Actor Chad Michael Murray says he embraces his teenage heartthrob legacy.
The 43-year-old rose to fame in the early 2000s, appearing in TV series such as Gilmore Girls and Dawson’s Creek before landing the lead role in the teenage drama series One Tree Hill.
He also starred in the 2003 comedy film Freaky Friday alongside Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, gained a reputation as a heartthrob among teenage girls during this era.
Now a father-of-three, Murray is reprising his role as Jake in the sequel, Freakier Friday.
In the film, he plays the former love interest of Anna, played by Lohan.
Speaking ahead of the film’s release, Murray says he feels very fortunate to have had such an impact on a generation.
“I’m very, very blessed, very fortunate and lucky to be a part of a lot of really great movies and great stories that have affected a generation,” he said.
“That’s really the only reason to be an actor for me. I just wanted to make people happy.”
Murray, who grew up in a single father household in Buffalo, New York, says he moved to Hollywood, when he was 18 years old to pursue a career in acting.
“I think I moved there in September 1999 and I was with Warner Brothers by January 2000,” he said.
Freakier Friday sees Lohan and Curtis return to their roles as mother and daughter, 22 years after the first film was released.
The 2003 film saw Tess Coleman (Curtis) and musician Anna (Lohan) trade places, after reading fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant.
The story picks up with Lohan’s character, Anna, now a mother to a teenage daughter of her own and a soon-to-be stepmother.
In the sequel, Anna’s daughter Harper, played by Julia Butters and her soon-to-be stepdaughter Lily Davies, portrayed by Sophia Hammons, join Anna and her mother Tess in a wild, quadruple body swap.
Reflecting on returning for the sequel, Murray said they had to work out how his character would realistically fit into the updated story.
“It’s a house of cards, you move one piece and the whole thing kind of crashes down with four people switching bodies. So we had to be really careful and deliberate with the choices we made,” he said.
“I went straight into analytics mode. We had to flesh out who Jake has been over the last 22 years. What’s he been up to? Where’s he gone? What’s the funniest choice here? And that’s where we went. Then it just became exciting from there.”
Murray added: “My joking sales pitch for this film has been, this movie will make you live longer as it reduces cortisol levels.
“If this is the type of content I do for the rest of my life as an actor I’m done, I’m happy, I’m in.”
The 2003 film was based on the 1972 novel by Mary Rodgers, which was previously turned into a 1976 movie starring Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris.
Freakier Friday opens in UK cinemas on Friday, August 8.
