Key Points
Freakier Friday director Nisha Ganatra says that Jodie Foster declined a cameo.
“We begged her,” Ganatra reveals, adding that the team “tried everything” to make it happen.
Foster previously starred in the 1976 Freaky Friday movie.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan reunited to revisit their body-swapping antics in Disney’s Freakier Friday, but director Nisha Ganatra reveals to Entertainment Weekly that her vision for the sequel also involved a cameo from another Hollywood icon that ultimately didn’t come together.
In an interview for EW’s exclusive cover story on the upcoming film, Ganatra explains that her team attempted to court Jodie Foster, star of the 1976 Freaky Friday movie, to appear in a small role in the 2025 production — itself a sequel to the 2003 film that initially paired Curtis and Lohan as Anna and Tess, a mother and daughter whose souls swap bodies thanks to an ancient spell.
“We begged her. She’s not going to do it,” Ganatra says of Foster.
The filmmaker explains that she “never found out why” Foster declined to star in the movie, but does reveal some ideas on how the Oscar-winning actress would have appeared in the movie if she had agreed.
“I think we were going to make her the principal at the school,” Ganatra recalls, adding that there was also talk of replacing Anna’s troublesome teacher, Mr. Bates, with Foster “when we didn’t know if [actor Stephen Tobolowsky] would come back.”
Ganatra continues: “Honestly, we tried everything. We were like, ‘What about this?'” Still, Foster turned the part down.
Alexi Lubomirski
Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis for ‘Entertainment Weekly’ cover story on ‘Freakier Friday’
EW has reached out to a representative for Foster for comment.
Ganatra’s film does, however, incorporate elements of inspiration from Foster’s 1976 Freaky Friday movie, which is based on author Mary Rodgers’ 1972 novel and helped cement Foster’s teen idol status in Hollywood.
The Late Night and High Note helmer says that her Freakier vision for the character of Harper, a now-grown-up Anna’s teenage daughter played by Julia Butters, included “fun, amused, cool” vibes, “inspired by Jodie Foster’s take on the character” from the prior iteration.
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Freakier Friday follows Tess and Anna, who swap souls with Harper and soon-to-be stepdaughter, Lily (Sophia Hammons), as the pair of teens attempt to thwart their parents from getting married and upending their lives.
“It’s the reason you go to the movies — it’s the reason you go to a Disney movie,” Curtis says of the film’s buoyant climax, which blends nostalgic elements from the first film into a progressive moment for its new characters. “To have a moment where all of a sudden you’re going to reach over and hold the hand of the person sitting next to you, if it’s your mom, grandma, friend…. You’re going to be moved by it.”
Freakier Friday is in theaters Aug. 8.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
