NEED TO KNOW
To this day, Jake Thomas is still tagged in photos from fans visiting the Trevi Fountain in Rome — a nod to the 2003 The Lizzie McGuire Movie, in which he played Lizzie’s mischievous little brother, Matt McGuire. The film famously takes place in the Italian capital, so fans naturally assume Thomas was there too.
But here’s the twist: he’s never actually been to Rome.
“Spoiler alert — we actually didn’t film the majority of the movie in Rome,” Thomas, now 35, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “In fact, I never got to go. They filmed exteriors for the Rome sequences, I think maybe for a week or two. But everything else was shot in Vancouver, Canada, for about three months.”
Still, Thomas looks back fondly on the experience, which he shared alongside costars Hilary Duff, Adam Lamberg, Hallie Todd and Robert Carradine.
“I think some of the best memories were just hanging out with the cast between filming in Vancouver,” the Los Angeles local recalls. “We absolutely loved the city. We were going out to dinner most nights, trying to spend the per diem. That was a lot of fun.”
While the movie holds a special place in his memory, Thomas says it was his overall Disney Channel experience — from Lizzie McGuire and Cory in the House to The Lizzie McGuire Movie — that truly shaped him.
The series, in particular, left him with countless unforgettable moments. And one episode stands out among the rest.
“My favorite episode of Lizzie McGuire has to be, and honestly, I think a lot of people hold this one near and dear to their hearts, the bra episode,” he says. “But because it was the bra episode, the writers had to make the B-storyline with Matt just as interesting. So for me, it became the Kung Fu episode.”
“Literally, we had David Carradine, the brother of Robert Carradine, who played my dad, teaching me Kung Fu in the episode. He was famous from the Kung Fu series,” Thomas adds. “I think I got to do a stunt kick in the air, jump and break some boards with my hands. It was so much fun.”
Courtesy of Jake Thomas
Reflecting on those years, Thomas says he wouldn’t trade his experience as a child actor for anything.
“I mean, every day of playing Matt McGuire was like, ‘What cool thing am I going to get to do today? What new funny gimmick are they going to let me try?’ ” he says. “It was really a time when I just got to be a kid and have fun, and it just so happened there was a camera there, and that was a TV show.”
He adds, “I do think I live in a bit of a bubble sometimes, because a lot of my friends are also former child actors — people I grew up working with on different shows and projects. So we relate to each other a lot. But I don’t know, it’s definitely a special, interesting way to grow up.”
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Walt Disney Enterprises/Courtesy Everett Collection
Though time has passed, Thomas adds that the Lizzie McGuire cast still keeps in touch from time to time.
“I see some of the cast every once in a while. Hallie Todd, who played my mom, she’ll text me every once in a while. I’ll see Bobby Carradine, who played my dad, every once in a while. Sometimes I’ll run into Hilary at the farmer’s market, but we’re all pretty chill,” he shares.
“It’s kind of interesting because we worked with each other for at least what feels like so long for me as a child. I mean, when you’re 11 or 12, two or three years is a big chunk of time. So these people really just became almost extensions of my family.”
He adds, “I see Bobby Carradine and Hallie Todd like an aunt and uncle to me, and that’s kind of cool. And not everybody gets to call Bobby Carradine an uncle figure, but that’s awesome.”
