Elaine Hendrix is proud of her legacy as Meredith Blake, the aspiring stepmom in the 1998 remake of “The Parent Trap.”
Once considered a villain, Meredith has undergone somewhat of a redemption tour. Is she really the bad guy, or is she an enterprising 20-something-year-old who wants to marry a man with a vineyard and one of cinema’s nicest houses?
During a TODAY appearance Aug. 19, Hendrix said, “From Day 1, I said that Meredith was not the villain.”
The villain, she said, is either the “11-year-old twins who pushed me out on a raft after I had taken a sleeping pill” or “the parents who separated them to begin with.”
Hendrix continues to celebrate the legacy of the movie. She’s a producer of the off-Broadway production “Ginger Twinsies,” a “Parent Trap” parody.
And she also had an on-screen reunion with “Parent Trap” co-star Lindsay Lohan for the first time for “Freakier Friday,” the sequel to another one of Lohan’s movies.
Speaking to TODAY.com, Hendrix said it was “really lovely” to see Lohan, who was 12 when โThe Parent Trapโ premiered and is now 39.
“Unless you go through such a big experience with someone, you might not be able to understand exactly … but you sort of like, you just pick up where you were,” she says.
Hendrix has gone on to star in other projects (including the TV drama โDynasty,โ which Hendrix says Lohan is a fan of), but Meredith has “followed her.”
“She’s just always been there,” Hendrix says.
And she’s more than happy to lean in. Hendrix made a cameo in “Freakier Friday,” in which she weaves in a โParent Trapโ reference.
Hendrix addresses Lohanโs character Anna as โpuss,โ which is what her โParent Trapโ character, Meredith, called the twins Lohan played.
“I suggested saying that. I was like, ‘Do you want me to do this? It’s directly from ‘The Parent Trap.’ And they’re like, ‘Yes.’ I did a few different takes,” she says.
Hendrix says thatโs the last of her โParent Trapโ Easter eggs in โFreakier Friday,โ but her character in the sequel was also a nod to Lisa Luder, the character she played in โRomy & Micheleโs High School Reunion.โ Both are fashion editors.
In this era of reboots and remakes, she says she would “absolutely” be open to playing Meredith again.
“It’s an honor. I would absolutely play her again,” she says.
