Lindsay Lohan manifested her return to acting. With ‘Freakier Friday,' the former Disney star returns home.

Yahoo

6 days ago

Manifestation can be a powerful thing. Just ask Lindsay Lohan.
The 38-year-old actress largely credits her return to acting, or Lohanaissance, to Netflix. The collaboration, which saw Lohan star in a trio of romantic comedies for the streamer from 2022 to 2024, was something she manifested for herself.
'It was really Netflix. And I was manifesting it,' Lohan told Elle for its Summer 2025 cover story. 'During COVID, I was like, 'I want to work with Netflix.' I kept writing it in my journal and saying it. And then that's what happened. I was like, 'Oh, it'd be nice to do three films with them, and then see where that goes. And then I definitely want to do my first feature back with Disney.' So I manifested that, and I'm manifesting this movie now.'
Lohan stars in Freakier Friday, the sequel to the beloved 2003 Disney film, Freaky Friday, in which she starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis. While Freaky Friday saw Lohan as Anna Coleman, a moody, guitar-strumming teenage girl who has a strained relationship with her mother, played by Curtis, Freakier Friday revisits Anna, now an adult, with a daughter of her own.
'I feel like everything felt at ease when we were making it, and I feel that's the best way to describe how I felt when I watched it. It felt easy and fun, and fresh at the same time,' Lohan told the publication.
For Lohan, revisiting her Freaky Friday character was nothing short of nostalgic. She never thought she'd be filming a sequel to the beloved aughts-era film.
'It's something you don't really think about,' she told Elle. 'And then when you get to do it, bring a character that you knew so well back to life, in a sense, it's exciting. There's a comfort with it that you don't find in a new character. It's evolved.'
But OG Lohan fans know that Freaky Friday wasn't her first foray into Disney films. The actress landed her first Disney feature film in 1998 with The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 film. Lohan pulled double duty playing twins Hallie and Annie, who are separated and forced to live on opposite sides of the world — in California's Napa Valley and London — after their parents get divorced. When they coincidentally meet at a summer camp, they hatch a plan to swap places. Lohan, who was 12 at the time, had not taken any formal acting lessons. She nailed her audition anyway.
'I didn't take like five minutes for each character to get ready. I just did it because one of the things that's easy about it is, Annie has an English accent and Hallie is American and has a California accent. Annie has long hair and Hallie has short hair. And they are just totally different,' she told the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1998.
Lohan went on to become a Disney household name, leading films including 2000's Life-Size, 2002's Get a Clue, and 2003's Freaky Friday. She also stars in 2004's Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen as Lola Cep, a 15-year-old, New York City-based teen with a dream of being a Broadway sensation. Two months after that, Lohan strayed away from her Disney roots with Tina Fey's beloved teen comedy Mean Girls, in which she stars as Cady Heron, a mathlete turned momentary queen bee. She then rounded out her Disney tenure with Herbie: Fully Loaded in 2005.
It's been 27 years since Lohan first auditioned for The Parent Trap. Re-teaming with Disney, in a way, feels like coming home for her.
'For me, it was when I went onto the Disney lot,' Lohan said in an interview with Nightline in 2024. 'Because that's not just Freaky Friday for me. That's The Parent Trap. That's Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. That's Herbie. It's so many moments for me. So when I got there, I kind of felt, like, this essence of a little kid again.'
The former teen queen chose to 'disappear' from Hollywood, following a handful of public personal battles and legal troubles in the mid-aughts. Photographers following her every move as she came of age influenced Lohan's decision to relocate to Dubai, where paparazzi are banned. While Lohan, her husband, Bader Shammas, and their son, Luai, are still based there, the actress has been spending more time in Los Angeles and New York for work.
'Being back on the lot emphasized to me that I made the right decision to take the time away to really soul search, find out who I am, what I love, what I want out of life, and how I want to live my future. It came at the right time, it just felt like the right moment,' Lohan told Flaunt magazine in 2024.
As for what's next in the Lohanaissance? Fans will soon be able to catch her on the forthcoming Hulu drama series, Count My Lies, adapted from the Sophie Stava novel of the same name. Lohan will also executive produce the show, which will be the first TV series she'll have a starring role in.