Pop Culture Happy Hour - Freakier Friday And What's Making Us Happy

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis first switched bodies over 20 years ago in the beloved Disney body swap movie, Freaky Friday. They return in the long-awaited sequel, Freakier Friday, which offers twice as many body swaps, fights galore, and a whole lot of jokes about being old and kids these days. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Jack Handy once said something along the lines of, before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you'll be a mile away and have their shoes. Well, if you remember Freaky Friday, you know Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis trade more than just shoes. They swap bodies. Two plus decades later, they're back for a sequel that claims to be freakier than its predecessor. That is even more convoluted.

There are twice as many body swaps, fights galore, and a whole lot of jokes about being old and kids these days. I'm Ayesha Harris. This is Pop Culture Happy Hour, and today we're talking Freakier Friday. I'm here at the co-host of Slate's ICYMIMI podcast and former Pop Culture Happy Hour producer Candice, Candice, welcome back, Candice. Hello. Lovely to have you.

Also with us is New York Times Food Reporter and author of the best-selling cookbook, Indianish, Priya Krishna. Hello, Priya, welcome back to you too. Thank you. And making her Pop Culture Happy Hour, debut is Mia Venkat. She's a producer on NPR's All Things Considered. It's so great to have you here, Mia. Welcome. Thank you. Happy to be here. Yeah. Yes. So Freaky Friday came out in 2003 and starred Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis as warring teen daughter, Anna and her mom Tess. Now, in the sequel, Anna's this big-time music manager and a single mom to teenager Harper, who's played by Julia Butters.

And then conflict arises when Anna becomes engaged to a celebrity chef played by many, Jacinto. He just so happens to be the dad of Harper's school nemesis Lily, who's played by Sophia Hammons. Through a series of extremely elaborate events, the girls slash women trade bodies, Anna with her daughter Harper, and Tess with Lily. She just has crevices all over her face with. Yes, so many crevices. So old, so old. The would-be stepsisters take advantage of this strange circumstance by cooking up their own version of a parent trap in hopes that they can stop the wedding from happening. It's very complicated. Freakier Friday, freakier Friday, that is a tongue twister. Freakier Friday is in theaters. Now, Candice, I'm going to start with you. Is this freakier? Does it

feel like a Friday? Tell us. I mean, I'm not going to lie. At first, I was like, why didn't they move on to Saturday? But I was like, move on, move on, move on. So the 2003 film, very resonant in my body, one of the first films I ever loved. Lindsay Lohan is probably one of the first celebrities I was ever obsessed with from like a 360. I need to know everything about you. And I remember watching this film so much. I know every line.

I know every song from Pink's Lip. And I think what I love about that film is that it has a very Nancy Myers feel to it. As a kid, I was like, oh, that's my worst nightmare. My mom and I, like, switching bodies. Now I would kill for that, just so like my mom could see that I'm actually cool now.

But all of that stuff. said, this film is like a deeply beautiful remake and sequel. And I say remake because I didn't realize it pretty much kind of like mapped like all the same big plot devices from the first film. Wedding, step-parent, lost parent. There's a rehearsal dinner, all this stuff. But the way that they were able to pull this off, everything was fun. And the jokes were like funny. And I felt magical again in this theater. I cried three times. I like full body sobbed at. some points. And it just felt so good as like cinema's back. Wow, Candace. There's some strong, strong opinions. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I love it. I love it. You're coming out the gate swinging. Mia, please tell me. How do we feel about Freaker Friday? I loved it. I went into it with kind of low expectations just because I feel like a remake, a sequel. I just feel like people normally mess that up. And this movie is like my sleepover movie.

growing up and all of the Lindsay Lohan movies. She was in everything in that era. And so, you know, I've been watching the new stuff that Lindsay Lohan is in. And they're all these kind of like Christmas-y movies. And so given that, I also had low expectations. But I loved her in this. Obviously, Jamie Lee Curtis can do no wrong. And I think that what surprised me the most was that I was actually laughing.

I feel like I love a montage and this movie does not lack the montage. And yeah, I left it being like, wow, they nailed that. I really, really loved it. Okay, all right. We've got two ringing endorsements. Priya, are you going to bring us a third ringing endorsement? Let us know. Yeah, make that three ringing endorsements. Hell yeah. I loved this movie. Granted, it felt like pretty much every part of it was tailor made to me a millennial. But I ate this movie up from, you know, the musical references to the performances to, there are several subtle and not so subtle. Lindsay Lohan Parent Trap movie references. Yes, there are. That I loved.

I have been a fan of the director Nisha Ganathra for a long time. I really loved the TV directing work she did. And I feel like this movie really let her chops shine. It's sentimental. It's funny. It obviously feels like a remake of the original, but it also feels fresh, nostalgic, but not to self-referential. It just works in a way that, like,

I've just been so disappointed by so many sequels that aim to really, like, tap on that nostalgia button, and this worked. Yeah, yeah. I'm, like, roughly the same age as Lindsay Lohan. She's, like, a one or two years older than me. But more or less, we're the same age. And I think Parent Trap, when that came out,

it hit me right squarely supposed to be. I was 10 years old. It was the perfect movie. I love that movie. I still rewatch it all the time. Freaky Friday, by then, I would have been 15. So these movies tend to be, even if the characters are a certain age, they tend to be aimed younger. And so I do not have the same sort of attachment to Freaky Friday as you all do. And I think this movie, Freakier Friday, lives or dies on that kind of attachment. And so I had moments that I enjoyed it. And then there was a lot of it where I felt, oh, this really is just a remake that I'm not sure we do. needed. It's more convoluted. There's a lot more happening. Sometimes it's a little bit hard for me to remember who is supposed to be who. Four bodies instead of two. It's like, oh, wait, I did enjoy the parent track references. The fact that Lindsay Lohan, her roles recently have been hit or miss,

and she's talked about feeling pigeonholed and not having the career that she kind of wants. And I do think returning to this well suits her, even if I don't fully love this movie. There's a moment where she is seducing or attempting to seduce Jake, her ex-boyfriend from the original movie, who's played by Chad Michael Murray. It's her body, but she's her daughter Harper, you know, the body swapping. And it's such a great moment. It's like her physical comedy, the way she's playing with it, like, I was like, oh, this is what I love about Lindsay Lohan. This is her wheelhouse. Do you ever miss us?

You can marry this weekend. Unless. I'm not. Literally in my notes from that, I was like, Lindsay Lohan is back. I know. I know.

I know. Yes. Yes. And I kind of wish we just had more moments like that. And I don't think there was enough of that for me. And Jamie Lee Curtis, I think her and Jamie Lee Curtis just have a great rapport.

Amazing. For me, it kept the movie from sinking too much. Like, when they were on screen, I very much enjoyed them. You think he's cute. I do not. You totally do.

Stop. I do not. Yes, you do. I do not. Absolutely. She thinks you're cute. I do not. I do.

It was a fun enough time. It has its moments. The Chad Michael Murray of it all in this, I like, I knew he was going to be in it because of the trailer. I'm so happy. The weirdest part about the first movie to me was the like the fact that he falls in love with Tess because, you know, Lindsay Lohan is in Tess's body. But then at the end of the movie, it's just like, and now he's dating Lindsay. It was like, okay, but he fell in love with Tess. And I'm really happy in this one.

They called back to that because like he doesn't know the body swap happened. He doesn't know anything. thing and he's like such a dope in this and like thank god they kind of wrap that up for me because I left the first freaky Friday being like are we just not going to are we forgetting about the fact that he just fully fell in love with Jamie Lee Curtis? It was perfect. He was perfect. I'm curious about how you feel about the sort of updates in a way because I rewatched for the

first time in like probably 20 plus years, the original Freaky Friday with the same cast. I had forgotten the whole Chinese restaurant subplot of it and I was just like, oh. Okay, what are we doing here? Now, those characters, including the mother-daughter restaurant owners who originally, like, caused the swap in the first movie are back. But then, like, they flip the plot here. So, like, how do we feel about the way it kind of integrates them, but then also adds Vanessa Baer from S&L as, like, the impetus here? When I rewatch the first film, I think the, I guess we could say, like, orientalization of that scene in particular, the main. mysticalness of like them in the Chinese restaurant, the backing music they use.

It's very coded for something. The fortune cookie. Right. And there, I mean, to be fair, like something I definitely notice is that Rosalind Chow does come back in this movie for like a really cute cameo. And her accent is actually a little bit more Americanized. And I was kind of like, oh, interesting. Yeah, I noticed that.

Interesting. But a right move, I think. Mama P. and her mom, they're in the film, but they are done with the Etsy witch stuff. They're not casting cursing. Instead it is Vanessa Bayer who comes through and is running a tarot business where she also makes business cards while also working at a Starbucks. I love her in this. I love Vanessa.

She is so funny. And you could say like, hey, they got a white girl to replace two Asian women. But I do think that them inviting those two women back is kind of the nod we wanted. And like in terms of modernizing the old film to now, I think the way that they kind of artfully placed each cameo were. works. No one overstayed their welcome, but they clocked in. I think that is just a testament to how, like, Aisha, I agree with you. I did not need this movie. But the way that they like took that and basically said, I'm going to prove all of you wrong is amazing. And I'm so impressed by that. One thing I'm like super curious about, I was watching this movie very aware of the fact that like all of this is designed for my demographic to like it. I wonder what Gen Z people will think. And I wonder what like people slightly. older, like even older than you, Aisha will think because I feel like Freaky Friday weirdly was that four quadrant film where like I remember going to see it with my parents and my parents loved it and they thought it was hilarious and relatable and like I loved it and I thought it was

hilarious and relatable. And I feel like that was like the magic of the original Freaky Friday. Hearing your response, I do wonder if it's going to sort of achieve that universal appeal in the same way as the original. I do think there are so many jokes about being old or being young. And I get it. My hands look like doll hands. Oh, my butt feels so high. I think I just peed a little. I think it kind of walks that very fine line of like the adults in the younger kids' bodies are like suddenly so happy they can like eat whatever they want or they can stand without like. Their knees cracking or, you know, osteopor. Like they can eat fries. They have metabolism. But Lindsay Lowhan's character is only in her. I know. But as someone who is in my late 30s now, I do understand. It's just like your metabolism does slow down. And also like things start to ache. So I get that. I did wonder if some of the jokes that were just like, you know, there's a John Mayer, as if like John Mayer and Coldplay, like super old. And I was like. The Coldplay joke really hit in my theater, especially after the Coldplay CEO concert affair. Well, yeah. That's true. That's very much like recency bias. I don't know if it would have hit in the same way. Another sort of.

thing that I kind of questioned. And this movie has been in the works for a while now, but there is, you know, Manny Hacinto's character and his daughter who's supposed to be from London. Also, Mani Hacinto, British accent? Sure. I know. It comes and it goes. I'll watch him in anything. There's a scene where Anna and Eric, his character, are supposed to go to immigration services. And it's like this fantasy ideal of like what it would be like. And I was like, this is a weird time for And the immigration services scene played for comedy when we know what's happening in the world right now. Yeah. It's specifically in our country right now.

I was just like, I don't know about this. And maybe I'm being overly sensitive about it. And a lot of people going to this movie won't think that. But it was just like, I wish they had found another way to like do this instead of this plotline. But that's either here, they're there. I am curious just, you know, like pink slip. Like how do we feel about bringing them back? There's a lot of people who come back.

A lot of new faces, including Chloe Feynman, Sherry Cola, shows up for like a hot second. It's a little too short for my taste. I would have loved to see more of her. But what do we think about just the way the movie sort of incorporates all the older characters? I think it handles it pretty nicely. I think so. I think one thing I really loved was how believable it felt for Lindsay Lohan's character to now be like a talent manager. Totally.

I thought there were parts of the movie where I'm like remembering the rebellious teen. And I was like, Oh, she seems so put together now. But, like, I thought that they wove in the, like, you know, she's still writing and, you know, this, like, has this yearn for performance. Like, it didn't feel this, like, completely removed from the first one where I love that she was, like, a cool hip talent manager and, like, has a cool kid. Like, all of that I really believed. And there's this, like, line from, like, TikTok comments that I truly felt where, like, in the end, when Pink Slip is back and they play Take Me Away, I, like, felt like woken up like a sleeper agent. And I felt like my body.

Like I was like, whoa. This is like the chords of that song coming. I'm like, oh, we're back. It was so good. And for what it's worth, I really liked the new song too. Yeah. It was a bob. Yeah.

That new song, baby, it was a little bop. I thought it was all right. I got to be honest. I didn't love it. I'm sorry, Priya. I'm so sorry. I didn't love it. I didn't love it because it's just not.

It was too G major for me. That's it. That's it. It's no take me away, but I liked it. I thought it was a boop. Yeah. Yeah. Take Me Away has such a specific sound and it's like, it feels very angsty to me. And I think that if they tried to do another angsty teen bop, I think it would have always paled in comparison. So the fact that it was a little more like sweet. I get why they did it. I agree with Candice. I thought it was a little bit eh. But as long as Take Me Away is going to be in there, I was going to be all right. I would have loved to hear the ultimate, but maybe that was like a step too far. That's my one thing. Okay. Actually, I have two things. Okay, there are two things about this film. I will give them the L.

Are we backtracking Candace? Okay. No, no, no, no. We're back. We're going forward. Okay, two says back. Okay. So the first one is that Ultimate is a song that Lindsay Lohan sings in the first film during the credits.

It's when her mom gets married. And it is like such a good song. It is sweet and it is like romantic and I love it. In this film, they have this other band like sing it during the credits, but it doesn't sound right. The band's called The Beaches. But they're not really like as related to the lore of it all. I love it. the beaches, but I get it.

My second thing is the ADR in this film. Oh. I kind of was like, oh, someone went to the Mindy Kaling School of making television, which I'm right because Nisha Ganatra directed late night, which is Mindy Kaling's movie with Emma Thompson. But hey, I let all of that go. Those are technicalities in comparison to the joy I felt. And the tears I shed, okay, when like Jamie Lee Curtis had this heart to heart with Sophia

Hammonds, the Lilly character who's Manny Hizendo's daughter. body sobbed. Everyone in the room, tissues. I loved it. It was interesting to me to see the way the movie kind of tried to, like, I think they mentioned that Anna's a single mom, like, at least eight times in the first, like, 10 minutes. And it's like, he's a single mom, by choice, by choice. She chose to be a single mom. It's just like, okay. And then the way it kind of tries to, like, perhaps she had to give some things up, like not becoming a rock star in order to be a single mom. And the way that plays out, I guess I wanted a little bit more exploration of that conflict. But again, a Disney movie, we're not going to get that deep.

Maybe it's progress to some extent that we even have a woman who is like, I'm a single mom by choice. Yeah. Look at me. I feel like what the one part of the movie that I was like, given that it's a Disney movie and that it's always going to have this like kind of everything is wrapped up in a little bow at the end. I know what they were trying to do with it being freakier and it's like a four-person body swap. And I felt like the most compelling parts and the most moving parts of the movie were with the three Coleman's, like with Jamie Lee Curtis's character, Lindsay Lohan's character and Lindsay Lohan's daughter. I wasn't as moved by the Lilly character. Just because at the end I feel like there's this gorgeous resolution with the Coleman's and Lindsay Lohan and her daughter.

And then I feel like Lily's just kind of like, and also me. And I'm also now happy as well. And it's also just like it's so tough when you have just like the like electric chemistry of Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. It's just like how do you compete with that? Like I just wanted to keep going back to their scenes because they're so good. Yeah. Look, it's freakier Friday. Is it freakyer?

Sure. It was a Friday. Tell us what you think about free year Friday. Find us on Facebook at Facebook. slash PCH and on letterbox at letterbox.com slash NPR pop culture. We'll have a link to that in our episode description. And up next, what's making us happy this week. And now it's time for our favorite segment of this week and every week, what's making us happy. Candace, hit us. So what's making me happy is this show on the Roku channel. Hold on, hold on. It's called

solo traveling with Tracy Ellis Ross. Oh, yes. I saw a clipbook. of this. Yes, tell us more. Tell us more. So Tracy Ellis Ross, blackish. Girlfriends. Girlfriends, daughter of Diana Ross. In this show, she goes to Morocco, Spain, and Mexico by herself, and she shows the joys of solo traveling, solo dining, solo vacationing. And I think the reason why this show is kind of getting some online steam for a good reason is because there are moments of real reflection and solemn that are really resonating with a lot of women. For example, there's a part where Tracy is like after dinner sitting in bed and she's just like, what is the difference between sadness and loneliness? And she parses that out. There's a part where she talks about like, yeah, Oprah called me the poster child of singledom. And I actually didn't like that. And here's why. And I think there is something so, so poignant and groundbreaking about the way that she is kind of combating the things that we as women and women of color have been told we cannot do in the world. We cannot travel alone. We're going to get taken Liam Neeson style. We can't sit at dinner alone.

People are going to think something weird about us. And in this very subtle way, Tracy is being like, I'm rich, I'm funny and I'm beautiful. I'm going to Morocco. And I think in a weird way, it breaks the ice for women and young women, grown women, black women, to just like go outside and do the thing you've always wanted to do. I like how this show is about womanhood and freedom and independence. And it's tucked into a travel show. And Tracy is also so funny. She's so funny.

And I love her. And so that's solo traveling with Tracy Ellis Ross. It's on the Roku channel. I love that. Priya, what is making you happy this week? What is making me happy this week is a musician that is new to me named Thruv, one name. A friend introduced me to his music. And it is like soothing, melancholy.

Like it sort of feels very like Rufus Wainwright meets Troy. Yvonne, like melancholic longing. His voice is like silky, smooth. It's like the kind of music you would put on while like cooking yourself a nice dinner and drinking a glass of wine. He has like a newish album called Private Blizzard, but the album I've been listening to the most is called Rapunzel. Double take is the song I love. That's Throove and the album is Rapunzel. Thank you, Priya. Mia, I'm so curious.

What is making you happy this week? What's making me happy this week is Chapel Roan's new song, The Subway, and the accompanying music video. And it's so good. And everyone's, I mean, I have been waiting for the full song to come out. And the ramp up to the music video in New York was pretty iconic. to me, like, her, like, red hair is everywhere, and there's, like, advertisements for it all over New York. The part of the song that is so catchy, I want to play a little bit of it. I love a good belt.

I love her voice. And in the music video, a very funny part when she's belting this part, like, her hair is blowing everywhere, and there's crazy wind and trash flying around. And there was a tweet that really cracked me up that was, like, oh, she got that wind in the challengers that makes you cheat on your partner. Oh, my gosh. So that is Chaparone, the Subway. I love that song, but I did not realize there was a music video. So thank you for telling me.

I feel so out of the loop. I'm here to say that the thing that is making me happy this week is something that I wish someone had told me about sooner because I didn't find out it existed until like a week or two ago. But it is Couples Therapy Season 4. I love couples therapy. This is, of course, a show on Showtime where psychotherapist slash host Orna Goralnik basically has some of her patients or clients sit in and be recorded. And you watch multiple couples or sometimes on some occasions, people with multiple partners, you know, talk about their issues. And it's not just about them. It's you get family, drama, histories, past histories.

And it is just such a fascinating show. It's a reality TV show, but it feels elevated because it's like set in the sexy mood lighting office space that looks very welcoming and calm. But then everyone's like dumping all of their trauma and sadness and issues onto her. And she handles it with such like grace and curiosity and empathy. And that is couples therapy. You can find all of it on Paramount Plus. And that's what's making me happy this way. week. And this Sunday, in our podcast feed, we're going to have another monthly bonus episode for

our Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus supporters. Stephen and Linda answer one of our most frequently asked questions, how do we pick panelists for each episode? You can sign up for Pop Culture Happy Plus at plus.mpr.org. We'll also have a link to that in our episode description. That brings us to the end of our show, Mia Venkat, Priya Krishna, Kansas Lim. Thanks so much for being here. We did not swap bodies, but we did swap some very good opinions. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks, Aisha. This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Janay Morris, and Mike Katzif, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello, Khamin, provides our theme music. Thanks so much for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Ayesha Harris. We'll see you all next week.