Alexa, play Pink Slip’s “Take Me Away” — Chad Michael Murray is making Us swoon again.
Murray, 43, attended the Los Angeles premiere of Freakier Friday on Tuesday, June 22, channeling early ’00s chic by rocking a light pink jacket, white T-shirt and black slacks. He kept his hands in his pockets as he smiled for photgraphers, hitting his signature red carpet pose.
The One Tree Hill alum also brought his wife, Sarah Roemer, and their eldest two kids, along for the big night out. Roemer, 40, stunned in a pastel green floor-length dress, wearing her blonde hair in loose waves and accessorizing with a silver clutch. Roemer matched her daughter, who wore a similar green dress embroidered with yellow and pink flowers, while their son opted for an all white suit and no tie. (Murray and Roemer, who tied the knot in 2014, share three children whose names they have kept private.)
Freaky Friday premiered in August 2003 and starred Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis as Anna and Tess, a mother-daughter duo whose lives are turned upside down when they wake up in each other’s bodies. Murray portrayed Anna’s crush Jake, a bad boy who thinks he’s falling for Curtis’ Tess not realizing she’s swapped bodies with her daughter. He’s back for the sequel, which hits theaters next month and follows Anna and Tess as they swap bodies once again, this time with Anna’s daughter and soon-to-be stepdaughter.
“It was awesome. It was just a nostalgic kick,” Murray told People in a December 2024 interview of returning for the project. “It felt like a high school reunion, you know? It felt like no time had passed, and yet we had entire lives in between.”
There were, however, a few challenges along the way while filming — particularly when it came to keeping track of who was who now that there’s four characters swapping bodies.
“There [were] moments where I’m sitting there going, ‘OK who’s who?’ … I was really focused,” he told the outlet. “I had to do my homework, like, a lot, and then I’d still get it wrong. But it was great. So much fun.”
Murray became a Hollywood heartthrob in the early ‘00s, first making a name for himself by guest starring on WB shows Dawson’s Creek and Gilmore Girls before landing the lead role of Lucas Scott on One Tree Hill. On the big screen, he also starred opposite another young starlet — Hilary Duff — in 2004’s A Cinderella Story.
As buzz of an OTH revival grows and with Freakier Friday finally coming to fruition, Murray — who currently stars as Cal on The CW series Sullivan’s Crossing — thinks he and Duff, 37, could reprise their roles as Sam and Austin, too. (The film, which also starred Jennifer Coolidge and Regina King, was a modern take on the classic fairy tale.)
“I think the way that I would do it would be, as love does in high school, it doesn’t work out. Most of the time, they’ve gone separate ways. They’ve had their lives,” Murray told Parade in a July 19 interview. “Maybe my character [Austin] would be a teacher at this point, an English teacher back at the school, and maybe Hilary’s character [Sam] got married, had kids [and] it didn’t work out. And now her daughter happens to be in my class, and you do a dual Cinderella story, where she’s a little shy, and she maybe doesn’t fit in. And [my character] nurtures that. And blah, blah, blah. I think that would be something to tell.”
Freakier Friday hits theaters on Friday, August 8.
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