Lindsay Lohan recently spoke about the benefit social media has on young stars coming up today and why she wishes it existed when she was first starting out in the industry.
In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Lohan opened up about her life in the public eye while growing up as a child star and how she thinks social media would have helped her back then. She rose to fame at a young age, starring as twins Annie and Hallie in the 1998 remake of the 1961 film "The Parent Trap."
As she got older, paparazzi pictures of her walking into nightclubs and a slew of bad press against her that framed her as Hollywood's bad girl, turned her reputation upside down, leading her to walk away from Hollywood and move to Dubai, where paparazzi is illegal. This is something Lohan thinks could have been avoided if she had the benefit of social media on her side like celebrities today do.
"I feel like … when I first started out in the business, none of us had a say in how to control our own narrative. There were paparazzi pictures, and then people ran with it," Lohan told the outlet. So, I think it’s really good that in this day and age, people can say who they are and who they want to be. And I admire and appreciate that. I’m a little jealous because I didn’t have that."
LINDSAY LOHAN CELEBRATES 'MEAN GIRLS' DAY WITH NEW MOVIE 'FALLING FOR CHRISTMAS' ANNOUNCEMENT
While she believes it would have helped her out back then, she admits to being super careful about what she posts now, even running potential posts by a few people before posting it.
"I think it moves really fast, and I just try to keep up as best I can. And I check everything before I post it," she explained. "I’ll send it to people — because you have to."
Lohan also acknowledges the downsides to social media, advising her fans "to take everything people say with a grain of salt and just be you" because [some people] are quick to judge and "just don't stop."
The "Mean Girls" actress moved to Dubai in 2014 after multiple failed attempts to resurrect her reputation due to her troubled past.
While she has appeared in a few projects since her big move, she hasn't made a full return to Hollywood, something fans are excited to see from her, starting with her starring role in Netflix romantic comedy "Falling for Christmas."
"It was really comforting to me when I got the script, to see a movie that was a rom-com because it’s always fun to work on something lighthearted and family-oriented that makes people happy and provides a bit of an escape," Lohan said. "I was excited to kind of come back to do something with Netflix, who is a big family in a way. It was the right fit for me, especially to be able to executive produce it."
As an executive producer, Lohan has more control over the project as a whole, not just in the choices she makes for her character as in the past. In this project, she had a hand in the casting, the way the film was edited and was even able to give some input into the script.
The film is part of a three-movie deal Lohan made with Netflix. It stars Lohan as Sierra, a newly engaged heiress who experiences a skiing accident a few days before Christmas and gets diagnosed with amnesia as a result. After the accident, she ends up being taken care of by "a handsome lodge owner and his daughter."
Lohan is excited to finally make her comeback, saying she "love(s) this part of the process" once the filming portion is done and that "it's fun to be back in New York and doing shoots." Overall, she "feel(s) really great and just really excited and happy."
Although it had been a while since she starred in a major feature film, she says her process had not changed much and that it felt natural for her and was easy to get back into the groove of things.
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"It’s always evolving. It comes very naturally to me to play a role, especially in a romantic comedy, so it doesn’t always feel like work. But when you really look at the character and how much more you can give people onscreen through the character’s eyes, there’s so much to play with and change," she explained. "With this movie, I specifically wanted to do more physical comedy because I missed doing that. And I was like, ‘We’re here, why not? I’m willing to do it.’ I think the bigger you go in those situations, the better it is. You can’t be afraid of it. And then for the next one, I wanted to play a different kind of character, more nerdy."
Her next film with Netflix is set to be released sometime in 2023 and is called "Irish Wish." It is another romantic comedy that, according to IMDb, stars Lohan as Emily, a girl whose best friend gets engaged to the love of her life and she is asked to be a bridesmaid at the wedding.
Lohan is hopeful people will give her a warm welcome back into Hollywood, noting that so far she "feel(s) everything's very positive, and (she) like(s) that. (She) want(s) to keep that momentum."
"Falling for Christmas" is set to premiere on Netflix on Nov. 10.
