Believe it or not, Disney’s beloved 1998 remake of The Parent Trap celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in July. The film starred Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, and the late Natasha Richardson among others and remains a cult classic to this day.
On Tuesday’s show, Quaid, who recently released the gospel album “Fallen: A Gospel Record for Sinners,” joined Megyn and reflected on his role in the film and what it was like to work with Lohan.
Working with Lindsay Lohan
The Parent Trap was Lohan’s debut film. She was just 11 years old and made quite a splash by portraying identical twins Annie and Hallie – complete with contrasting American and British accents – in the flick. Quaid said her talent was undeniable. “She’s the most talented person I think I’ve ever met,” he shared.
Case in point: Her ability to switch back and forth between the sisters. “We got to shooting this scene where she’s doing this English accent and an American accent, and I thought it was two different people,” he recalled. “I just bought it – everything that she did, she did it so easy.”
Lohan is now 36 and welcomed her first child, a son named Luai, with husband Bader Shammas, in late July. Quaid said he is so happy to see her seemingly thriving. “She went through her trials as we all do,” he noted. “But I still think that her story is definitely not over.”
Parent Trap Nostalgia
You’ll be hard pressed to find a child of the late eighties and early nineties who didn’t dream of Quaid and Richardson being their lovelorn parents or fantasize about attending Camp Walden for Girls and meeting their identical twin sibling a la Annie and Hallie or practice the epic handshake Annie (and later Hallie) shared with Martin the butler.
Quaid said he has fond memories of the project because, in many ways, it gave him a second chance after he took time off to recover from an addiction to cocaine. “You think that you’re doing the right thing and now things are going to get better, but they actually got worse,” he recalled. “I took a year off to really kind of work on myself, and that turned into two, and then… Hollywood forgets about you pretty quick I found out.”
The Parent Trap changed that. “Along came the Parent Trap about six years later and it gave me another career really,” he shared. “It’s always in my heart.”
You can check out the full interview with Dennis Quaid by tuning in to episode 599 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.