Key Points
Jamie Lee Curtis’ iconic 2003 Freaky Friday dress makes a stunning return in the sequel.
Freakier Friday costume designer tells EW how the team found and brought the vintage dress back.
“The vintage Diane von Furstenberg dress was a treasure hunt as there are not many left.”
Warning: This article contains spoilers about Freakier Friday‘s final scene.
Some styles never go out of fashion — even if they ultimately go out of stock, as Freakier Friday costume designer Natalie O’Brien tells Entertainment Weekly of tracking down Jamie Lee Curtis‘ iconic silk paisley dress from 2003’s Freaky Friday.
The on-screen re-teaming of Curtis and fellow Freaky Friday star Lindsay Lohan was a cast reunion 22 years in the making, but the stars aren’t the only ones making a grand return. The sequel sets in motion a maximized body-swapping narrative that sees Tess (Curtis) and Anna (Lohan) switch places with Anna’s daughter (Julia Butters) and soon-to-be stepdaughter, Lily (Sophia Hammons). At the end, Freakier Friday wraps things up with a final nod to nostalgia in the form of the revival of Curtis’ original Diane von Furstenberg dress from the prior installment.
“The vintage Diane von Furstenberg dress was a treasure hunt, as there are not many left out in the world,” O’Brien tells EW, referencing the last shot of the movie where Anna’s former flame Jake (Chad Michael Murray) attends his ex-girlfriend’s wedding with a date who looks exactly like Tess. And, of course, the woman (whom Murray confirms is named “Bess”) is wearing the rainbow-colored, silky number Curtis first wore during a post-makeover shopping spree in the first film.
Disney+
Jamie Lee Curtis wearing her iconic Diane von Furstenberg dress in ‘Freaky Friday’
She continues, “The one we used we found on eBay, and it was about six sizes too small, so we did a hodgepodge of additional panels to make sure it fit. I’m so glad to say it really felt like the original.
The final scene is a nod to the ongoing mystery of Jake’s true attachment to either Anna or Tess, considering Anna’s spirit was trapped inside her mother’s body in the 2003 movie. That begs the question: Was Jake actually in love with Anna or her mom?
Murray explains that, when asking himself what Jake has been up to for the last 22 years, he “always thought Jake has a room somewhere in the closet in his house where he’s got this wonderful Tess shrine, and that he’s been in love with her and he keeps a faded photo of her in his wallet, but he still loves it and opens it up from time to time and touches it.”
He calls that backstory the “fantasy world that he’s put himself in,” and it all comes to a head when the audience sees Jake’s wedding date at the end of the sequel.
“My favorite part was seeing Jamie Lee’s reaction when she saw [Bess] come out in it,” O’Brien remembers. “The dress wasn’t actually written into the script; it was just something producer Kristin Burr, director Nisha Ganatra and I all discussed, and knew we wanted to make happen. I’m so glad it did!”
Glen Wilson/Disney
Jamie Lee Curtis as Tess Coleman and Lindsay Lohan as Anna Coleman in ‘Freakier Friday’
Lohan and Curtis were glad that their on-screen reunion happened, too.
“I understood the depth of the woman you’ve become. I give you great respect for that,” Curtis told Lohan earlier this year during EW’s cover story interview, referencing Lohan’s move to Dubai to escape the intrusive presence of the American paparazzi. “I couldn’t freaking do that at your age. I wouldn’t have known how to do that. That speaks volumes to the woman she’s become, the type of human she is, the type of mother, wife, friend.”
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Disney‘s Freakier Friday is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly