When the popular 2003 Disney film Freaky Friday came out, most Gen Zers were too young to remember it… or they weren’t even born yet. But trust me when I say the film was an instant cult classic for Millennial girls, and its legacy has only continued to grow over the years. And now, with the release of Freakier Friday, the sequel to the first film, stars Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are back, and they’ve brought a new generation of main characters with them — one of them being 16-year-old actress Julia Butters.
Butters plays Harper Coleman, the daughter of Lohan’s character Anna, who joins the elder Coleman women in body-swapping hijinx along with her soon-to-be stepsister, Lily Davies — played by Sophia Hammons. Butters knew this role was a huge deal from the start — in fact, the day she found out she got the part, she initially thought that it was a prank. “I was excited, and then I really was nervous, because I was like, Oh, these are big shoes to fill, and a lot of people aren’t going to know what I’m doing here,” Butters says in an exclusive interview with Her Campus.
Knowing how high the stakes were for this film — from acting opposite some of the biggest names in Hollywood to enduring an international press tour — Butters made it her mission to lean into her confidence. “I had talks with Sophia beforehand; I was like, I’m gonna do great at every interview and I’m gonna look beautiful at every event I go to, and I’m just gonna make it my mission to be as confident as I can,” Butters says.
Luckily, Butters’s character made it easy for her to exude confidence on set. “Harper is so resilient and confident, and she doesn’t feel like she has to be the prettiest girl at school,” she says. “She doesn’t feel like she has to fit in with everyone to be able to know that she is worth hanging out with and spending time with.”
Butters even had a major confidence-crossover moment between fiction and reality, thanks to a partnership between the film and Invisalign. The brand collaboration saw real-life Invisalign user Butters wearing the product both in the movie as her character, Harper, and as herself in other ads and social media posts. “I started [Invisalign] because I really wanted to take that next step to make myself feel more confident,” Butters says. “They were lovely and filming was so fun — it was a dream come true because it was something I was so excited to get in my real life.”
Also on set, Butters got some major confidence boosts from Lohan and Curtis. “Lindsay is so good at being as hands-on as I wanted — she was just great at finding when the right times were to give advice and give input,” Butters says. “Jamie is like a beacon of wisdom — and she knows it, too — and I learned so much from both of them.”
So, with Freakier Friday now out in theaters and her press obligations pretty much wrapped up, what’s next for Butters? Well, that’s TBD! As of right now, Butters is all about living her life to the fullest and seeing where it takes her. “Right now, I don’t have a next step because I’ve been so excited to take a break and hang out with my friends again,” Butters says. “Career-wise, I can’t predict it.” What does seem to be a sure bet, though, is she’s going to do it with confidence.