Jamie Lee Curtis is getting freaky again, and having the time of her life doing it.
During an interview for her new film “Borderlands” alongside co-star Cate Blanchett, the Oscar winner excitedly dished on “Freaky Friday 2,” the follow-up to her hit 2003 body-swap comedy.
The sequel, which Curtis says concludes production in about two weeks, reunites her with a now-grown-up Lindsay Lohan. “Lindsay’s a mommy. Little Luai just had his first birthday a week ago. It changes you as a human, being a parent. She’s very conservative, so I was like, ‘Relax. Relax.’ Luai’s just starting to walk. She’s at that point where toddlers hold onto things, then they wobble, then they go down. She’s at work, and she’s watching on her phone,” Curtis says.
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“She’s watching videos on livestream with the baby in between scenes. She’s watching her child start toddling, and it’s just very sweet. She’s great. She’s very happy. We’re having a really, really, really fun time.”
Lohan isn’t the only “Freaky Friday” alum joining her in the sequel. Chad Michael Murray also reprises his role as Jake, and nobody’s more excited about it than Curtis. She recalls the first table read for the crew and Disney execs, which was already going well and getting lots of laughs. “All of a sudden, the Chad Michael Murray character comes into the story, and I’m telling you, the entire room changed. Every woman in the room was leaning forward. The laughter, the applause that he got! After the table read, I walked up to the director and producers. I was like, ‘We need to stretch that taffy. He is gold. His character is just so fabulous.’ Jake is back, in a big, big way.”
“Borderlands” saw another reunion for Curtis, this time with Blanchett — although she didn’t remember meeting her before the film. “I wanted an apology for the fact that you couldn’t remember that we’d actually met before,” Blanchett quips. “So that’s what I was seeking, and I still haven’t got. I’m hoping during the course of this interview, we might get an apology.”
Curtis smiles and replies, “I’ve made it very clear in the universe that I make public apologies when I do something wrong. I am telling you, I don’t remember the interchange at an award show!”
Blanchett scoffs. “It was at an after party. You were standing there, like a door bitch!”
“Door bitch? I have been called shit my whole life, but ‘door bitch’ is not one I’ve heard before,” Curtis says as they both descend into a fit of giggles.
Blanchett and Curtis rib each other relentlessly during the course of the interview, but it’s clear there’s nothing but love between the two, who both signed onto the project because they wanted the chance to work with each other.
“Nine lives would be kind of an understatement for how many lives you have had, and the big influence you’ve had on my filmgoing life — the eclectic things that you’ve done,” Blanchett says.
Curtis is similarly effusive. “I’m 66 years old, and I have had a really weird and beautiful experience with my work. There are very few people whose work has consistently reminded me of why I’m an actor,” she says, squeezing Blanchett’s hand.
The video game adaptation from Lionsgate follows a ragtag group of adventurers as they race to open a mystical vault on the planet Pandora. The film, directed by Eli Roth, started production in 2021 during the pandemic but underwent reshoots in 2023, which were helmed by “Deadpool” director Tim Miller.
In the break between the two shoots, Curtis and Blanchett both stirred up buzz that would earn each of them Academy Award nominations for their work in “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and “Tár,” respectively. (Curtis took home the best supporting actress prize.)
During a four-hour road trip to Palm Springs, Curtis opened up to Blanchett about her complicated feelings. “I had started to get those earwigs of people saying to me that I was going to get nominated for an Oscar,” she recalls, tears welling up in her eyes. “It makes me cry. You can’t get an earwig out once somebody’s put it in there and it’s spinning around in your brain … I talked to Cate about the anxiety I was feeling, because I didn’t want to be disappointed, yet I wanted to be open to whatever.”
“I was asking advice from someone who had been there many, many, many times and was in that same sphere,” Curtis continues. “I couldn’t say that out loud to another human being, because it was too vulnerable for me.”
“I said, ‘Don’t worry, “Borderlands” will not be nominated,'” Blanchett laughs. While the film certainly isn’t awards fodder, she hopes fans of the game series will enjoy what they’ve made. “The world is such a mash up of a Western and a sci-fi. It’s fun, and it’s got great heart. It’s got Kevin Hart, but it’s also, it’s got a lot of heart.”
“This is a movie version of a peanut butter cup,” Curtis says. “You’re taking things that don’t necessarily go together, and then they go together, and you go, ‘Oh my goodness, I love that so much!'”
Blanchett laughs and adds, “Well, a peanut butter cup that’s covered with Thresher vomit and piss wash.”
