{"id":789441,"date":"2026-07-09T15:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/789441\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T15:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:22:12","slug":"june-diane-raphael-on-filming-elle-seasons-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/789441\/","title":{"rendered":"June Diane Raphael on Filming \u2018Elle\u2019 Seasons 1 & 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images\n <\/p>\n

The problem with being a blonde, according to actress June Diane Raphael<\/a>, is finding the discipline not to dye your hair even blonder. \u201cI don\u2019t think people talk about this enough,\u201d she deadpans. \u201cYou can always go a little blonder, and then next thing you know, you\u2019re bald. You have to know when you are blonde enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luckily, there is no such thing as too blonde in Legally Blonde, the iconic film starring Reese Witherspoon that debuted 25 years ago. It\u2019s a movie that is still very close to Raphael\u2019s heart. \u201cI feel like I was raised by Elle Woods,\u201d she says. \u201cThat character means so much to me and so many women of my generation.\u201d This summer, Elle Woods returns<\/a> to our small screens in Elle, a Prime Video prequel series that follows the future lawyer\u2019s high-school years \u2014 and Raphael is playing a central role as Elle\u2019s mom, Eva. In fact, she was handpicked by director Jason Moore and cast within two days of a chemistry read with lead Lexi Minetree. What, like it\u2019s hard?<\/p>\n

From Bride Wars to New Girl, Raphael has been working steadily in comedic roles since the early 2000s, but it was playing Brianna Hanson alongside Jane Fonda in Netflix\u2019s cozy sitcom Grace and Frankie<\/a> that cemented her in the Mount Rushmore of comfort shows. \u201cThat always means a lot to me,\u201d she says of anyone who identifies with the show as such. \u201cI know what it is to go through a hard time in your life and to turn to something that really makes you smile and laugh and feel comforted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elle might just make its way to comfort-binge status, too. It\u2019s a high-school dramedy that sees the Woods family relocate from sunny L.A. to rainy Seattle for a fresh start at the height of the Pacific Northwest\u2019s mid-1990s grunge wave. Not the easiest transition for a family who love to wear head-to-toe pink \u2014 but a journey they\u2019ll take together.<\/p>\n

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In Elle, how much of yourself do you see in Eva?
Well, I am a mom, so I connected to that fierce love you have for your kid and your belief in them. I also connected to this idea that Eva cares so much about Elle that she ends up not totally seeing her clearly all the time. Sometimes it\u2019s hard to watch your child grow up and separate from you and become independent. Eva\u2019s also a woman who\u2019s finding herself and coming of age in her own way. It\u2019s very true of many women of her generation, how they gave everything to their husbands and their kids.<\/p>\n

You have played a Republican news anchor on The Morning Show<\/a> and pulled Julia Garner\u2019s hair in Weapons \u2014 what\u2019s a role you wish got more recognition?
It\u2019s a niche piece of alternative comedy, but it got recognition from the fan base that I really care about: Julie Gristlewhite on Burning Love, which was a parody of The Bachelor, created by Erica Oyama and Ken Marino. Julie was such a fun character to play. She\u2019s utterly demented and trying to find a man and going about it all the wrong ways. I hold that series and that role very close to my heart, and I wish more people saw it. It\u2019s such a deep cut.<\/p>\n

What do you miss about Grace and Frankie? Because I miss everything about it every day!
Oh man, I\u2019m having such an interesting experience on Elle working with younger people and being an elder. On Grace and Frankie, they used to call me the kid. I was like, I\u2019m 40, but I love it, thank you. I\u2019m having the opposite experience now on Elle. What I miss, of course, is just hanging out with the cast for that many hours a day. They are hilarious and warm and so smart, and hearing their take on the world and current events, it was just really special. I\u2019m showing my 12-year-old son the show \u2014 don\u2019t put me on some sort of watch list for doing that \u2014 but he loves it so much. What better way for this young boy to learn about aging and what it is to be a woman than through feminist icons Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin?<\/p>\n

Getting into our \u201cRules to Live By<\/a>\u201d questions: What\u2019s your No. 1 rule for a successful dinner party?
Cocktails at the door. I really believe that when you enter into a dinner party, you need a little bit of a social elixir; you need to take that edge off. I don\u2019t want to be hunting down a drink! Just put a bunch of cocktails at the door. We need drinks, and we need \u2019em quick. Be ready to liquor your guests up. Don\u2019t have them asking or making it themselves.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your No. 1 fashion rule?
We all put a bit too much of a premium right now on being comfortable. Even when I\u2019m working. The costume designer on Elle, Sara Byblow, did such an unbelievable job. I wear so many archival vintage pieces in the show \u2014 Mugler, Versace, Chanel \u2014 and tailored to every inch of my body. Sometimes she\u2019ll ask me, \u201cIn this scene, you have to walk a lot, are you sure you want to wear this?\u201d I\u2019m always like \u201cSara, honey, you let me worry about that.\u201d I want it to look good. I know a lot of people aren\u2019t going to agree with this, but I\u2019ll handle the comfort. I will be \u201ccomfortable\u201d if it looks amazing. We\u2019re living in the time of athleisure; we have to dress up more.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite thing that you own that is pink?
A Shiseido pink lipstick called Pixel Pink. I wear many, many of my own tubes of it on the show. And this happens to me all the time where I\u2019ll fall in love with a product and then the company will almost immediately discontinue it. I have purchased every tube of this lipstick. I\u2019m sure purchasing it from eBay means I\u2019m gonna grow another arm in a couple years, God knows what\u2019s in there, but that is my favorite pink thing that I own because it\u2019s an everyday lipstick.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your No. 1 rule for gift-giving?
I love a gift that can be used, like a candle, flowers, chocolates, eaten and never seen again. I don\u2019t like having a lot of stuff. I\u2019m a bit of a minimalist, so I don\u2019t love the idea of giving people another thing. Oh, and don\u2019t give me a gift certificate, please; I\u2019ll also never use that and it\u2019ll just be a thing that sits in an envelope. You can\u2019t go wrong with flowers. It dies eventually and back to the ground it goes. I think that\u2019s a really beautiful way to think about it.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your No. 1 rule for dating?
I\u2019m not in the dating scene, so it\u2019s wild for me to have a rule, but nonetheless, I\u2019ll share one. I\u2019m going to specifically address heterosexual women here: We really should only be pursued. Call me grandma, call me old-fashioned, but we are too special and sacred to be running after a man. We need to sit in our power and be discerning and wait. I don\u2019t like seeing girlfriends text first. A dear friend of mine has a great rule: If you are worried at nighttime that you are going to text a guy, have some NyQuil by your bedside and literally put yourself out. You\u2019ll feel differently in the morning, you know you will.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of Elle going to Harvard, what\u2019s something you find really easy that seems to be challenging for most people?\u00a0
Decision-making. I\u2019m a Scorpio rising, so I\u2019m just like this, Not that, this, no, yes, you go, you stay. I struggle with people who get really lost in the sauce with making a decision. Now, could you argue that sometimes my decisions are poor? Yeah, sure. I do a gut check and I make a decision and then I don\u2019t look back.<\/p>\n

What rules do you have in your home?
We don\u2019t have our phones out at nighttime, and at dinner, we\u2019re pretty disciplined about spending that screen-free time with the kids in our family. The other thing I\u2019m really intense about is snuggles. Part of the reason to have kids is just to get those good snuggles, so if we\u2019re watching TV, you better be snuggling me.<\/p>\n

What was your No. 1 rule on the set of Elle?
Interestingly, Elle\u2019s second season was a phone-free set. It\u2019s something Lexi and I talked about in the beginning of the season. We feel so grateful to have this opportunity to work and create something, that we get paid to play. We\u2019re really proud of the show and how much joy I believe it\u2019s going to bring into people\u2019s lives. We decided to invite the crew and all of our cast to not bring their phones to set. There\u2019s so many horrifying news alerts that come in that take you out of what you\u2019re doing, and we just know how sacred and special the time is that we get to spend together. Everybody was onboard, and I think it was a wonderful experience. People want it, they just kind of need to be told or invited.<\/p>\n

Do you gossip?
I\u2019m going to be so for real, as my 20-year-old co-stars would say. I don\u2019t love the word \u201cgossip.\u201d I do believe that women, especially with their girlfriends, do like talking about how we\u2019re all surviving this life. It\u2019s not in an effort to ever bring anyone down. But yeah, we talk about, What\u2019s this person doing? How is she? What\u2019s going on in the marriage? Do I have some enemies? Yeah. And do I like to share about their failures? Yeah, I do. So that\u2019s true too. But when it comes to just our group of friends, I find that it\u2019s really in the spirit of checking in on our community. We\u2019re making sure we\u2019re all surviving and thriving together.<\/p>\n

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