Chad Michael Murray in “Freaky Friday”.Photo:Walt Disney/courtesy Everett Collection
Walt Disney/courtesy Everett Collection
Chad Michael Murraysays filmingFreaky Fridaywas a noisy affair.
Twenty years after the release of the 2003 Disney remake of the 1976 and 1995 movies based on Mary Rogers’s original 1972 book, theOne Tree Hillalum took a trip down memory lane for a new interview withVultureto mark the anniversary.
Murray, now 41, played Jake, the love interest forLindsay Lohan’s Anna Coleman, a teen who switches bodies with her mother.
“[Director Mark Waters] sent [the Britney song] to me the night before filming,” Murray recounted in the new interview. “It wasn’t originally in the script. He said, ‘I have this idea — do you remember the movieSay Anything? John Cusack is standing outside and holding the speakers in the air? I want to do that moment.’ I told him I can’t sing, and he said, ‘Even better!’”
Lindsay Lohan and Chad Michael Murray in “Freaky Friday”.Ron Batzdorff/Walt Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock
Ron Batzdorff/Walt Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock
The resulting onscreen moment didn’t happen quietly. “We shot [the scene] in a neighborhood where everyone was already asleep,” Murray revealed. “I felt so bad for them. They were none too pleased with our lights and me terribly belting Britney Spears at all hours of the night.”
In general, Murray said he appreciated Jake’s “swagger.” Of the character, the actor explained, “He was nonchalant about a lot of things except for his honest feelings about both girls in his life. He wasn’t full of anything other than ‘This is who I am, this is what you get.’ And that was it. I liked that.”
Chad Michael Murray in 2023.teve Granitz/FilmMagic
teve Granitz/FilmMagic
Also in the interview, Murray recalled Lohan being “awesome” to work with, saying, “We all were just a bunch of kids goofing around making a movie. She would talk and hang out, but she had so much work, right? I never really wanted to bother her. And when there was a big setup or downtime, she’d have to go to school. That’s one of the downsides when you’re a child actor.”
Murray also shared that while he was Lohan’s onscreen love interest, he got to kiss another leading lady behind the scenes.
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“So Lindsay was really nervous, as anyone would be for a first onscreen kiss. And I guess Jamie, who’s a total pro and has been doing this forever, was trying to relax her,” Murray told Vulture. “Somehow it gets to the point where I hear a knock on my trailer door. It’s Jamie, and she goes, ‘Come, come, come.’ Now I’m in her trailer and Lindsay is in there.”
Murray continued, “I’m like, ‘Okay, great, whatever makes you comfortable. We’re going to crush it.’ And Jamie says, ‘See? Don’t even worry about it! You’re just doing the work.’ Ultimately, long story short, Jamie goes, ‘Forget about it, come here.’ And she kisses me and pulls away and goes, ‘See? It’s easy! It’s nothing! Right, Chad?’”
“I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s great! Fantastic!’ And from that moment, I kept thinking how I’d get to go home and tell my dad that I kissed Jamie Lee Curtis! How cool is that?,” Murray concluded.
With recent headlines about Curtis and Lohan being onboard for asequel to the film, Murray told Vulture that it would be “awesome to come back.” He said, “It would only be that much more interesting having Jamie potentially play a grandma or Lindsay playing a mother and Jake entering that world in some weird, bizarre way or still a part of it. It would be fantastic. I’d be all in.”
source: people.com
