“I think she realizes she is Elle Woods, but Elle Woods has come to represent things for a lot of people," Jason Moore tells PEOPLE of the actress

NEED TO KNOW

• Executive producer and director Jason Moore reveals to PEOPLE that the new Legally Blonde prequel series, Elle, is heavily inspired by Reese Witherspoon’s kids’ own teenage experiences
• “The thing that I found amazing — that I thought might be more difficult — is how generous she was with it,” he says of the actress’ involvement in the series
• Elle is now available to stream on Prime Video

The eight-episode Legally Blonde prequel series was partially inspired by the experiences of Reese Witherspoon's own children. 

While speaking with PEOPLE about the release of Elle, which is now available to stream on Prime Video, the show's executive producer and director, Jason Moore, 55, reveals that much of the project was actually Witherspoon's idea.  

“They had tried to develop a Legally Blonde 3 movie for years and I think she started to ask the question, ‘How did Elle [Woods] become who she was?' ” Moore recalls of the actress and producer, noting that the project moved quite quickly once she presented the idea. “Reese is such a great steward of the character and knows it so well. It's defined a lot of her life, she would say that. And she has such a close relationship with it, that it comes very easily for her.”

While Witherspoon, 50, will no longer be playing the role of Elle Woods, with Lexi Minetree taking her place as the high school version of the iconic character, Moore goes on to share that much of the show's plot is inspired by what the Academy Award-winning actress' kids have gone through and what she remembers about navigating her own teenage years.

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Witherspoon shares daughter Ava Phillippe, 26, and son Deacon Phillippe, 22, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, as well as son Tennessee Toth, 13, with her ex-husband Jim Toth.

“Reese is a mom, so she brought a lot of her like, ‘Here's what my kids were going through and what I remember about being a young girl,' ” Moore says. “The thing that I found amazing — that I thought might be more difficult — is how generous she was with it. I think she realizes she is Elle Woods, but Elle Woods has come to represent things for a lot of people.”

“In all of our meetings, she wanted to hear new ideas,” he continues of the actress. “College Elle has all of her s— together, a lot of it, except she now hasn't faced the real world of what it means to be considered successful or Harvard successful. What is it like when you're a young person trying to figure it out?”

In addition to shedding light on where some of Elle's new storylines come from, Moore tells PEOPLE that, once he “got over the fanboy aspect” of working with Witherspoon, he quickly grew to “adore her.”

“She's just great,” he says, remembering that the project “very quickly just became collaborative, artistic.”

“You can tell from the way she runs this giant company, she is just a person of ideas and a person of creation,” he adds of Witherspoon, who founded her media company Hello Sunshine in 2016. “Nothing's easy, but I would say it's one of the most creative-forward collaborations I've ever had with a producer, especially a producer who had that much investment in the original.”

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