Welcome to Thirstory, where we whet your appetite with pages from the Interview archive that were almost too hot to print. This week, we’re going back to summer camp on the 23rd anniversary of The Parent Trap’s release by revisiting our favorite red-headed siren, Lindsay Lohan, and her June 2006 feature.
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Ah, summer—a time for self-imposed exile in the woods, uncovering family secrets, and reunions with long-lost siblings you never knew existed. No campy flick better exemplifies these beloved plot devices than Nancy Meyers’ The Parent Trap. In the director’s Disney 1998 remake of the 1961 original, a series of summer hijinks unfold, throwing together twin sisters who were separated at birth. Adored for its combination of raucous slapstick moments and bursts of adolescent charm, the film’s iconic cast includes the late Natasha Richardson, Dennis Quaid, and the breakout star Lindsay Lohan. Long before she became a Dubai-based Hollywood icon and NFT wunderkind, Lohan made her silver screen debut as the redheaded twins Annie James and Hallie Parker. When casting the movie, Meyers allegedly sought a young Diane Keaton to take on the dual parts—Lohan, with her raw talent and freckly magnetism, beat out actresses Scarlett Johansson and Jena Malone for the starring roles. In a tribute to the film’s 23rd anniversary on Tuesday, Meyers shared a heartfelt Instagram post, on which Lohan commented, “Thank you for the opportunity of a lifetime Nancy.” No, Lindsay, thank you. And thank you to The Parent Trap for capturing our cultural zeitgeist— inspiring millennial children to pierce their own ears, give themselves haircuts, spread peanut butter on Oreos, and teaching divorced parents the world over not to separate their children at birth.
