop, I promise you. Don’t touch the curls.” Well, I didn’t believe it, so I straightened the front, and once you do that, you lose the curl. It did drop, was long and curly, and then just super-straight front pieces. It was a very odd look.

I can’t imagine.

They always say on true-crime podcasts that a dead body is a scent you always recognize, and I feel that way about my perm.

Did you have a big social circle like Elle in Los Angeles, or did you feel more like her when she moved to Seattle?

From sixth grade on, I’ve had the same group of five best girlfriends who are still with me. They’re coming to the Elle premiere tonight. And thank God for them, because they were my tribe and got me through some very tender years. It’s so interesting because we didn’t know — well, they knew it, but I didn’t at the time — but the vast majority of them were lesbians. Looking back, that is right as rain. Of course, this group of supportive, interesting women was mostly gay.

What was a typical night for you guys?

Going to Blockbuster was everything to us. We were watching Mumford in someone’s basement and eating bagels. Lots of bagels. I ate them like they were crackers. Then I was like, “Why am I 35 pounds overweight? I’ll never know.” But it wasn’t the bagels. It couldn’t have been.

I loved seeing the Madonna posters in Elle’s bedroom. What music were you listening to?

I was definitely listening to Madonna, too. I remember my parents didn’t want me listening to Madonna. They were super Catholic, but that meant I had to. What would life be without Madonna? I don’t want to know that life.

What hobbies were you into?

I was playing basketball at 14 because of my height. I didn’t think I had a choice. But I do appreciate an amazing coach, Coach Fitzsimmons. He really helped me be more confident in my body. I played center, so he was like, “Your height is everything,” which really reframed that for me.

And I sang in front of my mirror to Les Mis and learned the entire soundtrack. That was my life.

Elle has a list of requirements for her first kiss. What do you remember of yours?

Just a lot of saliva. I don’t know if it was an issue with braces, but my entire face and neck were filled with saliva. I was like, “Wow, I didn’t know kissing had so much fluid involved, but I guess this is a kiss.”

Boys weren’t obsessed with me, but I was absolutely infatuated with all of them and deeply in love.

Who were your celebrity crushes at the time?

I remember watching Three’s Company and being obsessed with John Ritter. He was the first person I saw that I felt like, “Oh, my gosh, he’s the funniest man alive.” He was so cute and adorable, and seeing him fall over the couch multiple times, I was like, “Marry me, please.” I wasn’t into the boy bands or Leo [DiCaprio]. It was John Ritter all day long for me. No wonder I got into comedy.

What would you tell your 14-year-old self today?

Why do you wanna make me cry? I would tell her that she’s beautiful. That’s it.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.