Freaky Friday - Production Notes

Production Information

Dr. Tess Coleman (JAMIE LEE CURTIS) and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Anna (LINDSAY LOHAN), are not getting along. They don’t see eye-to-eye on clothes, hair, music, and certainly not on each other’s taste in men. One Thursday evening, their disagreements reach a fever pitch—Anna is incensed that her mother doesn’t support her musical aspirations and Tess, a widow about to remarry, can’t see why Anna won’t give her fiancé (MARK HARMON) a break. Everything soon changes when two identical Chinese Fortune cookies cause a little mystic mayhem. The next morning, their Friday gets freaky when Tess and Anna find themselves inside the other’s body. As they’re literally forced to walk in each other’s shoes, they gain a little newfound respect for the other’s point of view. But with Tess’s wedding coming on Saturday, the two have to find a way to switch back (and fast). Mary Rodgers’ classic novel gets a new spin in this big-screen adaptation.

Walt Disney Pictures’ comedy, “Freaky Friday,” stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Harold Gould, Chad Michael Murray and Mark Harmon. Directed by Mark Waters. Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon wrote the screenplay based on the book by Mary Rodgers. The film is produced by Andrew Gunn and the executive producer is Mario Iscovich. Buena Vista Pictures distributes.

About the Production
This new adaptation of “Freaky Friday” got started in 2000, when Andrew Gunn entered into a production deal with The Walt Disney Studios and began brainstorming ideas with studio executives about film projects he’d like to pursue. “There were two classic Disney movies that I wanted to remake,” remembers Gunn. “One was ‘Escape to Witch Mountain,’ and the other was ‘Freaky Friday.’

“I think the mother/daughter relationship is universal,” he continues. “The way mothers and daughters relate to each other, is, I think, different than the way fathers and sons relate to each other.”

Executive producer Mario Iscovich agrees. “I have a girl who’s eleven, and sometimes she and my wife don’t seem to be quite in sync. That familiar vein is what appealed to me about working on the project. It’s an age-old problem. Mothers have always said, ‘The kids don’t understand me,’ and kids have always said, ‘Mom doesn’t understand me.’”

Gunn, along with Disney executive Kristin Burr, had just finished formally mentoring a young writer from the Disney/ABC Fellowship Program when it was time to hire someone to work on the screenplay. Having become a fan of Heather Hach’s writing, Gunn and Burr encouraged Disney Studios head Nina Jacobson to give Hach her first paid job.

“Heather was in the middle of the second draft when ‘Princess Diaries’ came out, was a huge hit, and proved again that girls go to movies. That success encouraged us to get Heather to write quickly,” laughs Gunn.

Hach preserved the conceit of a mother and daughter switching places to learn about each other’s experiences from the 1976 film, which starred Barbara Harris and a teenage Jodie Foster. “The switch is a great arena to create physical comedy, but it needed to be given a new sensibility.

“There was a real opportunity to modernize it. Women’s roles have changed so much. I’m very fond of the original, but one of the big comedy set pieces was how crazy it is to do the laundry,” laughs Hach. “This really provided an opportunity to dig a little bit deeper, to really explore what it is to be a teenager today and what it is to start a new family.”

“The material was quirky and funny to begin with, so it suited itself to become quirky and funny again in the current day. I think the material is very contemporary,” agrees Iscovich. “This is not your mom’s old ‘Freaky Friday.’

“I think in today’s world, the story is even more relevant than it was in the ’70s,” adds Iscovich, “because today, everybody’s so busy. You have two-parent working families. You have people who are always on the go. It seems harder and harder to communicate with each other, even though we have so many new methods of communicating.”

“The updating that has been done really does reflect what’s happening today,” adds Gunn. “It’s a much more complicated world for both people. It’s not until you’re an adult that you realize everything that your parents have done for you. So we really wanted to get into that more. Also, I think being a teenager now is a lot different than even 10 years ago. We really tried to explore that by making the mother a widow and a single parent. Then we asked the question, ‘What’s the worst thing that could happen if you’re the 15-year-old daughter?’ The answer is that your mom’s getting remarried.”

Once the script was well on its way, the search for a director began. Producers considered approximately twenty directors to find someone who could achieve the balance between big humor and big heart. A young filmmaker named Mark Waters got the job.

“When I heard they were doing a remake of ‘Freaky Friday,’ I had a vague memory that I really loved the original. But I thought there was no way they could do it,” says Waters. “Then I watched the original film again and realized that it was actually just dated enough that I thought maybe a remake could work.”

“Mark Waters directed an independent film that I love—‘The House of Yes,’ starring Parker Posey and Freddie Prinze Jr.—so I was looking forward to our meeting,” says producer Gunn. “When Mark came in, he just launched into all of his notes for the movie and how he thought the movie should look… he really set the bar. We thought, ‘Wow, he’s really great.’”

“I immediately liked the idea of what they were going for in the script, but in the meeting I said that the movie I want to make has Anna in a rock band and at the end of the movie, they’re on stage at the House of Blues and the mother has to play for her. I expected never to hear from them again,” laughs Waters.

He was wrong. “Mark was really the one who seemed to get it the best,” says Gunn. “He had lots of ideas. He was about to have a baby daughter, which I think influenced some of his direction on the movie, the idea that his wife was about to become the mother of a daughter. So we took him into the studio and he got hired in that meeting. Then we set out to change the script with his notes.”

Finding the right actresses to play mother and daughter was of paramount importance to the project.

The filmmakers were thrilled to cast Jamie Lee Curtis in the lead role of Dr. Tess Coleman. “She’s perfect for the role,” states screenwriter Heather Hach. “She’s so adorable and talented. Jamie Lee Curtis is such a great physical comedienne, and that’s just what the role needed. She’s also incredibly smart—she just is Tess.”

“This lovely movie dropped out of the sky and into my life,” smiles Curtis. “I was in the middle of a book tour when the call came in. That was a Thursday and I was working by Monday,” she comments. “I just sort of jumped in, which, in a comedy particularly, is really the way to do it. You just have to go by instinct.”

Curtis immediately liked the ideas in the script. “I think it’s funny, and since I have a teenage daughter, I hang out with teenagers. So, I could clearly see moments of potential drama and hilarity there.”

In addition to identifying with the script, the production was able to meet Curtis’ personal criteria for taking on the film project. “The shoot was all in Los Angeles, so I could be home at night, and it is a family film, which I am thrilled about because these things are important to me. Being a mother makes you re-adjust what you pick to work on. This material fits my tastes and fits into what I would take my kids to see.”

Curtis agreed with director Mark Waters that the story needed to be grounded in reality. “The movie is slapstick, a farce really,” says Curtis. “However, there is real friction between the mother and daughter. This is real stuff—the daughter being unhappy about the mother getting remarried; the mom not liking the daughter’s music.

“It’s not the kind of comedy where there’s actually a real discord between the mother and daughter,” Curtis continues. “They just don’t understand each other. Ultimately, the gift that the whole movie talks about is this gift of walking in each other’s shoes and seeing what is missing in your life. There’s actually something really beautiful that occurs in the midst of this comedy… that understanding that they find,” explains Curtis.

Director Waters agrees. “The two of them have no idea just how tough the other one has it,” he concludes. “The theme of the movie is that they both think that the other person’s life is a relative cake walk… until they spend a little time in the other’s body.”

It’s one of the ironies of the story that Tess, who is unable to connect with her own daughter, is a psychologist. “Since she thought she knew human behavior so incredibly well,” adds Hach, “I thought it would work really well comedically, that she had no idea what her daughter was going through. And that would be a really funny way to illustrate how out of touch she was.”

Curtis articulates some of the things that might be going through Tess’s head from a parent’s point of view—reasons why her relationship with Anna might be troubled. “From a parent’s standpoint, when your child is 15 or 16 years old, you think there are only two years to go until college and you start to see your kid’s future,” comments Curtis. “You’re nervous that today’s behavior will stay with them through adulthood, since they’re almost fully cooked and you realize you can’t change them now. All the parent’s worries surface and you ask, ‘did I do a good job?’ And at the same time, the child is much louder, bigger, and more articulate in defense of their positions.

“At the beginning of this story, we see Tess focusing on all the wrong stuff, from Anna’s point of view,” observes Curtis.

On the other hand, Anna has her own blind spots. “What Anna doesn’t see is any of the social or emotional things that parents go through… concerns about money and health and whether or not we’re going to be able to make the mortgage payments. And in this story, whether or not the children are going to be damaged by the death of their father, because we try to keep this ‘everything’sgoing- to-be-okay front,’” says Curtis.

Surprisingly, it was more difficult for Curtis to play Tess than to play Anna trapped in Tess’s body.

“I told Jamie from the get-go that the tougher character for her to play was going to be the psychologist,” says Waters. “Jamie actually has to subdue herself and carry herself with a little bit more of a stern demeanor in that role. When she gets to let loose and be the teenager, she is much more in her element.”

Curtis found the key to playing a teenager was to just be herself. “My daughter gave me the greatest hint. One day we were driving home from rehearsal and she said, ‘Mom, you don’t have to try so hard to be a teenager. You are the teenager. You’re the most teenager-like grownup I know.’

“She’s right,” says Curtis. “They found the most immature 43-year old woman ever born who could headline a movie. But it is flattering, because really what my daughter’s saying, in her teenage-speak, is that ‘You relate to how I feel.’”

Halfway through production, Curtis celebrated her 44th birthday on set by buying the crew a ping-pong table and initiating a highly competitive tournament. She also hung her autographed pictures of Justin Timberlake in her trailer.

“I still feel very much like a teenage girl. I’m immature and moody,” furthers Curtis. “I like to do silly, stupid things. I have to remind myself that I’m an adult on a daily basis. I’m not used to being one, and I’m sure I’ll never actually full-fledged become one, but I’m trying really hard.”

Sixteen-year-old actress Lindsay Lohan took on the challenge of playing the dual role of a teenager—and a mother trapped in a teenager’s body.

No stranger to playing dual roles, having first gained recognition five years ago playing the twins Annie and Hallie Parker in Walt Disney Pictures’ hit comedy “The Parent Trap,” Lohan was excited to return to feature films in “Freaky Friday,” playing a character so apart from herself.

“Anna is very different from me,” states Lohan. “She’s a little tougher, and she doesn’t think before she speaks. She’s like most teenagers—she’s having trouble figuring herself out, so she puts up a shield and doesn’t really let certain sides of herself show.”

“To make the daughter a little more real, we wanted to have her in a band so she’d have an edge to her and a little bit of rebellion in her,” explains screenwriter Heather Hach. “Even though she’s a good kid, we wanted to give her a little bit of a bite.”

“This is not your Lindsay Lohan that people may remember from ‘The Parent Trap.’ That little girl is all grown up now,” laughs producer Gunn. “She’s amazing playing this rebellious kind of character. We always knew that she would be good, but we were just really blown away by how great she is. She’s extremely talented and we have great affection for her.”

Director Mark Waters could not agree more. “Lindsay Lohan is nothing like the character of Anna, who’s this bad attitude, punk-rocking, tough girl… almost a tomboy. That’s not who Lindsay is, and yet, she’s pulled that off brilliantly.

“At the same time she’s also been completely inhabiting the role of the mom within her body,” furthers Waters. “From ‘The Parent Trap’ her flexibility was obvious, in that she was able to layer nuances in both parts. She’s been seamless in moving back and forth between the mom and the teenager. She’s been completely impressive. Also, she’s been very convincing in all the guitar scenes.”

“Music is a really big part of Anna’s life,” comments Lohan. “Rock ’n’ roll is a way for her to let her stress and angst out. But she’s got problems with her mother, who doesn’t really understand it.”

Lohan was thrilled to be starring with Curtis. “She brings so much energy into a room,” says Lohan. “I found her to be very cool, and we really bonded. I think the fact that she has a daughter my age helped.”

“If I’m alone with Lindsay, the two of us can be teenagers together very quickly,” agrees Curtis.

“The chemistry between Jamie and Lindsay was just immediate,” remembers Gunn. “The first time they met in rehearsals, we knew that it was going to work.” To assist the actresses in their portrayals of each other, Mark Waters wanted Curtis and Lohan to know each other’s specific looks, voice inflections, and hand movements. He used a tactic during rehearsals to help his actresses with the unique challenges of their roles.

“I had two video cameras record Jamie and Lindsay performing their characters throughout the whole script, as if the mother and daughter had not switched places, so they could actually see what the other actress would do if they were playing that scene. Eventually, we all got very schizophrenic,” laughs Waters. “But, just by seeing the other person do it, they were able to be very, very specific in their performances and really be playing each other.”

During the course of production, brief ‘refresher courses’ were held for the actors before some scenes. “It was very informative for both of us,” comments Curtis. “For example, Lindsay has a very specific intonation with the expression, ‘shut up.’ Of course, in the teen world, ‘shut up’ answers every question. ‘Is it gonna rain today?’ ‘Shut up.’ ‘I just got the lead in a movie.’ ‘Shut up.’”

There were also other differences to take note of. “For both Jamie and Lindsay, it was a physical thing and a speech thing,” explains Gunn. “When Lindsay plays Anna, she talks really quickly and she’s a little more slouched.” “That reference of Jamie Lee doing Lindsay, and then visa versa, has worked out very well,” says Waters. “Audiences will really be able to tell the difference between the characters each actress is playing.”

The men in the Coleman women’s lives are played by Mark Harmon as Tess’s fiancé, Ryan, Harold Gould as Grandpa, Chad Michael Murray as high school heartthrob Jake, and Ryan Malgarini as little brother, Harry.

“The comedy of the film lies in seeing how these straight men are reacting to the weird variables of our freak-out,” comments director Mark Waters.

“I think for all of the other actors, the challenge is how to react to Tess and Anna without it just being that dumbfounded kind of look on their faces,” says Curtis. “That’s where the humor comes from. I think the conceit of the switch is fun and people enjoy that.”

“When I read the script, I wanted to be part of this project,” says Mark Harmon. “Doubly so when I found out who was involved in it. Jamie has more fifteen-year-old in her than anybody I know.

“The basic premise works,” he continues. “My sons watched the original movie with me, and the idea appealed to them. The first movie was done in the early ’70s, so it’s dated, but the boys still enjoyed it. They bought the idea. This is a different story, but the core is the same,” Harmon comments.

“Mark Waters refers to my character as one of the ‘go-to’ guys, because in some ways my reactions are the reactions of the audience,” he adds.

Harmon’s inherent likability was a key to his success in the role of Ryan. “Tess’s fiancé is someone Anna wouldn’t like no matter what he did,” says Gunn. “She just isn’t giving him a chance. One of the great things about Mark Harmon is we wanted the audience to say, ‘How can you not like him?’ And Mark Harmon is so that guy. There’s absolutely no potential for the bad stepfather in Mark Harmon.”

“Mark Harmon is a great guy and so lovable,” agrees Lindsay Lohan. “I think when I become Tess, my admiration for him shows through. It’s much harder to play Anna and pretend to hate him, because he’s just so nice.”

Harmon and Curtis first met over 25 years ago. “As young actors, we both got invited to be on a telethon and I don’t know about her, but I was pretty excited to be invited,” remembers Harmon. “What I had in mind was asking people for money and what they had in mind was me answering phones from three in the morning until five thirty.”

Veteran actor Harold Gould plays the befuddled Grandpa. “I really provide background for contrast, and an alternative to the focus on the mother-daughter conflict. I’m just a small spice added to the whole dish,” says Gould. “The reactions of the men in the family really just amplify the comedy.”

Ryan Malgarini plays Harry, Anna’s tormenting little brother. “Ryan is a spoiled and bratty kind of kid,” says the 10 year-old actor.

“Ryan Malgarini really does get to steal the show,” says Gunn. “He’s the little pain who is really mean to his sister, but he’s such a little cherub to everyone else that they can’t believe that Anna’s ever telling the truth that it’s actually the little brother starting the arguments.”

Chad Michael Murray was cast to play Anna’s love interest. “Jake's a normal high school guy. He's the ’tween version of a bad boy—he rides a Ducati motorcycle and wears a leather jacket. So, of course, as a mother he’s the guy you don't want your daughter dating,” laughs Murray. “But he's also incredibly intelligent and he likes Anna’s music. He's really genuine. He's a gentleman. But the surface doesn't really show that.

“He basically goes after Anna, and when Anna and Tess switch bodies, he ends up following Anna's personality into the mother's body and becomes fixated on her. He ends up flirting with both the girls. Man, I got confused, but I got a kick out of it,” chuckles Murray.

The comfortable chemistry that developed between Murray and Lohan during filming helped the young actress through a cinematic challenge. “I had my first onscreen kiss in this movie,” explains Lohan.

Murray, who has kissed his way through the female casts of the prime-time dramas “Gilmore Girls” and “Dawson’s Creek,” was the perfect scene partner for Lohan. “I love doing that stuff,” laughs Murray. “Oh, I've done it plenty of times… I've been through the ringer.”

“It’s an innocent little kiss, but it’s a kiss,” smiles Lohan. “I’m sure my dad will walk out of the theater; the kiss is going to be really hard for him to watch,” laughs Lohan.

Christina Vidal and Haley Hudson portray Anna’s best friends and band mates. “The three of us have really become close,” says Lohan. “I like working with people my own age. Christina’s got an amazing voice, and she’s a really great person to be around. Haley is just so sweet. It’s rare to find three very different girls that get along so well.”

“We all clicked right away,” agrees Vidal, “especially when we started having band rehearsal. By the time we got on set, we had spent so much time together that we were really good friends. We came together very nicely, I think, and it shows on camera.”

The girls were a great source of information for the writers, producers and director—all of whom were over the age of 30. “Any time something didn’t feel real to me, I’d ask one of them,” says Waters. “One of the most embarrassing things that old people do is try to use slang that is completely dead. They kept us honest that way.”

“Having three teenage girls on the production was a unique situation,” says producer Andrew Gunn. “They had lots of opinions… especially on their clothes and their hair. Mark has a baby girl and people were always joking with him—‘just wait until you’ve got a teenage daughter!’ and he’d say, ‘I already have three of them.’

“We didn’t have movie star drama on this movie… we had real-life teenage girl drama. Stuff like ‘I broke up with my boyfriend’ and ‘I have a pimple.’ But they are a really amazing group of girls. It’s been an amazing set,” adds Gunn.

Jamie Lee Curtis became the fourth part of this girl group. “She is the troop leader to our three Girl Scouts,” says Waters. “She basically oversaw them and they had a great time. At the end of the shoot, there was that little bit of sadness when people realized ‘Oh gosh, summer camp’s over.’”

Principal photography began October 5, 2002 on Walt Disney Pictures’ “Freaky Friday” at a high school near the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles, CA. The beach communities of Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, and Malibu were home to many of the locations used in the film. Locations in the area included a private residence used for the exterior of the Coleman Home, and several streets on and around Pacific Coast Highway, used for driving scenes.

Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade served as the location of Tess Coleman’s office and shopping spree. Other Santa Monica shooting sites include The Farms Supermarket and the 19th Street Coffee House.

The film’s finale, Tess and Ryan’s wedding, was shot at the Gulls Way Estate in Malibu. The pivotal House of Chiang Restaurant scene, where the “earthquake” that switches mother and daughter occurs, was filmed at the former Fung Lum Restaurant at Universal City, with exteriors shot at the old Hong Kong Low Restaurant in downtown Los Angeles’ Chinatown.

One of the added extras that director Mark Waters insisted upon when he came on board was that the girls’ band should have their big audition scene at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood.

Other Los Angeles area locations include the Glendale Studios, Griffith Park, and Dorris Place Elementary School. Even though filmmakers shot the outside of the Sunset Boulevard side of the beautiful Argyle Hotel, it was necessary to built the interior/exterior of their stunning patio party space on stage due to the “earthquake” that occurs in the scene played there.

During production, filmmakers made an effort to use attitude, wardrobe and music to make the story more contemporary.

These elements also helped Curtis and Lohan differentiate when they were playing their characters switched. “The wardrobe is important in this movie because it helps distinguish our characters,” explains Lindsay Lohan.

Costume designer Genevieve Tyrrell worked with Waters, Gunn and the cast to define each character’s individual style. “It was a challenge because this movie is not like ‘Big,’ where now he’s a little kid in an adult body, who just has to act like a kid the whole time,” explains Gunn. “This is the mom inside, but we couldn’t do a really drastic wardrobe change, since it only takes place in one day. So there had to be subtle differences, yet not so subtle that people didn’t pick up on them.”

When the daughter occupies the mother’s body, she decides it’s time for her mom to show off some of her hidden attributes. She swaps her mother’s dowdy, professional suits for a sexy Diane Von Furstenberg dress to show off her legs, and then cuts her hair drastically short to show off her eyes. “When Anna gives her mom the little makeover, it really brings out a side of Tess that she’s afraid to show,” explains Lohan.

Anna is definitely a girl who has her own style. Anna’s first look features Dickie’s pants with the band of her underwear showing. “My character’s style is very Avril Lavigne,” adds Lohan. “I’ve been following her and I love her music. I think Anna and Avril have a lot in common in terms of the way they hold themselves and the way they dress.”

“I think it’s hard to be the parent of that kid who doesn’t dress like everyone else,” explains Gunn, “because things would be a lot easier if the kid just dressed like a Sears catalog and didn’t play in a rock band. But what Tess ultimately comes to realize is that her daughter is making the right decisions in her life.”

Anna’s look took some adjustment for Lohan. “This is a very different look for me. I normally have really dark, auburn red hair. To play Anna, they streaked it with blonde and cut four inches off. That was hard for me! But it was right for the character of Anna,” says Lohan.

“Freaky Friday” features several on-screen musical performances by cast members, and music is often used in the film to drive the story forward.

“I must have frustrated rock star fantasies,” laughs producer Andrew Gunn, “because it seems I have a habit of doing movies with original music on screen. But it was important for Anna’s character to be into something that her mom just wouldn’t understand. What’s better than her being in a rock band?”

One of the crucial challenges of the film was to create an authentic and believable alternative rock/pop band. Music supervisor Lisa Brown was charged with finding the right songs for the film and with turning three young actresses into wanna-be rock stars.

“Music really becomes a character in the film,” explains Brown. “It sets a tone and is very integral to the audience’s experience. Audiences relive great movie scenes by humming the song and bringing back the moment.”

In order to come up with the two signature songs for the girls’ band “Pink Slip” to play, Brown put out a cattle call to songwriters, with a two-week deadline, asking for original songs that fit the story. Sixty-four original songs were submitted and the filmmakers loved eight of them. The song “Ultimate” came from this process and became the song that Lindsay Lohan’s character sings at the end of the film at her mother’s wedding. The second song, “Take Me Away,” is sung by Christina Vidal’s character in two different scenes in the film—at the House of Blues and in a garage rehearsal.

Music producer Mike “Dust Brothers” Simpson (Beck, Beastie Boys, Santana, The Rolling Stones) was hired to produce the two tracks and the girls headed into the studio to record the songs before shooting began. Since “Take Me Away” features a blistering guitar solo that both Lindsay and Jamie had to learn to play on camera, Brown brought in Amir Derakh, lead guitarist of the band Orgy, to work with the cast on their guitar skills.

Anna and her two best friends, Maddie and Peg, form the core of “Pink Slip.” In order to be authentic and believable, the three actresses—Lindsay Lohan, Christina Vidal and Haley Hudson—went through an intense rehearsal period. Two experienced musicians were hired to back up the girls on screen: drummer Chris Carlberg and bass player Danny Rubin, who plays in a San Diego-based band named “F.o.N.”

Over a month before production even began, the girls started practicing with their instruments. Once shooting started, if they were not on set or in school, the girls rehearsed their physical performance with music supervisor Lisa Brown, guitar coach Amir Derakh, and choreographer Peggy Holmes to actually become a real band.

“Haley actually learned how to play the bass guitar in about two weeks!” enthuses Gunn. “Lindsay learned the guitar solos and it was great.”

“I loved learning guitar, and I love to sing,” says Lohan, who will also sing on the soundtrack of her next film, “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.” “This movie was a great opportunity for me to do both. Practice made perfect, and once the band got comfortable and really started rocking out, we were excited to get in front of a crowd.”

Because Jamie Lee Curtis, as the daughter, plays the guitar solo off-stage in a Cyrano de Bergerac-type of moment, she also had to perfect her guitar skills. Curtis had played a little bass guitar in her youth, but had not picked up a guitar in years.

In the early part of the shoot, Curtis and Derakh could be found at every spare moment in a back corner of the set, working on her fingering of the guitar solo. When the time came to shoot the pivotal performance scene at the House of Blues, Curtis rose to the occasion.

“Jamie was always really worried that she wouldn’t be able to do it well enough, so she wanted a hand double,” relates producer Andrew Gunn. “So we hired a hand double. Jamie showed up on the first day of the threeday shoot at the House of Blues and she was amazing; she gave a really incredible performance.

“The next morning, she came back to the set and Mark Waters told her, ‘So, Jamie, we shot the hand double after you left. Not gonna use it.’ The hand double didn’t have any of the energy that Jamie had when she was playing, it looked more like an instructional video,” laughs Gunn.

“Understanding the power and beauty of her daughter’s music is a little gift that Tess discovers while she’s on stage in front of that crowd. It’s a cool moment,” adds Curtis.

In addition to being a funny and entertaining movie, the filmmakers think the audience will also be touched by the story.

“The movie is basically about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes,” states Lindsay Lohan. “I’ve heard that from Jamie a lot, because it really gets down to the fact that a lot of teenagers don’t really respect what their parents do. We don’t take the time to think about it.

“But more than that, the movie is really about a mother and daughter who don’t understand each other and are completely different,” adds Lohan. “They have gone through a lot, as a family, and haven’t been able to talk about it. It really takes Anna living her mom’s life to see what her mom goes through—that her daughter is not a walk in the park.”

“Having the opportunity to live the other’s life circumstances allowed both characters to discover a real compassion and real loving kindness for each other,” adds Jamie Lee Curtis. “It was very lovely and moving for me. Each of them essentially thanked the other one for opening their eyes and allowing them to see how wonderful each other is.”

“Both the mother and the daughter experience a catharsis by going through this incredibly wacky journey, and they end up coming to a place at the end of the road, where they have understanding of each other for the first time,” says Waters.

“For me, I think there’s a perfect coming together of these two people,” concludes Curtis. “At the end of the day, there will actually be a lovely story of a mother and her daughter loving each other.”

 


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