Actress Elaine Hendrix has a clear favorite souvenir from THE PARENT TRAP, and it is not Meredith Blake’s wardrobe. It’s her friendship with costar Lisa Ann Walter.
“I just can’t even imagine what my life would be like without her,” Hendrix told PEOPLE.
Twenty-eight years after the 1998 comedy reached theaters, Hendrix, 55, said meeting Walter ranks above the movie’s lasting popularity or her character’s unexpected second life with fans. She and the actress who played Chessy came away from the production with a relationship that has outlasted their characters’ onscreen rivalry.
“If I had to choose one, I would say it’s finding my bestie,” Hendrix told PEOPLE.
The movie gave the pair very different jobs. Hendrix played Meredith, the fiancée standing in the way of the twins’ plans to reunite their parents, while Walter played Chessy, the devoted housekeeper working for their father, Nick Parker, as TODAY’s 2018 interview with both actresses explained.
Directed by Nancy Meyers, THE PARENT TRAP starred actress Lindsay Lohan, who played Hallie Parker and Annie James, identical twins who meet at summer camp without knowing the other exists and decide to switch places to bring their parents back together.
Hendrix and Walter’s friendship started before audiences ever met Meredith and Chessy. In a June 2025 interview with Us Weekly, Walter recalled first encountering Hendrix during a chemistry read with actor Dennis Quaid, then getting to know her when they began work on the movie.
On their first day on set, Walter remembered, one of them suggested getting something to eat. They started talking, and nearly three decades later, they still have not run out of things to say.
“And we started talking and, we say, the conversation has never stopped,” Walter told Us Weekly.
There was plenty of time for that conversation during production. Walter told TODAY that the process of creating Lohan’s two characters meant doing scenes twice, with Lohan on one side and her double on the other before switching them, leaving Walter and Hendrix waiting between setups.
“Elaine and I, part of the reason we became best friends on that set is we spent a lot of time creating fun for ourselves back in the trailers while we waited for setups to happen,” Walter told TODAY.
Their shared life extended beyond work. Walter told Us Weekly that Hendrix encouraged her to adopt her dogs, Steve and Buster; Hendrix kept Buster’s sibling, Ellie, so even their households’ pets had a family connection.
The friends continuing to support each other through career milestones, including Hendrix’s DANCING WITH THE STARS experience and red-carpet appearances. Walter’s role on ABBOTT ELEMENTARY has now given fans another place to imagine the friends working together if Hendrix made a guest appearance.
“Maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t, but I’m always game,” Hendrix told PEOPLE.
For now, an onscreen reunion remains a possibility rather than a promise. The friendship is already the part of THE PARENT TRAP that Hendrix says she would put first: not another role to chase, but the person she cannot picture her life without.
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