Dennis Quaid reveals if ‘Parent Trap’ sequel is possible without late star Natasha Richardson
Elizabeth James may have seen double in “The Parent Trap,” but Nick Parker isn’t sure a sequel is in the cards.
Dennis Quaid reflected on the 1998 cult classic film, and while he’d love to give fans the sequel they want, he doesn’t think it’s possible without the late Natasha Richardson.
Quaid, whose character was Parker, the father who is clueless his twins, Annie and Hallie, played by Lindsay Lohan, have swapped after meeting as preteens for the first time at summer camp, spoke about the possibility of a follow-up film.
While walking the red carpet of his upcoming movie “Reagan” in Los Angeles earlier this week, the actor, 70, said he doesn’t see how a sequel could work without Richardson, who tragically died in 2009 at 45 from blunt-force trauma during a skiing accident.
Richardson starred as Elizabeth James, Parker’s former wife, who gave birth to twin daughters before their characters divorced, moved on opposite ends of the world, and each got custody of one child to raise while failing to tell the girls that two of them existed.
“That would be fantastic, but Natasha. How do we do it without Natasha?” Quaid responded when Entertainment Tonight asked about the potential “Parent Trap” sequel.
He shared that Richardson’s unexpected death “still breaks my heart.”
That doesn’t mean a follow-up won’t happen.
“You never know,” Quaid added. The 1998 film was already a remake of the body-swap 1961 original; however, the “Flight of the Phoenix” actor believes his movie is a classic.
“The Parent Trap was like, a whole new career for me. It’s so in my heart. It’s such a beautiful movie,” he recalled. “And I think people will be watching that 100 years from now, I really do.”
Quaid also revealed he’s been keeping tabs on his former onscreen daughter, calling Lohan, who’s 38, “fantastic,” adding she’s “grown into a beautiful person.”
Richardson was married to “Taken” star Liam Neeson for 16 years when she sustained a severe head injury in the fatal skiing accident in Canada. The pair shared two boys, Michéal and Daniel, who were 13 and 12, respectively, at the time.
“The Parent Trap” cast reunited in 2020 with Katie Couric to reflect on the film 22 years later, and Lohan got teary-eyed when remembering her onscreen mom.
“Natasha had such an elegance and grace, and she was so maternal to me,” Lohan shared.
Quaid shared the same sentiment.
“Somebody so giving and so glad to be there and transmitted that joy of being able to do what we do. And it just made everything that much better,” he said.
When Lohan and Quaid reenacted a dramatic reading of the “Range Rover scene,” Lohan choked up.
“[It’s] just heart wrenching,” she later stated. “Even in times that we live in in the world, you forget how much you miss people until you’re with them when you haven’t seen them in a while. And I think those scenes really tear me up.”
Quaid has repeatedly talked about Richardson after her passing, keeping her spirit alive.
In April, he reminisced about the time the pair met the late Queen Elizabeth II at the 1998 “Parent Trap” premiere in London.
“The first thing I notice besides the queen is Natasha Richardson. It chokes me up because she was such a beautiful person,” the actor said to Us Weekly while looking at photos of them. “She and Liam [Neeson] had two beautiful boys.”
Richardson and Neeson married on July 3, 1994, roughly one year into their relationship. The actor reflected on his wife’s death in an interview with Rolling Stone last year.
“It was such a freak accident,” Neeson, 72, shared.
When asked how he “picked up the pieces” after, he explained, “Life goes on. Natasha’s mother, Vanessa [Redgrave], and her sister [Joely Richardson] kind of moved in, and I had a wonderful assistant, Joanna… People just came to help, you know? In a big way. And I’ll never, ever forget that.”
