Original ‘Parent Trap’ Star Hayley Mills Makes a Comeback at 78: Learn About the '60s Teen Icon's Surprising New Role

As the star of classic Disney movies like Pollyanna, The Parent Trap and That Darn Cat!, Hayley Mills was a 1960s teen icon. Countless girls looked up to the charming young actress, and given her status as one of the very first Disney stars, her appeal has endured across multiple generations.

While Mills will forever be best known for the movies she was in as a child star, she’s continued to act ever since, and has appeared in a number of British TV shows and plays in recent years. Now, she has her most high-profile and unexpected role in years, in the new thriller Trap.

Read on for a look at the English actress’ delightfully unexpected return to the American screen. 

What is Hayley Mills’ new role?

Hayley Mills’ latest movie couldn’t be more different from the wholesome Walt Disney features that made her a star. In Trap, a tense thriller starring a grown-up teen idol of a later era, '90s and '00s star Josh Hartnett, as a serial killer trying to conceal his identity and avoid capture while at a pop concert with his daughter, Mills plays Dr. Josephine Grant, a brilliant FBI profiler who just might be the only person capable of bringing him down.

The film’s director, M. Night Shyamalan, is known for putting wild twists and easter eggs in his movies (who can forget “I see dead people” in his 1999 blockbuster The Sixth Sense?) and fans have been having fun with the realization that the star of The Parent Trap is in a movie called Trap and her character quite literally traps a parent.

What has Hayley Mills said about her new movie?

Mills, now 78, has embraced her new role, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “It was lovely to be on a movie set again.” While she’s continued to work in recent years, she also admitted that it’s been difficult finding good film roles as she’s aged, and she praised the fact that for Dr. Grant, “age is a relevant factor,” giving her a level of wisdom and seriousness like no other character.

In her recent Hollywood Reporter interview, Mills revealed that before Trap, she thought her movie career was pretty much done. She called the part “completely unexpected,” and said, “I wasn’t sure if I’d ever make another movie — I wasn’t shedding any tears. People often look at you and think, ‘This is a Disney actress, isn’t it?'”

Mills may have told People that being cast in her pivotal role initially seemed so far-fetched she “thought they'd made a mistake,” but we’re glad she ended up playing it (whether or not it was intended as a subversive homage to The Parent Trap!). We hope Trap leads to more appearances from the beloved actress.  

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