Lindsay Lohan: My spiritual experience in Dubai helped shape Freakier Friday

Star reveals how she rediscovered her creative energy after leaving Hollywood for UAE

Something was missing. When Lindsay Lohan stepped away from acting for nearly a decade – stepped away from life as she knew it – nothing felt right any more.

To find herself again, she needed silence. Not the kind that falls between takes, but the kind she found in Dubai.

"Silence is something I didn't grow up having," Lohan tells The National. "Dubai is a long moment of silence for me, in a way – and that’s really refreshing.

Classic body swap movies to re-watch ahead of Freakier Friday

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"I love Dubai. I’m from New York, and it’s so fast-paced. To have somewhere that’s still moving fast around you, but where you don’t feel compelled to move fast with it – that’s something I really cherish as I get older."

In Freakier Friday, she slips back into a role that defined her youth. But the person stepping into those shoes now is someone very different – someone who had to stop and ask herself whether she missed this life at all.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan return for the sequel to the 2003 hit. Photo: Disney

Jamie Lee Curtis, Lohan's co-star, mentor and friend, did not understand the move at first.

"I made an assumption that somehow she had met her husband and he had brought her to Dubai. But that's not the truth. Lindsay was in Dubai on her own because she needed space – safe space – to find what she was missing," Curtis says. Lohan punctuates her sentiment with an emphatic "yes".

Curtis continues: "Lindsay needed to see if she missed working – if she missed acting in movies. That was the most impressive thing to me. I really do think that when you get to understand who you are, it allows you to then pretend to be other people.

"One thing I've realised is that when you look in the mirror, you're looking at the problem. But you're also looking at the solution to the problem."

And to her great joy, after building a new life and starting a family of her own, Lohan has rediscovered the passion that once made her one of the brightest young stars of her generation. And after three successful Netflix films, the actor makes her triumphant return to the big screen on Thursday – on her own terms.

Julia Butters as Harper Coleman, Lindsay Lohan as Anna Coleman, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tess Coleman and Sophia Hammons as Lily Davies. Photo: Disney

"I feel the space that I have in Dubai gives me the time to really think about what it is I want to do and how I want to do it," says Lohan. "I really find that there. It's so disconnected from Hollywood. When I'm there, I'm with my family, and I can do my work calls and I can think more about things before I act on them. And that's so important for me to have in my life."

Freakier Friday takes the body swap concept of the first and doubles down – with Lohan's character swapping with her own daughter and Curtis swapping with Lohan's soon-to-be stepdaughter.

Just as in the original, the concept allows the characters to see the world through different eyes, which makes Curtis wonder what Dubai looks like through Lohan's.

"Let's say, all of a sudden, I'm in Dubai as you. What am I doing? Where am I going?" Curtis asks Lohan.

"Do something more spiritual because that's the beauty of Dubai," Lohan replies. "You have to go see the desert, see the peace that's there, and have traditional food out there, and sit with people and see that side of the culture. I wouldn't go to the Burj Khalifa and see the sights right away. Out there in the desert, it's just wild."

Lindsay Lohan's guide to Dubai: 'Do something spiritual'

Lindsay Lohan's guide to Dubai: 'Do something spiritual'

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Lohan is not the only member of the returning cast that was able to find themselves in the interim. Chad Michael Murray, who played Lohan's love interest Jake in the first film, was thrilled to be able to come back to the material more self-assured.

"I was such a kid on that first movie just trying not to screw it up. And here we are, 23 years since we filmed the first one, and we felt free to make different choices and just be a little bit more risky," says Murray.

"I think everybody's going to leave the theatre on cloud nine, just feeling good dancing out of the theatre, having a million laughs. It's tough out there, man. I say this in jest, but honestly who knows – this kind of movie helps. It might help you live longer."

Chad Michael Murray, right, also played Lohan's love interest in the first film. Photo: Disney

And perhaps they have all become better at playing each other because they each are now far more sure of who they are themselves.

"To thine own self be true," says Curtis, echoing Shakespeare.

Freakier Friday is in cinemas Thursday across the Middle East