It has been over 25 years since Lisa Ann Walter starred alongside a 12-year-old Lindsay Lohan in the iconic 1998 Nancy Meyers film, The Parent Trap — and the comedian is so proud to see the former child star thriving.
“It’s wonderful. I have always been so proud of her,” Walter, 61, who played Chessie in the Disney film, told Us Weekly exclusively while promoting her partnership with Synchrony CareCredit. “When she was struggling, I was proud of that little girl [who] I knew — [who] I watched take care of her siblings and being an incredible hard worker and someone who stood by set etiquette and always said ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ to every single person in the crew.”
Walter added: “Now, she grew into the most beautiful young woman and the wonderful mother that I always knew she would be.”
The Abbott Elementary star has empathy for the treatment Lohan, 38, received in the early aughts alongside many young women who were thrown into the “snake pit that is Hollywood,” and she’s grateful that we as a society have evolved to be more understanding to children growing up in the public eye.
Following her successful run in dozens of movies like The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday, Lohan took a brief hiatus from acting before returning in 2022 for Netflix’s Falling for Christmas. Later this year, Lohan is reprising her role as Anna Coleman opposite Jamie Lee Curtis in Freakier Friday.
“Just wait ‘til you see it. I’m telling you,” Walter teased to Us, noting that while she hasn’t seen the final film yet, she “knows a little about it.”
In addition to her relationship with Lohan, The Parent Trap brought Walter one of her best friends: Elaine Hendrix, who plays the infamous Meredith Blake.
The pair first met when Walter was doing a chemistry read with Dennis Quaid. Donning “crappy” old Chessie-clothes, Walter says she and Quaid, 71, were instantly taken aback by Hendrix, 54.
“She was 26 and absolutely stunning. And meanwhile I’m there,” Walter joked to Us. “And then on the first day on set, we started talking and one of us said, ‘Do you want to go get a bite to eat?’ … And we started talking and, we say, the conversation has never stopped.”
It was actually Hendrix, an avid animal rights supporter, who encouraged Walter to adopt her dogs Steve and Buster. A year after she rescued Steve from a high kill shelter, Hendrix’s rescue dog gave birth to puppies. She kept one pup for herself, Ellie, while gifting Buster to Walter.
“We had siblings for years and years until her Ellie passed, and I had Buster,” Walter shared.
A year after the comedian lost Steve to cancer, she discovered a nodule on Buster’s mouth that turned out to be cancer as well.
“I had a little money to take care of him because it was right after I started on Abbott Elementary,” she shared, noting that Buster is doing much better these days. “But had I not had that money to take care of Steve and now Buster, who had radiation and other costs… I would’ve had to make this terrible choice that I see a lot of people making.”
Thus, the partnership with Synchrony CareCredit was a natural fit.
“This is a way for people to see in advance what the cost might be for owning a dog or what they call a pocket pet, which is the gerbils and hamsters and Guinea pigs like Sweet Cheeks on Abbott Elementary, Melissa’s favorite,” she shared, referring to the company’s Pet Lifetime of Care study. “So if you’re thinking about getting a pet, you know what it might cost or you can at least plan for the future.”
