40 'Freaky Friday' Behind-the-Scenes Secrets That Are Getting Us Ready for the Sequel

In the same interview, Chad also revealed that Jamie Lee kissed him backstage to rid both him and Lindsay of their pre-smooch nerves. "At this point I went, 'Dude, I just made out with Jamie Lee Curtis. This is great,'" he told Busy Philips.

The casting directors narrowed down their shortlist for the role of Anna to five actresses. In a 2005 episode of E! True Hollywood Story, director Mark Waters revealed that Lindsay's audition tape was the "worst one" they received. Despite the lackluster video, they still believed Lindsay was perfect for the part. "She had this amazing turbulence and energy, which we thought was going to be really interesting for the character." We bet they don't regret that decision!

Mark told The Hollywood Reporter that Annette, who was on board to play Tess, was concerned that the script wasn't in a good enough place to start filming. "We kept on making promises that the script was going to get better and better," Mark said, "and she felt like we were really close to shooting, and it still had not gotten good enough."

Annette's departure also lead to another star dropping out. Tom Selleck, who was set to play the role of her husband-to-be, reportedly didn't want to be in the movie without her. Mark Harmon ended up filling the role.

Ahead of the movie's 2003 premiere, the actress told The Telegraph that she was shocked when she was offered one of the movie's starring roles. "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," she said. "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." Hmm, who's gonna tell her? (We'll just leave this right here.)

In an interview with The New York Times, Jamie Lee revealed that she and Lindsay have a secret text codeword inspired by their behind-the-scenes antics. According to Jamie Lee, every time she gets a text from someone claiming to be Lindsay, she asks them to prove it by telling her which rap song the duo was trying to learn on set. "If she answers Justin Timberlake’s 'Like I Love You,' then I know it's Lindsay Lohan," she said. Might need a new code word now, Jamie and Linds!

The One Tree Hill actor told Vulture that he wasn't allowed to ride his Freaky Friday character's Ducati motorcycle for insurance reasons. "When we’re driving down the street, and [Jamie's] snuggling up on the back of me? That's the stuntman."

According to E!, producer Andrew Gunn reached out to Jodie, who starred in the 1976 film, to take on the role of Tess in the 2003 remake. She passed on it because she worried that her casting would be seen as a distracting stunt.

Lindsay said the overnight fame following her starring turn in The Parent Trap was so intense, she decided to take a step back from Hollywood to attend school and live a normal teenage life. "I went to high school and I did two Disney Channel things which were fun, just to keep up," she told IGN in 2003. But when she got the script for Freaky Friday, she decided it would be the "perfect" comeback project.

The on-screen mother-daughter duo took guitar lessons from Amir Derakh, a member of the band Orgy. Lindsay even reportedly practiced on her own for over a year before taking on the role. In a behind-the-scenes feature, she revealed that she held frequent band practices with Pink Slip, the movie's fictional band.

Despite their best efforts, both Lindsay and Jamie Lee's playing was dubbed over in the movie by professional musicians. In 2022, Jamie Lee joked to Vulture that she "slayed" her guitar solo.

Speaking of learning to play guitar...although Anna is not the lead singer of Pink Slip, she gets a chance at the microphone during a performance of the song "Ultimate" at her mom's wedding. Why? Mark told Elle that the song was added to the movie because Lindsay was "annoyed" that she had learned the guitar for the movie and didn't have any big solo scenes that allowed her to show off her new skills. Hey, we get it, and we couldn't imagine the movie without the song—so, thanks, Linds!

Although Anna embraced alternative style, she was originally supposed to be hardcore Goth. When Lindsay initially read the script, she thought that audiences wouldn't connect with Anna's gothic personality. "No one could relate to the character when she was really Goth. There was nothing there," she told Vanity Fair.

To get the powers that be to shift her character's style to something more mainstream, Lindsay showed up to her audition wearing the preppiest outfit she could find to prove her point. "My agent called and was like, 'What are you doing?!'" she told Vanity Fair. Despite her agent's hesitation, her trick worked, and her character was rewritten.

In the final moments, Grandpa and Harry come catastrophically close to opening the fortune cookies that would inadvertently trigger another body switch, until Pei-Pei, the owner of the Chinese restaurant, stops them just in time. The actors also filmed an alternate version in which they actually open the cookies, leaving audiences to wonder if they would swap bodies. The director didn't think it was funny enough though.

During a recent rewatch, an eagle-eyed fan on TikTok spotted an adult standing in for Annie's little brother, Harry, just as he is about to get tackled in the movie's final scene.

Chad told Vulture that the first scene he filmed was the flirty coffeeshop moment he shared with Jamie Lee. "It wasn’t uncomfortable flirting with Jamie; it was just nerve-racking to not screw it up. Like, am I flirting too much? Too little? Am I coming off creepy? You worry about all those things."

Ryan revealed that the first time he met Jamie Lee, he told her that he loved her performance in True Lies, which includes a rather risqué scene. "That must've been super awkward for her for this 10-year-old kid to be like, 'I remember seeing you in lingerie,'" he joked to The Hollywood Reporter. "I remember her reaction being like, 'Oh, great. Awesome. Cool.'"