NEED TO KNOW
Fans of The Parent Trap, listen up! Lisa Ann Walter knows you’re hoping for a reboot, and she’s into it — with one big caveat.
“One-hundred percent if Nancy Meyers wrote it,” Walter recently told PEOPLE at an Abbott Elementary event in L.A., referring to the filmmaker behind the iconic 1998 remake. She’d also want to make sure Lindsay Lohan, who played the twins separated at birth, is involved — and of course, Dennis Quaid too.
Walter, 61, said any reboot would also need to thoughtfully acknowledge the loss of Natasha Richardson, who played the twins’ mother, Elizabeth James.
“Dennis [Quaid] has said that he doesn’t think it’s doable without Natasha, and I understand that,” Walter explained. “The movie — it’s a kids’ story, but it’s a love story. So to have a love story that involves that grief, that sadness — if it was written beautifully, maybe it’s doable.”
Walter, who is real-life BFFs with Elaine Hendrix — who played the villainous fiancée Meredith Blake — revealed the duo “talk literally every day.” And while there isn’t a juicy cast text thread, the stars of the film do find ways to keep in touch.
Disney
“Lindsay will DM me on Instagram,” Walter shared. “I text her father here and there — like, ‘Lindsay wanted me to tell you so and so.’ ” She also keeps up with Quaid and his wife, noting that during the pandemic, she even delivered homemade meals to his house. “I was cooking for everybody I knew. I made big pans of food and had them delivered to his house because he had his kids over there.”
While The Parent Trap became a nostalgic favorite for many, Walter says her own kids didn’t obsess over it. “They had their own go-to movies,” she said, naming Grease and Jerry Maguire as family favorites. “Not my movie. I don’t know why. Other people do.”
Still, her kids do share a connection to the film: “I have four kids, including identical twins born on the twins’ birthday from The Parent Trap. They’re October 11,” she said. She added that her twins, Spencer and Simon (born on Oct. 11, 2000), have experienced some unintended perks of their mom being in the film. “All of my boys have said that girls have dated them specifically because Chessy is their mom,” she added with a laugh.
Walter loves any chance to share The Parent Trap love, which is what inspired the 22nd-anniversary social media screening she and Hendrix threw in July 2020. “We hosted our own viewing party on all the different social media channels. She was in New York, I was in L.A. We did it with people joining in, and it was a blast. We are blessed with some of the most dedicated fans of any movie ever — people still dress up as the characters to this day,” she shared.
Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
As for a reboot, Walter genuinely hopes it happens — and feels it would mean a lot to the fans.
She recently spoke to a journalist getting married who was throwing a Nancy Meyers-themed bridal shower.
“She wants people to dress up like characters from The Parent Trap,” Walter said. “So I’m like, people love it. How are you going to not honor them?”
