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2003’s Freaky Friday is beloved by fans, so much so that its popularity resulted in a new sequel, Freakier Friday, giving the 2025 movie schedule a dose of body-swapping comedy. However, while the original movie may be well-remembered, that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, and some parts of the film have arguably not aged all that well, which was a major concern for co-star Manny Jacinto.
Those who have seen the 2003 film will remember that the magic spell that causes stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan to switch bodies involves magic fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant. Not exactly the most enlightened take on Asian representation. Manny Jacinto admitted to EW that it gave him pause before he agreed to join the sequel, explaining:
When I considered hopping on board, I remember watching the first Freaky Friday and being like, this did not age very well, regarding the diverse characters. Knowing Nisha and speaking to other people within our circles, I knew we had a captain who was very much aware of those archetypes, or those issues presented in the first one. I felt very well taken care of.
Manny Jacinto joined Freakier Friday‘s cast as Eric, the fiancé of Lindsay Lohan’s Anna. Following on his high-profile roles in The Good Place and The Acolyte, Jacinto has built a solid fan base that is going to be interested in whatever projects he gets involved in. That likely makes it all the more important for him to choose the right movies.
However, while Freaky Friday may have some problems when it comes to Asian representation, Jacinto says that Freakier Friday’s director, Nisha Gantra, put him at ease, as he was confident that she would make sure representation was handled properly. As a matter of fact, Gantra says that “problematic Asian representation” was something she specifically brought up when she first met with producers about directing the film. She said:
I remember watching it and feeling torn, mostly about the Asian representation, and also the soundtrack that was being used. It was something I brought up right away when I had my first meetings with the producers. I had a moment of the presentation that was like, ‘problematic Asian representation!’
By all accounts, Freakier Friday appears to have greatly improved on the representation. Not only is the core cast of the film significantly more diverse, including Jacinto, but the new movie will also apparently include a return by Lucile Soong and Rosalind Chao, who played the mother-daughter pair from the Chinese restaurant in the 2003 film, in a scene that will poke a bit of fun at the previous film and attempt to try and “make it right.”
If there’s value in the constant remakes, reboots, and legacy sequels that we get with movies these days, it’s the opportunity to try and improve on the previous entry. Freakier Friday is certainly trying to do that.