Lindsay Lohan Recalls ‘Surreal’ Experience of Watching Herself in Parent Trap When She Was 12: ‘I Felt Right at Home’

• Lindsay Lohan was honored with the Vanguard Award during the Big Screen Achievement Awards ceremony at CinemaCon 2025
• In her acceptance speech, she recalled the “surreal” experience of seeing herself on the big screen in The Parent Trap
• Lohan thanked Disney for “always” believing in her and her husband Bader Shammas “for his constant support”

Lindsay Lohan is getting her flowers at CinemaCon 2025.

The Freakier Friday actress, 38, was honored during the annual Las Vegas convention’s closing-night Big Screen Achievement Awards on Thursday, April 3, giving a touching acceptance speech as she accepted the evening’s Vanguard Award.

“Thank you so much for this award. It means more than you know to me,” she said. “I have grown up in this industry, and I’m so proud to still be doing what I love. There’s nothing like the magic of cinema.”

She continued, recalling the feeling of seeing herself act on the big screen for “the first time” in The Parent Trap, which released in 1998 when she was 12. “It was so surreal, but I felt right at home,” she said about the experience.

Lohan issued multiple thanks, singling out Disney for “always” believing in her and husband Bader Shammas “for his constant support and continuously encouraging me.” She also celebrated “a lifetime love” that she shares with her fans.

“Thank you CinemaCon for believing in me,” she concluded.

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Lohan has been working in film since the late ’90s, most notably in roles throughout her childhood and teen years in movies like The Parent Trap (1998), which marked her big-screen debut, as well as Freaky Friday (2003), Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), Mean Girls (2004), Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) and Just My Luck (2006).

More recently, Lohan has appeared in the 2024 Netflix holiday romantic comedies Irish Wish and Our Little Secret, marking what many fans have dubbed the actress’s “Lohanaissance.”

She will next reprise her co-lead role of Anna Coleman opposite onscreen mom Jamie Lee Curtis as Tess Coleman in Freakier Friday, the long-awaited sequel to Freaky Friday, which they both teased at CinemaCon.

“The story picks up years after Tess (Curtis, 66) and Anna (Lohan) endured an identity crisis. Anna now has a daughter of her own and a soon-to-be stepdaughter,” teases a synopsis. “As they navigate the myriad challenges that come when two families merge, Tess and Anna discover that lightning might indeed strike twice.”

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Lohan was honored alongside several other stars at CinemaCon on Thursday, like Channing Tatum, who received the Decade of Achievement in Film Award, and Ana de Armas, who was named Action Star of the Year ahead of her upcoming John Wick spinoff flick Ballerina.

Iconic comedy duo Cheech & Chong, actor David Jonsson, actress Madeleine McGraw and actor Ben Wang were also recognized at the ceremony, as well as Glen Powell, who was named Star of the Year.

CinemaCon’s Managing Director Mitch Neuhauser previously said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, “The Big Screen Achievement Awards are [the] exhibition’s way of saying thank you to the talented and creative people that make magic on movie screens all across the globe. They are essential to the wonder that is the moviegoing experience.”

“This year’s honorees have entertained audiences the world over and we are excited to celebrate their accomplishments at this year’s Big Screen Achievement Awards,” Neuhauser added.