Freaky Friday was anything but a funsucker.
Indeed, the 2003 film starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Chad Michael Murray and Mark Harmon has become a fan-favorite over the years—so much so that it received a sequel, Freakier Friday, in 2025. (Freakier Friday is available on digital Oct. 7 and Blu-Ray Nov. 11.)
But for Jamie Lee, the original movie bears special weight.
“It was an unexpected moment for me professionally,” she explained in a clip included in Freakier Friday’s bonus features. “And then it became this pivoting moment for me professionally, because the movie was such an enormous worldwide success.”
Chad, too, looks back on the movie as a career high, the word coming to his mind when he thinks of the film being “nostalgia.”
“You know, 22 years ago, making a movie,” the One Tree Hill alum began, “I was new to town, and I got the opportunity to come and work with Jamie Lee and Lindsay, and just go make a movie that hit on so many levels, and so many people could identify with the story.”
In fact, all the movie’s stars look back at that time of their lives with a special fondness. For Lindsay, throughout her time on set, she remembers feeling “really excited.”
“We were just having such a great time, all the time,” she added. “I only have really happy memories of being on set.”
And indeed, when it was time to reunite two decades later, those good vibes only continued—especially for the film’s two leading ladies.
As Lindsay told E! News of Jamie Lee in April, “We've stayed close over the years, so going to work together again was such a beautiful experience. It's like working with your best friend. So it's really nice.”
Plus, Lindsay—who is mom to son Luai, 2, with husband Bader Shammas—had fun revisiting her character in a new stage of life.
“To have Anna, you know, grow up and now be a mom,” she said, “the movie was really nice to be able to bring that part of her life to life.”
Read on for secrets behind the Freaky Friday franchise.
1. Based on Mary Rodgers' 1972 novel of the same name, the 2003 Freaky Friday is the second remake of the same story. The first film adaptation was released in 1976, while a made-for-television take followed in 1995.
2. The film's producer Andrew Gunn reached out to Jodie Foster, who played Annabel in the 1976 film, with the hope that she would be interested in taking on the mother role. Foster passed on the opportunity as she was concerned her casting would be a distraction.
3. Annette Bening was cast to play Tess Coleman, but dropped out six days before filming was set to begin.
4. After rising to fame as the original scream queen, Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis thought her leading lady days were behind her when she was approached by director Mark Waters to replace Bening.
"I was telling interviewers I was 44, a little chubby, my hair was grey, I was refusing to dye it, and I was content with my life," Curtis told the Telegraph in 2003. "In this business, I've always known there's a point at which the best thing to do is gently back out of the door."
5. But after reading the script and meeting with Waters, Curtis decided to take on the matriarch role—even dyeing her hair and learning how to play guitar—that would revitalize her career. As she explained, the move "shows what can happen when you let go and let yourself feel liberated."
6. After her breakout role in The Parent Trap, Lindsay Lohan took a breather from Hollywood, explaining that she was "thrown off" by her overnight fame.
"It came all at once, and Parent Trap was an amazing movie," she told IGN in 2003. "How do you do something that can top that? I wanted to go to school and be a normal kid. I went to high school, and I did two Disney Channel things which were fun, just to keep up."
But when she came across the script for Freaky Friday, Lohan knew it was "perfect" for her.
7. Before Lohan could be cast as Anna, she had to best four other actresses for the part and she didn't initially impress Waters, who said in a 2005 episode of E!'s True Hollywood Story that her audition was "probably the worst of the five." However, "we also agreed she was a star," Waters added. "She had this amazing turbulence and energy which we thought was going to be really interesting for the character."
8. Kelly Osbourne was initially cast to play Lohan's best friend, but the reality star decided not to do the movie when her mom Sharon Osbourne was diagnosed with colon cancer.
"I was faced with the choice of a career or spending what could have been the last days of my mother's life with her," Osbourne explained to Cosmopolitan in 2013. "The choice was apparently clear. I said, 'F--k you, career, hello, Mother.' I became my mum's nurse 24/7."
9. Lohan had her first on-screen kiss in the movie with Chad Michael Murray, who played Anna's love interest Jake. "I wasn't too nervous," Lohan said in a featurette, "after the 15th take!"
10. But Murray revealed during a 2019 appearance on Busy Tonight that he also made out with Curtis off-screen to help "settle" Lohan's nerves prior to their kissing scene. After Curtis brought Lohan and Murray into her trailer in attempt to break the ice before cameras were rolling, Murray said Curtis "just grabbed me by the back of the head and made out with me." His reaction? "Dude, I just made out with Jamie Lee Curtis! This is great!"
11. Tom Selleck was originally cast to play Tess' boyfriend Ryan, but he dropped out of the project after Bening exited. Mark Harmon took over the role and he and Curtis formed a close friendship, with the actress going on to make several guest appearances on Harmon's hit CBS procedural, NCIS.
12. Orgy band member Amir Derakh taught Curtis and Lohan how to play guitar. Lohan went on to record her first song, "Ultimate," for the soundtrack.
13. Lohan's mom and then-manager, Dina Lohan, has a cameo in the final scene as one of the wedding guests.
14. Marc McClure, who played Annabel's love interest in the 1976 movie, makes a brief appearance as Boris, the delivery man.
15. In an alternate ending, Harry (Ryan Malgarini) and Grandpa (Harold Gould) opened their body-swap-causing fortune cookies just as an earthquake happens, setting up a potential sequel.
16. Speculation about a sequel ran rampant when Curtis told fans at a 2022 Halloween Ends press event in Mexico City that she would "absolutely" reprise the role of Tess. She also offered an update on her friendship with Lohan, admitting she would test the Mean Girls actress "to make sure it's not a phishing scam" every time she texts her.
"'What was the song that you and I were trying to learn the rap [that's] in the middle of the song while we were sitting in the car doing the scene while we were eating French fries?'" Curtis recalled, referencing one of the movie's iconic scenes. "The answer is the Justin Timberlake song 'Like I Love You.'" .... she and I were playing the tape, then we'd go back and rewind, the two of us were writing the lyrics to that whole rap in the car."
17. Three months before the original film's 20th anniversary, E! News confirmed Curtis and Lohan were expected to body swap for a second time. "We talk almost every other day in general," Lohan told People, "so I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this."