Asian members of the team behind “Freakier Friday,” Disney’s upcoming sequel to the 2003 comedy “Freaky Friday,” agree that the original film featured some “hurtful” choices surrounding its Asian characters. But in the new film, releasing in August, they sought to “make it right.”
In the 2003 film, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan play a mother and daughter who are constantly at odds. When they get into a loud argument at a Chinese restaurant, owner Pei-Pei (Rosalind Chao) tells her mother (Lucille Soong) to stay out of it, but Soong’s character intervenes, offering Tess (Curtis) and Anna (Lohan) a platter of fortune cookies. “This isn’t really a good time,” Anna says, but Pei-Pei’s mother insists, before speaking in hurried Chinese. To shut her up, Tess and Anna take the cookies, which turn out to be magical, leading them to switch bodies until they can better understand each other.
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“There were some stereotypes that were hurtful,” director Nisha Ganatra told Entertainment Weekly about the movie. “I remember watching it and feeling torn, mostly about the Asian representation, and also the soundtrack that was being used. It was something I brought up right away when I had my first meetings with the producers. I had a moment of the presentation that was like, ‘Problematic Asian representation!’”
Ganatra believed that she and her team “owed audiences to make it right on this one,” so she worked with screenwriter Jordan Weiss to imbue “Freakier Friday” with “little moments that don’t betray this movie, but were satisfying for people who found hurtful moments in the last one.”
For example, Chao and Soong both return for the sequel for “some really fun moments,” but they aren’t involved in the body-swapping this time around.
“It was a different time and wasn’t done intentionally [in the 2003 film], but it’s a real thing,” Ganatra said.. “It’s something I, being Asian, was super conscious of.”
Manny Jacinto said he had “concerns” about “Freakier Friday” before he officially joined the cast as Eric, Anna’s fiancé, but was happy with how Ganatra handled the Asian representation in the new film.
“When I considered hopping on board, I remember watching the first Freaky Friday and being like, ‘This did not age very well, regarding the diverse characters.’ Knowing Nisha and speaking to other people within our circles, I knew we had a captain who was very much aware of those archetypes, or those issues presented in the first one. I felt very well taken care of,” he said. “I don’t know if it would have been the same or had the same heart and charm if it was a different director. She keeps it very grounded and real, but also charming and fun. That’s a fine line to play, and she walks it really well.”
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