9 hours Ago By Glenn Garner
Although the upcoming Freaky Friday sequel might transport some audiences back to the early aughts, one unfortunate aspect of the OG will stay in the past. Freakier Friday director Nisha Ganatra recently opened up about the “complicated” task of updating the “beloved” original 2003 film’s Asian representation following “some stereotypes that were hurtful.” “I remember watching it and feeling torn, mostly about the Asian representation, and also the soundtrack that was being used,” Ganatra told Entertainment Weekly .
“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!'” Watch on Deadline Related Stories Everything We Know About ‘Freakier Friday’ So Far Manny Jacinto Plays Lindsay Lohan’s Husband In ‘Freakier Friday’ In Freaky Friday , Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) and daughter Emma (Lindsay Lohan) have an argument during a family dinner at a Chinese restaurant, which is overheard by the eatery’s owner Pei-Pei ( Rosalind Chao ) and her mother ( Lucille Soong ), who intervenes with an enchanted fortune cookie that magically makes the pair swap bodies. Noting that, as an Asian person, she was “super conscious” of the stereotypes in the first film, Ganatra said, “It was a different time and wasn’t done intentionally [in the 2003 film], but it’s a real thing.
” Ganatra felt they “owed audiences to make it right on this one,” inviting Chao and Soong back to reprise their roles in a whole new way for the sequel, which premieres Aug. 8 in theaters. Manny Jacinto , who plays Emma’s fiancé Eric in the sequel, admitted he also had “concerns” about signing on, explaining that the original “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,” assured Jacinto. “I felt very well taken care of.”.
