Sydney has welcomed Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan to town on a global promotional tour of Freakier Friday, the sequel to their 2003 Disney hit Freaky Friday.
The two hit the purple carpet at the premiere at Bondi Junction on Tuesday, continuing the promo round on Wednesday.
“Australia is a beautiful place,” Lohan told a cinema full of people with Curtis by her side.
“It’s the first time my son’s here, and I’m just so glad to be back here.
“It’s my second time back here with Jamie now.”
Lohan has a two-year-old son, Luai, with husband Bader Shammas.
Curtis said local support in Australia was considered crucial to the box office success of a Hollywood movie.
“It tells me everything about how important this country is to the success of movies because Disney made a big, big effort and a big point to say we need to go to Australia,” Curtis said.
It has been 22 years since mother and daughter duo Anna Coleman (Lindsay Lohan) and Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) switched bodies for an eventful Friday.
In the sequel, Tess is a successful psychologist embarking on a book tour.
Anna is a single mother to 15-year-old Harper (Julia Butters) when she meets and falls in love with Eric Reyes (Manny Jacinto), who is a single father to 15-year-old Lily (Sophia Hammons).
Freakier Friday brings a new body-swapping journey, but this time Tess swaps places with Lily, and Anna swaps with Harper.
Harper (Julia Butters), Anna (Lindsay Lohan), Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis), and Lily (Sophia Hammons) switch places. (Supplied: Disney)
As with Freaky Friday, there are a myriad of challenges when two families merge.
“Blended families come from … in this case, loss, sometimes conflict, and trying to build a blended family can start with some conflict,” Curtis told ABC News on the purple carpet.
“Conflict is sort of at the core of every family, blended or not.
“And in Freaky Friday and in Freakier Friday, you deal with loss, conflict, and resolution.
“And it’s sort of at the core of Disney movies if you think about it — a lot of loss, and then a lot of growth and a lot of self-knowledge and understanding and compassion.
“And if there’s ever a time in the world we need to say, ‘walk a mile in my shoes, I’ll walk a mile in your shoes and maybe you’ll understand me better, maybe I’ll understand you better and we can find community,’ if ever we needed that, it’s today.”
Curtis said the roles have shifted in the sequel, with Tess a grandmother and Anna a single mum.
“She chose to be a single mum, and the grandma chose to support her,” Curtis said.
“Very important to me that we highlighted that aspect of the story.”
Eric Reyes (Manny Jacinto) and Anna Coleman (Lindsay Lohan) fall for each other in Freakier Friday. (Supplied: Disney)
Harper and Lily are at odds with each other when their parents decide to marry.
“There’s conflict because there’s a clash of culture and a clash of just loss, again, this idea of being forced to do something that somebody doesn’t want to do, when in fact the best thing for everybody is to stay together,” Curtis said.
Perth band behind viral hit Take Me Away
Also on the purple carpet were Jessicca Bennett and Belinda-Lee Reid from Perth rock band Lash, who are the original performers of Take Me Away, which was covered by the fictional band Pink Slip in Freaky Friday, with the song also appearing in the sequel.
A retro photo of Perth band Lash who are the original writers and performers of Take Me Away from the Freaky Friday and Freakier Friday movies. (Supplied: Warner Music Australia)
Bennett and Reid are named in the Freakier Friday credits as songwriters of Take Me Away, as are bandmates Jaclyn Pearson and Micaela Slayford, with Andrew Klippel and Barry Palmer.
Bennett and Reid were grateful and blown away that Take Me Away made it into both movies.
“We’re very honoured to be a part of it and 22 years later, a part of it once more,” Bennett said.
Lash was originally formed in 1996 after a meeting at a Catholic girls’ high school.
Take Me Away was their debut single.
It was nominated for an ARIA, and now, more than two decades after gaining international attention through its placement in Freaky Friday in 2003, the song is experiencing a powerful resurgence on TikTok.
Reid said she believes the song resonates because “teenagers will be teenagers,” and the anger, angst, and hormones that come along with that strike a chord.
Jamie Lee Curtis, Belinda-Lee Reid, Lindsay Lohan, and Jessica Bennett met in Sydney. (Supplied)
Now a real estate agent, she hinted at more music to come.
“We were a band since we were … 13 years old, really, playing in pubs, having our parents there in the pubs and things like that and we progressed, it seemed like we were 50 by the time we retired and hung up our guitars as Lash, but our legacy now can live on as Lash,” Reid said.
“But it doesn’t mean it’s the end of Lash.”Settling into hard-won careers
Curtis is a producer on Freakier Friday, while Lohan is an executive producer on a film she referred to as a labour of love.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan at the Freakier Friday premiere. (Supplied: Disney/Getty)
It follows the holiday-themed movies Irish Wish, Falling for Christmas, and Our Little Secret for Netflix, which came after a hiatus.
“I hadn’t been on screen in a long time,” Lohan told ABC News Breakfast.
“I saw it as a time to sort of re-introduce myself to my fanbase in a very subtle, welcoming, easy way.
“And also for me it was getting into the producing side of things, and [Netflix] allowed me to do that, which I really appreciate because for the first time in my career I was able to be in from the ground up and have more control and be looked at in a different way as an adult and that really meant something to me.”
Lohan, 39, began her acting career aged 10, with her breakthrough role coming in Disney’s The Parent Trap in 1998. The cult classic Mean Girls came a year after the success of Freaky Friday. Her life in the public eye has by no means been an easy road.
Curtis is an Emmy and Oscar-winning actress and the daughter of Hollywood royalty and late actors Tony Curtis, whose career spanned six decades, and Janet Leigh, who is best known for her iconic role in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho — and that shower scene.
“I’ve been patient,” Curtis told News Breakfast.
“I’ve been an actress since I was 19; I’m 67.
“I’ve been waiting. I’ve been waiting for a long time. And it’s timing, it’s opportunities. It’s the confluence of a lot of things, and patience.
“And I’m just really enjoying it and now trying to cultivate more and more … I can’t imagine being a super older person doing this … but I’m very happy to be feeling as creative and fulfilled as I am.”
Freakier Friday opens in cinemas on Thursday