The Parent Trap (1998 film)/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Acting for Two: Every single movie based on Lottie and Lisa uses this method. Of these movies, the only one that doesn't use Double Vision is Hibari's Lullaby (which avoids any shot in which the girls are both visible).
  • Bilingual Bonus: When Annie-as-Hallie starts ranting in French, what she's saying is:

Annie: You have got to be kidding. Meredith's not the girl for you! It's not possible! I can't believe it! What...

Bonus Points for using genuine French idioms ("je rêve" for "I can't believe it") as opposed to a literal dictionary translation.
  • But I Play One on TV: These movies have convinced a fair number of people, mainly children, that Hayley Mills and/or Lindsay Lohan actually has a twin. And Lohan played twins again, less successfully, when she was older.
  • Fake Brit: Linsday Lohan as the English twin Annie. Hallie is an in-universe example as she tries to impersonate Annie.
  • Faking Use of the Twin: Future Broadway star Erin Mackey played the back of Lindsay Lohan's head.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Flo the Waitress is running a girls' camp.
  • Playing Against Type: Natasha Richardson at the time was known mainly for playing Ice Queen characters. This ended up being the role a good amount of people would associate her with.
  • Real Life Relative: Several members of Lindsay Lohan's family appear in the film, mostly in non-speaking parts. (They all appear in a group in the London airport scene.) Her brother Michael Lohan is also the little boy who ended up at the girls' camp by mistake.
  • Reciprocal Real Person Cameo: Hallie and Annie were named after the daughters of director Nancy Meyers and producer Charles Shyer -- Annie Meyers-Shyer and Hallie Meyers-Shyer, both of whom have bit parts in the film. Hallie Meyers-Shyer is playing a character named "Lindsay".
  • Shout-Out:
    • The name "Meredith Blake" is a reference to a male character in "Five Little Pigs", a story written by Agatha Christie.
    • Meredith is called "Cruella DeVil" several times.
    • "The man went completely ashen, like I was the bloody Ghost of Christmas Past!"
    • Nick's reaction on seeing Elizabeth for the first time in eleven years -- leaning over to keep watching her around a closing elevator door -- copies a similar moment with James Garner in the 1963 film Move Over, Darling.
    • The Kulps (the women who run the girls' camp) are named for actress Nancy Kulp (probably best known as Miss Jane Hathaway on The Beverly Hillbillies), who played the role of the younger camp leader in the 1961 film.
    • When Hallie calls Annie from London, she tells Elizabeth that she's talking to a friend from camp named "Mildred Plotka". This was the real name of the character played by Carole Lombard the 1934 film Twentieth Century.
  • Star-Making Role: For Lindsay Lohan, though she starred in two TV movies before following it up with her next hit Freaky Friday.
    • Arguably one for Lohan's double Erin Mackey -- it was her first professional acting role, and eventually led to her career on Broadway.
  • What Might Have Been: Michelle Trachtenberg, Mara Wilson and Scarlett Johansson all tried out for Hallie/Annie. Johansson was one of the last finalists for the role, along with Lohan.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/The_Parent_Trap_(1998_film)/Trivia?oldid=1688678"