We still vividly remember the little freckled redhead girl in front of us who was shy but very smart. It was her film debut in Disney’s The Parent Trap, directed and co-written by Nancy Meyers.

In our first junket roundtable interview in the U.S., the little girl made quite an impression on us as a good actress and an intelligent 12-year-old. That was Lindsay Lohan.

The movie, released in the summer of 1998, was a remake of the 1961 film of the same name starring English actress Hayley Mills, who is now a 75-year-old grandmother of four. Both versions of The Parent Trap were based on Erich Kastner’s 1949 book, Lisa and Lottie, and are considered summer movie classics.

The remake starred Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson as Lohan’s parents who separated shortly after their identical twin daughters’ birth. The two girls are also separated but by coincidence, they meet at a summer camp.

 

Impressively, for someone who did not have formal acting lessons, Lohan earned praise from the critics for her portrayal of twins Hallie Parker and Annie James in her first feature film.

Lohan explained how she worked on her dual roles.

“It was really fun,” she told the HFPA in 1998. “It’s very exciting to do that. But some people also think, how do you get ready for each of those characters? It wasn’t really hard. I didn’t take like five minutes for each character to get ready. I just did it because one of the things that’s easy about it is, Annie has an English accent and Hallie is American and has a Californian accent. Annie has long hair and Hallie has short hair. And they are just totally different.”

 

The New York City native explained how she got into acting and how she landed the part.

“My mom was in the business. She was a Rockette, and my dad was also in the business. So that’s basically how I got into acting. But for The Parent Trap, I auditioned in New York City, and I had about three callbacks. I went back a few times. Then I flew out to Los Angeles and screen-tested. I was there for about a week. Once I found out I got the part, I had to stay an extra two days. Then I went back home. I had a week to pack and everything. My family got ready. Then I went out to London and started filming.”

The movie, made with a $15 million budget, was a box office hit, grossing $92.1 million.

The film’s success opened more doors for the actress, who started as a Ford Model as early as age 3. After The Parent Trap, she went on to do other movies like Life Size (2000), Get a Clue (2002), Freaky Friday (2003), Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), and Mean Girls (2004) which made her a teen idol and a Hollywood A-lister.

It seemed like the world was Lohan’s oyster and there was no stopping her booming career in Hollywood. But as befell some child stars in their later years, Lohan figured in controversies and personal issues.

In 2014, Lohan moved to Dubai where she has been enjoying a peaceful, normal life away from the glare of the spotlight and the hounding of the paparazzi. She appears to have found peace and calm. She also met her future husband, Bader Shammas, whom she had been dating for two years and got engaged to in November 2021. Shammas is an assistant vice president at Credit Suisse in the United Arab Emirates.

In an Instagram post on July 2, Lohan announced, “I am the luckiest woman in the world. You found me and knew that I wanted to find happiness and grace, all at the same time. I am stunned that you are my husband. My life and my everything. Every woman should feel like this every day.”

 

Lohan recently signed a multi-film deal with Netflix to star in several projects. Falling for Christmas, the first film in that deal, will be released at the end of 2022.

Quaid, at the time of his interview with the HFPA in 1998, was also coming back from seclusion and rehab. He played Nicholas “Nick” Parker in the movie, a wealthy American vineyard owner and the father of the twins.

He recalled watching the original The Parent Trap. In his 1998 HFPA interview, he shared, “I remember that (film). I was in love with Hayley Mills like every other guy I think did back then. It’s a story that resonates. I think this movie is very empowering for children because they’re the ones who are in control and it’s from a child’s point of view.”

He admitted that there was a period in his life when he lost his drive and ambition. “I went through a period when I think I lost that or questioned it but I definitely got it back. I had to really re-think it and search myself to get it back. That’s the precious gift of why I’m an actor, to begin with, that I get to do something I really love to do. Otherwise, why do it?’

After The Parent Trap, Quaid did many more movies and won several awards for his performance as Frank Whitaker in Far from Heaven (2002) and got nominations for portraying U.S. President Bill Clinton in The Special Relationship (2010).

For both performances, Quaid earned two Golden Globe nominations (Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture made for Television for The Special Relationship in 2011 and Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for Far from Heaven in 2002).

Quaid himself has his own fraternal twins via a surrogate born on November 8, 2007. His other son, Jack Quaid, with Meg Ryan, is also an actor. In June 2020, Quaid married Laura Savoie.

He was recently cast in the sci-fi mystery Littlemouth which has entered production in the Cayman Islands. Jonathan Sobol wrote the script and is directing the film.

Natasha Richardson, who portrayed Elizabeth “Liz” James, a famous British wedding gown designer and the mother of the twins, died in a skiing accident in March 2009. She had two sons with her husband, actor Liam Neeson.

In her HFPA interview in 1998, the late actress talked about how her choices in making films haven’t changed just because she became a mother. “I don’t think it’s changed my choices only in the sense that I don’t feel driven in some way like I did before like chasing some Hollywood dream of success. Just doing the work that I feel is really important to me and different work. This movie is for me a romantic comedy. It’s like the boy meets girl, gets girl story with the children as the catalyst. And then doing something different as Cabaret.”

Richardson won several awards as Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret.

After The Parent Trap, Richardson made other movies, including Waking Up in Reno (2002), Maid in Manhattan (2002), The White Countess (2005), Asylum (2005), Evening (2007), and Wild Child (2008).

On what would have been her 58th birthday last year, Lohan paid tribute to her screen mom in The Parent Trap. Posting a still from the film showing her and Richardson strolling, Lohan wrote, “Happy birthday, Angel, #natasharichardson.”