Dennis Quaid doesn’t think a ‘Parent Trap’ revival is possible without Natasha Richardson

Dennis Quaid doesn’t think a ‘Parent Trap’ revival is possible without Natasha Richardson

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Dennis Quaid is on board with a “The Parent Trap” revival — but the movie wouldn’t be the same without a key character.

“That would be fantastic, but Natasha (Richardson). How do we do it without Natasha?” he told Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet of his new film “Reagan” on Tuesday. Her sudden death at 45 years old in 2009 still “breaks my heart,” he added.

In the 1998 remake of the original “The Parent Trap” released in 1961, Quaid and Richardson played the parents of identical twins Annie and Hallie (played by Lindsay Lohan) who contrived a plot that brought the exes back together. Lisa Ann Walter — who recently said she’d “love to go back for another version” of the movie — played nanny Chessy, and Elaine Hendrix portrayed Quaid’s villainous fiancée, Meredith Blake.

Lohan “is really fantastic. She’s grown into a beautiful person,” Quaid said.

“‘The Parent Trap’ was, like, a whole new career for me,” he continued. “It’s such a beautiful movie. And I think people will be watching that 100 years from now, I really do.”

Richardson died after a seemingly minor fall that led to a blow to the head while skiing at Quebec’s Mont Tremblant. The actress initially waved off medical care, but the head injury turned out to be fatal. She was survived by her husband, actor Liam Neeson, and their sons Micheál and Daniel, who were then 13 and 12, respectively.

Richardson was part of the prominent Redgrave family, the daughter of Oscar, Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe winner Vanessa Redgrave and director Tony Richardson.

“When that accident happened, it just devastated me and so many other people,” Quaid told Us Weekly in 2018. “She had such a beautiful love, married life with Liam, and two beautiful boys. She always had a smile on her face when she came to work. That really affected everyone around her.”

Twenty-six years of ‘The Parent Trap’: See Lindsay Lohan and cast then and now

Lindsay Lohan cried when she caught her son watching ‘The Parent Trap’

“The Parent Trap” still holds a special place in Lohan’s heart, too.

In 2020, director Nancy Meyers and Katie Couric reunited the cast over Zoom to reminisce and reenact scenes from the beloved film.

“Without this movie, I wouldn’t have gotten the acting bug. How do you not want to only act for the rest of your life after doing a film like this?” Lohan said in the video. “It’s timeless and special. Just really special.” 

The 26-year-old Disney film popped back up in Lohan’s life in an unexpected way earlier this year when she caught her infant son Luai watching it on TV, she revealed on “The Drew Barrymore Show” in March.

“I just started to cry because I’m like, he doesn’t even know that’s mommy yet,” Lohan said. “I was like, do I turn it off? And he was kind of just staring. Because maybe my voice is still similar to how it was then, so I was like, maybe he knows a little bit that it’s me ‘cause it sounds like me. But it was a really magical moment. I took tons of pictures of it.”

Contributing: Bryan Alexander and Edward Segarra

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