The new series Elle — the Legally Blonde prequel following a teenage Elle Woods, played by Lexi Minetree — is set in 1995 between Los Angeles and Seattle, but a good chunk of it was shot around Vancouver, British Columbia. If you've watched and wondered where the mansions, high school and shopping scenes come from, here's the full rundown.
The Woods family mansion in LA is a house with serious history: 100 North Carolwood Drive in Holmby Hills, the estate where Michael Jackson died in 2009. Built in 2002, the French château-style property has eight bedrooms, a movie theater, wine cellar, pool and gardens across about 1.26 acres. Its sad association kept it unsold for years after 2009, but it's now valued at roughly $22 million.
Across the border, Elle's Seattle home is a 1913 Tudor Revival mansion at 1389 The Crescent in Vancouver's leafy Shaughnessy neighborhood — 11,000 square feet over four stories, five bedrooms and an outdoor pool. The high school, fictional Rainier West, is Point Grey Secondary in Kerrisdale, a 1929 building with Gothic arches and stonework modeled on Oxford and Cambridge. Riverdale also filmed there.
The LA scenes lean on genuine landmarks. There's the Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard — the "Pink Palace," a Mediterranean Revival icon from 1940s-era fame with tropical gardens and bungalows — plus the geodesic Cinerama Dome, which opened in 1963, and Rodeo Drive for the shopping montages. The Rainforest Cafe scene was reportedly shot at the Ontario Mills location in California, and the store interior for the final episode's Rodeo Drive shopping was actually the Mine & Yours luxury consignment shop in Downtown Vancouver.
Seattle gets some real screen time too: Pike Place Market, opened in 1907 and one of America's oldest continuously running public markets, appears with its Elliott Bay views, seafood stalls and the original Starbucks.
Other Vancouver-area stand-ins include Central Park on the Vancouver-Burnaby border (the cross-country championships in episode four) and a private pool-party house that once appeared in the 2002 Twilight Zone revival.
Why it matters for travellers: the series is essentially a two-city location tour. If you're heading to Los Angeles, the Beverly Hills Hotel, Rodeo Drive and the Cinerama Dome are all easy to visit in one afternoon along Sunset Boulevard. In Seattle, Pike Place Market pairs naturally with a waterfront walk. And Vancouver fans get the fun of spotting Shaughnessy, Kerrisdale and Burnaby — neighborhoods most visitors skip, but full of great residential architecture and parks. Just note the mansions are private homes, so admire them from the street.
