Tyra Banks Tells Former Co-Star Lindsay Lohan That 'There is No Life-Size Without You'
Tyra Banks knows she can’t “shine bright” without Lindsay Lohan!
On Friday, Banks stopped over at The Talk to discuss her upcoming Freeform movie Life-Size 2. While there, the America’s Next Top Model host, 44, delivered a sweet message to her former co-star, who will not be reprising her role as Casey Stuart in the sequel.
“Lindsay, there is no Life-Size without you,” she said, staring directly into the cameras. “We did this movie together 18 years ago and made it the cult classic that it is today.”
“And when you sit down with your family, and Cody and Michael and Ali — I remember them when they were little kids when we shot together — just know that sister TyTy is sending all of you guys kisses,” she continued.
Although Banks previously revealed that Lohan, 32, won’t be reprising her role due to scheduling conflicts, she did admit on Friday that the actress will be in the film in a “special” way.
“She’s gonna be in this one in a way,” Banks said. “There’s some Lindsay in there sprinkled in a very special, sweet way.”
RELATED: Tyra Banks and Francia Raísa Team Up for Life-Size 2 — But Where’s Lindsay Lohan?
Life-Size, which premiered in 2000 on ABC’s The Wonderful World of Disney, starred a then up-and-coming Lohan as a young girl who accidentally brings her quintessential fashion doll — played by Banks — to life.
In July, Banks announced that she would be returning for the sequel, alongside Francia Raísa, the Grown-ish actress who notably donated her kidney to BFF Selena Gomez.
“Now filming: LIFE SIZE 2,” Banks wrote on Instagram, captioning a picture of her and Raísa. “It’s time y’all! You’ve waited long enough. Could not find one single woman more perfect to co-star with Eve than the magnificently fierce @franciaraisa.”
After the cast was officially announced, fans of the original film began to wonder if Lohan would appear in the sequel. In September, however, Banks gave fans a little glimmer of hope when she told The Hollywood Reporter that her former co-star would be incorporated in “some kind of way.”
“She has this new TV show on MTV about this club so she couldn’t make it, which was sad,” Banks told THR. “[Lindsay] will be in the movie in some kind of way. We’ll see where that ends up.”
“I actually think we are going to surpass expectations because [for] me as a producer and actor in it, it surpassed my own expectations,” she added.
Life-Size 2 will follow Grace Manning (Raísa) as the “confident and funny” CEO of her mother’s company Marathon Toys (who are known for manufacturing the iconic Eve doll). Though she holds the power position, Raísa is “a hot mess in the middle of her quarter-life crisis” whose “wild-child ways are causing the company’s stock to plummet” — something Eve will surely help fix.
Joining the cast is Gavin Stenhouse as Grace’s love interest, Calum; Shanica Knowles and Hank Chen as Grace’s BFFs Tahlia and Brendan; and Alison Fernandez as Lex, Grace’s young next-door neighbor.
RELATED: Tyra Banks Says Lindsay Lohan Will Appear in Life-Size Sequel ‘in Some Kind of Way’
Along with starring and executive-producing the film, Banks will also be singing Life-Size 2‘s theme song, which she did for the first film. In March, the America’s Got Talent host told Entertainment Weekly that the new song will stray from a “nursery school rhyme” and sound “a lot more current” than the original.
“I am going to dust off my retired vocal cords for Life-Size 2,” Banks explained. “I’d love to find a top producer that everybody knows, like a household name, to do the music. And a beautiful sound technician to auto-tune the hell out of my voice.”
“Those words [“be a star”] will be in there some way, but it’ll sound totally new,” she continued. “We’re going for club banger as opposed to nursery school rhyme this time!”
Life-Size 2: A Christmas Eve premieres Sunday, Dec. 2 at 9 p.m. ET, as part of Freeform’s 25 Days of Christmas.