Elle’s Danielle Chand On Playing the Most Popular Girl at Rainier West High

The first season of Prime Video’s prequel series to the Legally Blonde movies, Elle, has hit all the right notes for nostalgia and humor, with a quirky Scooby-gang vibe to boot.

A key character in the series is Shannon Walker, a senior at Rainier West High, Elle’s new school in Seattle, who proves that being popular doesn’t exclude being kind and optimistic.

Landing the role of Shannon Walker was actress Danielle Chand’s first big booking, and, speaking exclusively with TV Fanatic via Zoom from Vancouver, Canada, she shared how amazing the whole experience was.

Tell us about how you landed the role on Elle. This is your first major job you’ve booked, is that correct?

Yeah, my first booking! I got the self-tape request sent to me via my agent just through email. I was at my restaurant job at the time when I looked at my phone and saw that I had an audition. “Okay, cool.”

At this point, all of my auditions had just been smaller ones. I had only been with my agent for not even a year yet, so we were still trying to do smaller auditions, nothing too big, nothing too crazy.

Then, after my shift, I opened my phone and was like, “Wait, what is this?” because the description said it might be a good idea to watch the Legally Blonde movie.

After that, I taped the audition and, two days later, my agent told me that Vancouver casting was going to be sending it to L.A. and I was like, “That’s crazy, okay.”

Two days after that, I had just shown up to my restaurant job — it was 10 am, I was opening — said hi to my managers, went to the office, and my agent called me. “They want to do a Zoom interview with you at 2 pm!”

At 2 pm? “So, I’m going to go back out to my managers and say, ‘I actually can’t work my full shift.’ [laughs] They were so supportive. I was so grateful because they had just done all of their call-offs for the day, and then they called someone back in.

They said, “No worries, as soon as this person comes in, you can totally go.” I think I served two tables, and then I was outta there.” Did the Zoom callback. That night is when I heard the news. I was in acting class at the time. The turnaround was so fast!

After booking the role, what happened next?

For some reason, March 17 is ingrained in my mind. That was either the table of the table read or something like that. We did the table read, and then I remember being on set for April 5.

I don’t even think all the scripts were actually finished yet. I think I only had maybe two or three Shannon scripts. It was very exciting, and it all happened very fast.

What was the vibe like among the cast?

The cast was fantastic. Everyone was super nice. I remember at the table read, we all created a group chat right away.

Then, because they were in my neck of the woods, I was like, “All right, welcome to Vancouver! Cactus Club [restaurant] is really close by.” I kind of think that’s a Vancouver staple, and none of them had gone to a Cactus Club before.

So I took them to Cactus Club, and we got to know each other a little bit. It was fantastic working with everybody.

[Full disclosure: Cactus Club is NOT Danielle’s restaurant job, although she did work there as a hostess in 2018. It was her first job.]

Did you get to attend some of the premiere events?

I was included in the premiere, and there was an afterparty after that that I went to. The premiere was fantastic. It was such a dream come true. And so wild.

There were so many press opportunities there on the carpet. So many microphones everywhere! I was just like, “What is happening?” and in awe that the cast… that was not their first time doing that. It was a lot, but it was very fun.

The premiere was in New York. It was my first time in New York, so I ended up staying a little longer. Just wanted to tour the city, saw a Broadway show, had to do the whole thing.

I saw Death Becomes Her. It was so much fun. I hadn’t seen a live show in such a long time. It was really nice to just be a theater kid. Sit with my Sour Patch Kids and just enjoy the show.

Had you seen the Legally Blonde movies before they were assigned as homework?

Yes, I saw the Legally Blonde movies in high school. I definitely had to go back to it just because it had been a while. I remember re-falling in love with it, watching it.

It was also crazy because watching the Legally Blonde movie — taking [note of] tone, trying to figure out where Shannon would fit into that type of world — then seeing Lexi at the table read and being like, “Woah, she is literally Elle Woods.” Perfect casting.

With Elle as a prequel, we see the proto-Legally Blonde version of Elle Woods navigating cliques and other high school issues. What was your personal experience navigating that environment?

I would say elementary school is when I experienced the more cliquey behavior among students — the mean girls, the people who are a little bit more on the outside. I was a little bit more on the outside.

And then, in high school, I was at a very small high school. Maybe only 750 or something like that. I related to Shannon not because she’s the most popular girl at school, but just because she knows everybody and is friends with everybody.

Yeah, I was kind of the floater at school, where I did have my core group of friends — I still talk to a lot of them today — but I just remember being at school and kind of bopping around, being able to work with anybody when it came to class projects.

At the caf or at a school event, everything was pretty chill. But also, because I was a floater, I don’t think I knew much about each specific friend group, since I wasn’t so close with each one.

What were your touchstones for how Shannon relates to the people in her life?

When it came to Shannon and Miles’s relationship, Jacob [Moskovitz] and I sat down at a coffee shop and talked about this two-year-long relationship that we had barely gone through, and then a few episodes in, we broke up.

So he and I said, “Let’s build this relationship. What did their relationship look like?”

It was a lot of Jacob feeling like Miles was always trying to do the right thing. He would do whatever for Shannon, and she would do the same for him, but as for the intentions behind it, he wanted to be the good boyfriend.

For me, thinking of Shannon and her wanting the world, loving her boyfriend, but her boyfriend wasn’t her identity. Miles felt like the identity was the “Shannon-Miles” relationship.

She ultimately breaks up with him, and we thought, “Yeah, Miles wouldn’t be the one to break up with Shannon because of the relationship dynamic.” It was safe. It was comfortable. They were really close. They had known each other all their lives.

So, yeah, [Jacob] and I did a deep dive of their day-to-day, what the routine was like. Study sessions. They’d go out for runs because he’s on the cross-country team.

When Chandler [Kinney] and I talked about Kimberly and Shannon’s dynamic, they grew up together, so Shannon saw Kimberly’s home life.

There’s a lot of empathy and compassion for Kimberly because of her harshness at school, since Shannon knows her home life isn’t great and that she lives this double life.

We all have friends who aren’t everybody’s cup of tea, but you love them so much because you know everything about them.

In terms of drawing from real-life experiences, I’ve definitely had friends where someone’s all, “Oh, I don’t know about this person,” and I’m like, “Just get to know them. They’re awesome. They’re a little bit intense, but they’re great people to the core. These are the people you want in your corner.”

I really had to work on character development and on building relationships between Shannon and Kimberly, and between Shannon and Miles.

And then, after that, a lot of my scenes were with Elle, which was nice because we were new friends. There didn’t have to be a lot of backstory there, but more just things they related to: fashion, both being bubbly, and being very optimistic.

There’s a genuine mother-daughter vibe between you and Sharon Taylor, who plays Shannon’s mother, Robin. Was that something that came naturally for you two?

When we met, everyone in Hair and Makeup was like, “Okay, Casting. You guys look really similar!” It was really funny because she was my first TV Mom!

I was intrigued as to who they were going to go with. I’m very mixed — I’m Indigenous, I’m Indian, and I’m Swiss — so I was wondering what my mom was going to look like. They could’ve hired anyone. I had no idea what they were going to do.

It was also so easy to work with Sharon. She was very lovely to work with. I just remember being on set and everyone commenting, “You guys look related.” It was wild!

I drew a lot from me and my mom’s relationship. My mom hasn’t written a book, but we’re really, really close. We have a close dynamic. Also, my mom and dad never stayed together either. Unlike Shannon, I’m really close with my dad.

But I drew on the idea of a mom and daughter who love and want to support each other, which was great because that’s my mom and me.

My mom and I also have a small age gap. My mom was 22 when she had me, and Sharon looks so young. It all made sense.

The book Robin writes in the show is all about overcoming adversity and surviving. Do you think Shannon’s optimism and ability to find the good in people and situations stemmed from her mom’s can-do attitude?

Yes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Shannon did find her mom very inspiring. Even when Shannon puts the book in Elle’s gift basket. She’s very much saying, “My mom’s the best! I’m so proud of her. You don’t have to read it, but…”

A lot of Shannon’s positivity, being super heartfelt, and wanting to see the best in others… that’s definitely from her mom.

Even in the bookstore scene, when Eva [Elle’s mother] is saying, “Your book reminded me of my husband’s botched nose job,” the way that Robin reacts is, “Well, I’m so glad that you found something in there.”

She realizes this is a bit much, but Robin’s not the type of person to say, “Wow, you get the book.” No ego there. It’s more, “I’m really happy that you enjoyed it.”

Now that the show’s dropped and you’ve seen it in its entirety, is there anything that stood out for you from this experience?

It was such a nice treat to see it all put together. Because I was mostly in scenes with just Elle, I didn’t get to see everyone else’s talent and everyone else’s characters.

So it was really nice to watch everyone and feel so proud to see the whole thing come together.

When we were on set, there were two months where I was super busy. I was there a lot. Then there were two other months when I was here for just five days and there for five days.

I wasn’t always watching the monitor, where I could see everyone’s scenes. And that’s not even the same as sitting down and watching the show.

What stood out to me was seeing it as a whole, how they put everything together.

I’m not in it, but the Breakfast Club episode [Elle Season 1 Episode 6, “Whoever Said Orange is the New Pink Was Seriously Disturbed”] I LOVED Episode 6! It was so cute.

Also, a shout-out to the teachers! I didn’t see any of the teachers’ performances until watching it. I just loved the dynamic of the teachers who are just clueless and then the principal! He’s just reacting however he feels he needs to react.

Basically, everything that I didn’t see [while shooting] was a very nice surprise.

What’s next for you?

Right now, I’m just auditioning. There’s nothing else at this time, but we’re still early in the year. I’m really hopeful. That’s always how I like to think: there’s something coming. I don’t know when, but there’s always something coming.

Shannon and I are similar in that way. I’m a huge optimist, very optimistic by default. You have to be. It’s an industry where you really don’t control much. I don’t want to focus too much on waiting to be picked.

It’s going to happen. Not sure when, but that’s how I’m going to look at it because it can get so grim and so dark otherwise.

Also, I’m doing classes right now. Scene study classes. I love the community of people that I work with. It’s also so positive because people are constantly booking in class all the time. I love to be around that.

It’s all manifestation. Even if it’s not my success, it’s about thinking about other people’s success and being happy for them.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Be sure to catch Danielle as Shannon Walker on Elle Season 1, now streaming on Prime Video.

Over to you, Fanatics! With Elle Season 2 already in production, is Shannon’s return on your wishlist?

Could she be Elle’s mentor at F.I.T.? Will she return for Kimberly’s graduation? Hit our comments below with your best ideas for her triumphant — or at least celebratory — return!

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