Pink Slip Rocks On

Minor spoilers below.

Pink Slip is back for an encore. The fictional band fronted by Lindsay Lohan, Christina Vidal Mitchell, and Haley Hudson, which debuted in 2003’s Freaky Friday and captured girls’ hearts everywhere, reunited for the film’s sequel two decades later. Much like their fans, they’re no longer grungy, angsty teens belting in a suburban garage, but they still rock hard on stage during the triumphant final act in Freakier Friday.

In the sequel, which hit theaters this past weekend, Anna (Lohan), Maddie (Vidal Mitchell), and Peg (Hudson) have disbanded but remain friendly. Anna still works in the music industry as a manager, but she’s also a mother herself and is about to get married, and Maddie and Peg attend her bachelorette party. After some body-switching shenanigans and fateful twists, the trio reunite on stage at The Wiltern in L.A., along with bassist Daniel Rubin and drummer Chris Carlberg, who were also from the original film. This time around, they’re still armed with electric guitars, spotlights, and a screaming crowd, but with many more years of experience.

Fans have been impatiently awaiting the return of the group, who are known for pop-rock anthems “Take Me Away” and “Ultimate,” and were inspired by riot grrrl groups like Sleater-Kinney and Bikini Kill and early aughts contemporaries like Avril Lavigne. But the band members themselves were a little unsure at first. Lohan recalled to ELLE of filming Freakier Friday, “It’s so funny, because Christina Vidal [Mitchell] had just had a baby, and we were like, ‘How weird is this? Are we still cool?’”

Any woman who grew up in the early 2000s (or watched Freakier Friday this past weekend) would answer with a resounding yes. And upon further reflection, Vidal Mitchell now agrees that Pink Slip’s still got it.

“I feel like we were way cooler this time around than we even were the first time,” she tells ELLE on a Zoom with bandmate and co-star Haley Hudson, a day before the film hit theaters. “We were all coming with so much more life experience, and life lived, baked into who we are.”

Below, the musicians reveal what it was like to bring the band back together and why Pink Slip’s second act is not over yet.

Haley Hudson: It was really amazing. It was an indescribable experience, because it’s so unique. How often do you get to do something like that in your lifetime? How often do you get to be a part of something so wonderful that affected so many people, that so many people love, and then get to do it again 20-something years later with the same people? There were some people in the cast that I hadn’t seen in 15 years, 20 years, 22 years. It was really great just to have that experience and see everyone.

Christina Vidal Mitchell: I couldn’t have said it better. It was just really exciting and, for me, kind of surreal. I had moments where I was like, “I can’t believe this is actually happening,” because on social media and stuff like that, [Lohan and Curtis] would tease it, and [fans would say,] “Bring it back!” But for it to actually happen was like, “Wow, we’re here doing this again. This is so cool.” It just touched my little heart to see Haley again, to see Chris, to see Danny, to see Lindsay. And everyone’s just even more loving and cool and sweet and funny. All of that was already there, and it was just all the more the second time around.

CVM: We rehearsed for that scene at The Wiltern in a studio in L.A. I was like, “This is so cool.” We really felt like a band. And I’ve never been in a band, so that was really cool for me. We had quite a bit of rehearsals for the promo stuff that we did, like [the live performances at] Disneyland and the premiere. We probably played and sang through those songs 10 times a day between the two days of rehearsals. And I never got tired. Every time they were like, “Let’s go again.” I was like, “Okay!”

from left to right: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Ella, Julia Butters as Anna’s daughter Harper, Lindsay Lohan as Anna, Christina Vidal Mitchell as Maddie, and Haley Hudson as Peg in Freakier Friday.

CVM: It was so exciting. I won’t speak for everyone else, but I feel like we were way cooler this time around than we even were the first time. We were all coming with so much more life experience, and life lived, baked into who we are. Not to mention that we played these characters before, we lived in this world before. So, there was all this nostalgia behind it, there was all this excitement behind it, there was all this history. I feel like we just exploded onto that stage. And I swear I felt like I could do this all night, and we kind of did a little bit.

HH: And two of us had such a great time that we started a real band in real life.

HH: It happened underneath the stage at The Wiltern. In between takes when we were filming, me and the bass player, Danny Rubin, just started having fun. He had a guitar, and he was playing it, and I had a guitar, and I was singing. And we just started writing songs underneath the stage at The Wiltern. And it just kind of evolved. We recorded a song, and we sent it to Disney, and they had a really positive reaction. And they were like, “You guys should keep making music.” And they really encouraged us and supported us. The next thing you know, we had a band—like a real Pink Slip band—and they actually used one of our songs as background music in a scene in Freakier Friday.

HH: It’s before the food fight at the school. It’s just background music, but still, it was just amazing that they did that for us, and they were so supportive of us, and we got a credit on a major film. That was the second song we had recorded, and we did it with Ilan Rubin, Danny’s brother. He’s the drummer in Nine Inch Nails, and he’s a producer.

HH: We have some singles online, and we’re going to keep releasing them over the next few months. And we’re recording right now. It’s been great.

Vidal Mitchell and Hudson during Anna’s bachelorette scene in Freakier Friday.

HH: It’s a really wonderful feeling, to know that you inspired so many people, and you had such a positive effect on people. There’s this wonderful band called MUNA, and they were really inspired by Pink Slip. They even did a Halloween show where they dressed up as us, and they did “Take Me Away.” We got to meet them on the set of Freakier Friday, and they were telling us about how they’d been so inspired by us. [Editor’s note: MUNA played the backing band for Ella, a fictional pop star played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan in the film.]

CVM: I agree. It’s an honor for me. It’s cool to be associated with that. But it does feel like something that’s bigger than you. So I just feel like I’ve been along for the ride, personally. How cool that I get to be associated with this thing that, like Haley said, has been so meaningful for so many different people for so many different reasons?

CVM: I think I had two auditions. I didn’t hear anything for, I want to say, over a month. It might’ve been almost two months. I thought I didn’t get it. Honestly, I was disappointed. And I thought, “Okay, well, in the business that happens all the time.” And then I randomly got a call saying, “Hey, they booked you for this part.” And I was like, “What? Yay!”

I had heard that [Freaky Friday director] Mark Waters saw me on a show when I was a kid on Nickelodeon, and that he specifically said, “I want her to play this role.” He’s a great director. He just always had vision, to me. And he just saw me in this role, and I thought that was really cool…I still had to audition and go through the process and stuff, but yeah.

Pink Slip perform for a live audience at Disneyland in July 2025.

HH: For me, it was also a funny audition process, because they were rewriting the script as they were auditioning people. So the character that I auditioned for didn’t actually exist. I was reading a scene that wasn’t in the movie. I believe I auditioned for Christina’s role, but they hadn’t written the role yet. And then, when they were writing the script, they wrote a part for me in the new script. So I had no idea what I was auditioning for. I just went in and just kind of did something, and they liked it. And they were like, “We wrote a part for you based on your audition.” And I was like, “Thank goodness for that.” I’m glad it worked out for everybody. So they were like, “Yeah, so you’re going to play guitar, you’re going to sing.” And I was like, “That’s awesome.” And next thing you know, we were doing rehearsals. And it was just this amazing, amazing experience.

CVM: Great. I mean, it was great working with her the first time. We all just got along. And we laughed a lot, and that was pretty much the same thing this time around. The only difference is we were now laughing about being parents, specifically her and I just being moms and having kids, and what that’s like, and being tired but also loving it.

A very sweet moment I had with her was that, on the first film, she introduced me to a snack that at the time I thought was really bizarre, but I ended up loving: apples with cheddar. I was like, “I know nothing about that. You eat fruit with cheese?” And she was like, “This is the best thing ever. You have to try it.” It ended up being one of my favorite things. I told her that story when we were shooting the second film one day at The Wiltern. And she came back on set later that day or the next day with some apples and cheddar from crafty. We just shared a little apple and cheddar and laughed about it.

What I love about Lindsey is she’s professional, prepared, and direct. When you’re with her, you’re never going to be on set for hours doing nothing. I love that. I love that she is so aware of not only her time, but everyone else’s. And it’s really efficient, and [the shoot] moves well, and she’s a good communicator. I learned that watching her. I thought, “I want to work like that.”

HH: It’s always great to work with her, but I think it was just so wonderful to see her so happy and to see her at a point in her life where she seemed to be exactly where she wanted to be, and exactly where she’s meant to be. She has a family, and she just seems like she’s really happy. That was so nice, to be reunited with her, and then see her like that. But for the most part, I think the dynamic between the three of us was kind of the same as it was 23 years ago, because we’re still the same people. I think we all get along so well because we’re so different. We have such different personalities, and it just worked. It worked 23 years ago, it worked this time around.

Vidal Mitchell, Lohan, and Hudson at the premiere of Freaky Friday in 2003.

CVM: Not quite. What does resonate with me, and what I did understand, is that selfless love for your children; they just really don’t understand that until either they’re older or they have their own children. I did not understand that about my mom. It’s how you can handle your kids being sometimes moody, being grumpy at you, having an attitude, being mad at you. You have this love for them that surpasses all of that, and this concern for their well-being that they’re not able to reciprocate because they’re the child. I understand that now as a parent. And I think the film touches on that.

Hayley said this in an interview, but I feel like that was the perfect takeaway, whether you have children or don’t have children…You said that although this film is funny, nostalgic, has great music, and all of that stuff, there’s a message of empathy that’s hidden underneath.

HH: I think that’s why the original Freaky Friday had such an impact, and continues to have an impact to this day. There are these movies that are just kind of fun, light-hearted, and entertaining, but when you have a movie like Freaky Friday—where it’s entertaining, fun, and funny, but then underneath it, there’s this really deep message—I think that resonates with pretty much everybody. [The film is] about empathy, seeing things from someone else’s perspective, and really understanding people.

Freakier Friday is fun. It’s a great time, it’s entertaining, but there’s so much heart there. It has a very, very deep message, and I think that people will really respond to that.

Vidal Mitchell says Freakier Friday has a “message of empathy that’s hidden underneath” the laughs and great music.

CVM: I think Haley said it perfectly. And just a reprieve. Sometimes I put some stuff on because I just want to laugh, I just want to not think about the hard things of life. And it’s necessary to reflect real life in entertainment and deal with deep things and deep issues that make us think. But it’s also nice sometimes to have these films, like Freaky Friday, where, like Haley said, there’s still an important message in it, but it’s sort of blanketed with all this fun and laughter and silliness. I hope people walk away feeling entertained and oddly comforted by the nostalgia of this film, that they get the feels they got in 2003 when it came out.

HH: I do have one last thing to add to this: You haven’t seen the last of Pink Slip.

HH: [Shaking her head and waving her arms] Don’t answer. Do not answer that question. That’s the end.

HH: You have not seen the last of Pink Slip. Period.

CVM: I’m going to be honest with you. Haley is at the top, she’s got connections; I know nothing. I can’t speak to that. But what I will say is I would be down. I’ve been thinking it would be so fun to do a Pink Slip reunion tour film. I think the premise would be funny if Haley’s character, Peg, is basically the most interesting [woman in the world]. Like the Dos Equis guy, they call him the Most Interesting Man in the World? He leads the most interesting life, and he’s basically un-gettable?

It would be funny if Peg was that person. And we’re trying to make a reunion tour, like me and Lindsay go on this excursion, and we’re trying to find Peg, and she’s in the most interesting, fab places in the world. I think that would be hilarious because Peg is this sort of mysterious, quiet character. And it would be awesome if, in this film, we really explore that her life is actually incredibly interesting, and she’s the coolest person alive. I actually thought about this, Haley.

HH: You just gave me an idea, though, of doing it in mockumentary form. Like a Spinal Tap movie, but it’s Pink Slip.

CVM: That’s funny.

HH: Oh. We have to do this.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.