Remember the Freaky Friday (2003) Cast? Here Are Some Fun Facts About Them
One of the most iconic Disney movies directed by Mark Waters, this movie is based on the book Mary Rodgers’s novel written in 1972 by the same name. Although there are many adaptations of this Rodgers’s book, the cast makes the 2003 adaptation the most iconic.
Lindsay Lohan (Anna) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Tess) are mother and daughter in the movie who don’t quite understand and appreciate each other’s lives. One day Tess and Anna switch bodies courtesy of an old Chinese Voodoo. They are forced to live in each other’s bodies for a whole day and realize how difficult the other’s life is.
For Those Who Need to Refresh Their Memory
The movie’s start gives us a glimpse into individually Tess and Anna’s lives. Tess’s life is chaotic yet organized. As a therapist and a mother, she has to juggle the two lives with great precision. She also has to organize her wedding, which will take place in just a few days!
Anna’s life is that of a typical American teenager. As a teenage daughter, Anna wakes up late, is in her grunge phase, and has a crush on an older boy (Chad Michael Murray as Jake). She plays the guitar for her band “Pink Slip” and is very good at it. She also is excellent at her studies but ends up in detention because of her rebellious behavior. We see that going to detention is something she must do almost daily.
The whole movie takes place in 2 days. We see how the ladies live their everyday lives and what they face on the first day. They both think the other’s life is more straightforward than their own. The movie starts when they go to their usual Chinese restaurant and get into a fight. Anna’s band has a gig, but it is the same day as her mother’s rehearsal dinner!
We are introduced to a character named Pei Pei, who works at the restaurant. Pei Pei’s mother sees Tess and Anna fighting over whose life is more complicated and hands them two fortune cookies. They don’t know that these fortune cookies will put them in each other’s bodies! The next day, Jamie Lee Curtis’s character wakes up in her daughter’s body, and Lindsay Lohan’s character wakes up her mother.
The second day starts with Tess realizing that she has woken up in Anna’s body. She then tells her daughter that there is something weird going on. After realizing it has something to do with the Chinese restaurant, they meet there after living half the day with each other.
After Tess experiences Anna’s school life and Anna gives Tess’s body a makeover, they go to the Chinese restaurant only to discover that they need to find selfless love to switch bodies again. Anna in Tess’s body accidentally makes Jake fall in love with her, while Tess in Anna’s body almost destroys her relationship with Ryan.
The movie has a sweet ending when Tess and Anna finally respect each other. After a sick guitar solo and a beautiful rehearsal dinner toast, they truly understand each other. The movie ends with Tess’s wedding.
This movie is famous and sounds because of the actors and their incredible talents. Lindsay Lohan pretending to be Tess pretending to be Anna and Jamie Lee Curtis pretending to be Anna pretending to be Tess brings so much life to the movie.
Here Are 21 Fun Facts About the Freaky Friday (2003) Cast
1. Lindsay Lohan’s Luck
Lindsay Lohan had to learn the guitar for the role in this movie. And just so it happens, she was great at it. She also had her song “Ultimate” on the Freaky Friday Soundtrack.
Like most Disney stars, she started a singing career and recorded many songs. Gloria Estefan also signed her for a five-album production. She wrote many songs for her other movies, like Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.
2. Anna’s Goth Phase
Lindsay Lohan’s character, Anna, was initially written to be completely goth. But Linsay Lohan suggested that Anna should be more relatable to an audience of that age. Hence, her character was rewritten to be preppy.
3. Lindsay Lohan Was Not Going to Be Anna
Michelle Trachtenberg was originally going to be cast for Anna’s role but turned it down as she was busy with the shooting of Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
Can you imagine anyone else being Anna other than our beloved Lindsay?
4. Jamie Lee Curtis Was Not Going to Be Tess
The Freaky Friday (2003) cast has star-studded gems like Jamie Lee Curtis. But did you know that Jamie Lee Curtis was almost not going to be in the movie?
Two other actresses were offered the role of Tess before Curtis was given it just four days before filming began. These two actresses were Annette Benning and Jodie Foster, the actress who played Annabel in the 1976 adaptation of Freaky Friday.
5. Jamie Lee Curtis’s Real Daughter
Another fun fact about Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday is that the picture we see at the movie’s start is Curtis and her real-life daughter Annie Guest. So we can say that Annie Guest was also a part of the Freaky Friday (2003) cast.
6. Teenager in an Adult’s Body
Jamie Lee Curtis needed help adapting to her role as a teenager, aka fit into very uncomfortable teenage shoes, so she asked her real-life and on-screen daughter for help. Annie Guest, who was 17 at the time, helped her mother get inside a teenager’s mind.
Lindsay Lohan had to teach Jamie Lee Curtis to say “shut up” in the most angsty way possible.
7. Adult in a Teenager’s Body
Just as Curtis struggled with being a teenager, Lohan had to observe a lot of Curtis’s behavior to get into the role. Lindsay studied Curtis’s body language and replicated it after perfecting it.
8. Chad Michael Murray
The Freaky Friday (2003) cast includes Chad Michael Murray, who was already famous before being cast in the movie like Lohan. After being a part of the Freaky Friday (2003) cast, Murray starred in One Tree Hill as Lucas Scott.
Murray made a fine impression on teenagers back in the 2000s. He also starred alongside Hilary Duff in A Cinderella Story, a modern take on Cinderella.
9. Julie Gonzalo’s Co-star
Speaking of A Cinderella Story, this wasn’t the only time Murray had acted alongside Julie Gonzalo, who played Stacey Hinkhouse. They were also co-stars in A Cinderella Story!
10. Mark Harmon
You would know Mark Harmon as Tess’s fiance- Ryan. Harmon did not do a lot of notable films after being in the Freaky Friday (2003) cast, but he did star in the NCIS franchise from the same year that he landed the role as Ryan on Freaky Friday.
Mark Harmon made a guest appearance as Leroy Jethro Gibbs on Family Guy in 2012.
11. The Gilmore Girls Brothers
We know Ryan Malgarini as the adorable younger brother of Anne Coleman- Harry Coleman. A fun fact about this little boy was that Malgarini, like Chad Michael Murray, was also on Gilmore Girls! He played a small part on the show as Fred Larson Jr.
12. Mark Waters’s Casting
Mark Waters is the director who changed our lives by gifting us the fantastic Freaky Friday movie. He is also the director that gave us Mean Girls right after Freaky Friday. That is why the movie was so good. Director Mark Waters already knew his lead and knew how to work with her!
Waters called on many actors from the Freaky Friday (2003) cast to play major and minor roles in his later movies.
For example, Waters cast Lindsay Lohan in his next hit film, Mean Girls (2004), and Pei Pei’s mom, played by Rosalind Chao, had a role in Water’s Just Like Heaven (2005) as Fran.
13. Christina Vidal’s Song
We know Christina Vidal as one of Anna’s bandmates in the Freaky Friday (2003) cast. She also performed and sang the song in the film “Take Me Away,” which was stuck in many of our heads for a long time after watching the movie. This song was, unfortunately, recently taken down from Spotify.
Christina Vidal, aka Maddie, and Haley Hudson, aka Peg, both continued their careers in Hollywood, playing minor roles in many TV shows and sometimes movies.
14. Lohan’s First Kiss
From the Freaky Friday (2003) cast, Lohan would only have her second movie in the theatres. Since it was just her second movie, Lohan’s first on-screen kiss was with Murray!
15. Evan’s Adventures
Our favorite side character, Evan, played by Willie Garson, continued his acting career. Besides being in the Freaky Friday (2003) cast, he starred in many hit movies, including Sex and the City and its sequel as Stanford Blatch. He returned as Stanford Blatch in the Sex and the City mini-series in 2021.
16. Mark Waters’s Cameo
There are many hidden gems in Freaky Friday regarding Easter eggs. Waters was part of the Freaky Friday (2003) cast! He made a brief cameo holding a baby in the last scene of Freaky Friday during the wedding.
17. The Sneaky Delivery Man
The film has paid homage to the original adaptation. Marc McClure, the actor who played Boris Harris, Annabelle’s love interest in Freaky Friday (1976), was given a cameo role as the delivery man in the movie.
18. Dina Lohan
Lindsay Lohan’s mother has also been a part of the Freaky Friday (2003) cast! Dina Lohan can be seen dancing at Tess and Ryan’s wedding in the background.
19. Lindsay Lonah Charm
Lohan received so much fame just from being in the Freaky Friday (2003) cast, and she won 2 awards for the film! The two are the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and the 2004 Teen Choice Awards.
20. Kelly Osbourne’s Recasting
Musical star and legend Ozzy Osbourne’s daughter Kelly Osbourne was supposed to be in the Freaky Friday (2003) cast. She was going to play the role of Maddie, Anna’s singer’s best friend. She had to turn down the role because of her mother’s unfortunate sickness.
21. Harry and Pei Pei’s Mother
Ryan Malgarini, who played Harry Coleman, and Pei Pei’s mom, played by Lucille Soong, were united for another endeavor once again! Lucille Soong is famous for playing Grandma Huang in Ali Wong’s Fresh Off the Boat (2015-20). Ryan Malgarini also played a minor role in the same show!
Closing Thoughts
There is no doubt that the Freaky Friday (2003) cast made the movie so legendary in the world. It has been 19 years since this iconic movie was released, and is still relatable to the audience. The mother-daughter relationship is the most realistic part of the movie, but it still manages to get the audience, no matter what age.
We hope this article highlights the cast, such as tess coleman, Lindsay lohan charm, ben Andrews, and mary Rodgers, and get your hope up for the freaky Friday sequel.
