Elle’s Zac Looker Sees “Parallels” Between Dustin & Legally Blonde’s Emmett
“He has that same frustration of wanting her to be everything she can be.”
Elle does a good job at getting viewers very invested in Elle Woods’ high-school romances, even though Legally Blonde fans are already well-aware that she ends up with her law-school beau, Emmett. Still, the ’90s-set series provides a little glimpse of the love that’s coming her way in about half a decade, and that’s largely through the character of Dustin. Though there are some obvious differences between Dustin and Emmett (like, Dustin would rather be skating in his baggy clothes than spiffing up for a legal case), actor Zac Looker can see a definite connection.
In Elle, Dustin is Elle’s locker neighbor, who bonds with her as they uncover a financial cover-up at their school. Though their chemistry is clear to viewers, it’s not until the very end of Season 1 that they finally kiss. The slow burn is part of why Looker see “some similarities” between Dustin and Emmett.
“He isn’t presented as the obvious choice immediately, which is of part of the parallels between the two,” Looker says. “And he’s also the character who’s pushing her to be more truthful to herself.”
Looker points to one Legally Blonde scene in particular where he feels like Emmett aligns most closely to Dustin. “In the movie, when Elle just had this horrible thing happen with [her law professor] Callahan and she’s leaving, Emmett catches her on the way out, and he’s so desperate to get her to stay and keep pursuing this dream,” Looker says.
He channeled the energy of that moment in Season 1’s finale, when Dustin encouraged Elle to keep fighting for justice in Seattle rather than returning to a life of cushy ignorance in Los Angeles. “Dustin has that same frustration of wanting her to be everything she can be,” Looker says.
With that said, Looker also emphasizes that the teenage love triangle between Elle, Dustin, and Miles is far from an exact mirroring of her collegiate entanglements with Emmett and Warner. Most notably, because there isn’t an obvious choice in this scenario.
“Dustin and Miles bring out different sides of Elle, and that’s what the narrative choice of a love triangle really should be,” Looker says. “It’s not necessarily about which one she’s going to choose. It’s about which parts of herself that she sees reflected in these two characters she’s going to move towards.”
