Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) in Legally Blonde. Photo / Getty
Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) in Legally Blonde. Photo / Getty
By Bronte Coy
On screen, we met Warner Huntington III as the playboy who had two beautiful women fighting over him as they all attempted to graduate law school in comedy masterpiece Legally Blonde - but there was a whole other love story going on behind the scenes.
Warner (played by Matthew Davis) was the ultimate pompous jerk: early in the peace, he dumped sorority queen Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) in favour of a more "serious" fiancee (Selma Blair) before heading off to Harvard, inspiring his ex to follow them there and prove she's "wife material".
In real life, Davis was lusting after Blair in a classic tale of unrequited love.
"I absolutely loved and adored Selma," Davis told news.com.au.
"I developed a crush on her at the time but she was with someone else - I think she was dating the guy from Rushmore [actor Jason Schwartzman] but he was coming around and I was kind of like 'who is this guy?!'"
He added that Blair (who played snobby socialite Vivian Kensington) was also the most hilarious cast member, which - given the comedy chops of co-stars Luke Wilson, Jennifer Coolidge and Witherspon - was no small feat.
"She was the funniest person on set. I love a very dry, dark sense of humour, so she had me in stitches the whole time ... She was the bees' knees," he gushed.
Legally Blonde took the world by storm when it was released in the early '00s - and no one was more surprised by its smash hit success than the cast themselves.
"No one had any idea how huge it was going to be," Davis said.
"All I knew was it had Reese Witherspoon in it - and I was a huge fan - but no one had any idea of the phenomenon it was going to become."
While Davis - who's heading Down Under for Oz Comic-Con next month - went on to star in movies and TV shows including Blue Crush, The Vampire Diaries, and Cult, he was just starting out in Hollywood when he got the call up for Legally Blonde.
So he didn't quite know how to play it cool when he first met bona fide celebrity Witherspoon.
A scene from Legally Blonde. Photo / Getty
"I fanboyed out on her and embarrassed myself," he admitted.
"I felt starstruck by all this because it happened so quickly and I hadn't adjusted. I definitely wasn't cool. At the first table read, I just kept going on and on about how much I loved her work, fawning all over her."
It's clearly still an excruciating memory for Davis: "I remember turning beet-red and later getting back in my car and just slapping my forehead, feeling like a fool."
Thankfully, the more-experienced actress took it in her stride despite appearing "kind of surprised" by it and responded politely.
"She was gracious - she was very sweet ... Reese is very professional."
While it's been nearly 16 years since the movie hit cinemas, Davis admitted he still can't shake his bad-boy image.
"People are like 'oh my God, you're Warner, the a**hole from Legally Blonde! I get a lot of 'oh, you're such a jerk' ... but I think it's funny. I think it's charming."
