“Freakier Friday” is chalk full of Easter eggs for devoted fans — it’s actually, essentially, a Russian nesting doll of winks and nudges, particularly when it comes to cameo returns from some of Hollywood’s favorite character actors. Stephen Tobolowsky is back manning detention. Both Rosalind Chao and Lucille Soong appear, too, reprising their roles from “Freaky Friday” as Chinese restaurant owners. There’s a pair of “SNL” favorites, Vanessa Bayer and Chloe Fineman, in supporting parts. The hilarious Sherry Cola is an announcer at the pickleball game.
But the real cameo highlight is undoubtedly Elaine Hendrix as Blake Kale. In the movie, she’s an editor at Rolling Stone (which, ironically, just named Shirley Halperin its first female co-editor-in-chief). Fans, however, know that she’s also Meredith Blake, the supposed antagonist (there’s some debate) in 1998’s “The Parent Trap,” starring — ding, ding, ding — Lindsay Lohan as identical twins Annie and Hallie in her film debut.
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Blake (the 1998 one) is the fiancé of Dennis Quade’s Nick Parker, who stands in the way of Annie and Hallie’s plot to reunite their divorced parents by switching places. “Abbott Elementary” star Lisa Ann Walter, Hendrix’s best friend and date to the “Freakier Friday” premiere, also appears as the maid, Chessy.
“I love Lindsay so much, and we had such a special experience together,” Hendrix told The New York Post. “None of us could have predicted what ‘The Parent Trap‘ became. All we knew was that we were on this very beautiful, lavish movie set, playing these incredible characters in this very beloved story.”
“The Parent Trap,” which like the 2003 “Freaky Friday,” was a remake of an earlier Disney flick, was directed by Nancy Meyers and shot Lohan to stardom. In an interview with Condé Nast Traveler, Jamie Lee Curtis showered Lohan with praise over her much acclaimed performance.
“I still don’t understand. How old were you? 10?” Curtis said. “I don’t understand. I really don’t. I don’t understand how you were that facile and that able to flip-flop… it’s just extraordinary… to have that complexity… It’s a really impressive performance from a very young person.”
Lohan thanked Curtis and added, “If I had to pick any character that I could say, like, ‘I missed playing those… roles,’ it would be Hallie and Annie.”
The late Natasha Richardson, who was survived by her husband Liam Neeson, portrayed Elizabeth James, Annie and Hallie’s mother. Neeson — who has found love again with “The Naked Gun” co-star Pamela Anderson — will soon appear with Richardson’s mother, Vanessa Redgrave, in the film “Cold Storage,” and both his and Natasha’s son Daniel and Richardson’s sister Joely have signaled their approval of his relationship with Anderson.
