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When Lisa Ann Walter and Elaine Hendrix sat side-by-side in the waiting room for their Parent Trap screen tests in 1997, they couldn’t have predicted what would happen next.
The film — a remake of the 1961 sister-swap classic, starring a promising child actor named Lindsay Lohan — was a box office stunner with multigenerational cultural impact. But more important, it brought together two people who seemed predestined to be friends. Ever since, they’ve been there to pick each other up when they’re down and root each other on when they’re up.
Most recently (and iconically), Abbott Elementary star Walter, 62, joined Dancing With the Stars contestant Hendrix, 55, and her pro partner, Alan Bersten, for a foxtrot à trois in October. “One of the things that is really gratifying about our longterm relationship is people responding to it,” says Walter. “This is not new. We didn’t invent grown-ass female friendship. It’s necessary.” The two talked to Us Weekly about being each other’s person.
How do you two define your bond?
Elaine Hendrix Sisters.
Lisa Ann Walter Soulmates.
EH Married without the romance.
LAW [Laughing] So like a long-term married couple…
EH A best friend who will help you move a body.
When did you realize there was a connection?
EH I think from the beginning. We just got together and talked, talked, talked…
LAW Elaine and I are both actors, so we access our emotions easily… We also have a rule that neither one of us can lose our s**t at the same time. Can you believe that? We trade off on who’s falling apart. Was there a particular moment that cemented your friendship?
LAW We wrote a script together early on in our relationship. We were close, but when we got done writing that script, we were one. It was a girl buddy movie when they weren’t doing those. We were very much before the whole Bridesmaids.
EH That was, like, right after Parent Trap. As a matter of fact, if anybody wants to fund it…
Elaine Hendrix and Lisa Ann Walter’s Parent Trap characters may not have been on the same page, but the pair’s real-life friendship has stood the test of time. Hendrix and Walter connected while filming 1998’s The Parent Trap. Walter played Chessy, nanny to Hallie (Lindsay Lohan), while Hendrix portrayed Meredith, the girlfriend of Haillie’s father […]
I hate to go dark, but my next question is…
LAW What happens when one of you dies? I haven’t thought about it. She’s a lot younger than me…
EH I was gonna say, in the natural order of things, Lisa is gonna go first.
LAW Oh my god, I’m going to cry. Thanks a lot.
EH You have four kids, so…
LAW I do, but I really think you should be my… what do they call that?
EH The tiebreaker?
Next of kin?
LAW No, not next of kin. No, when you have the legal…
EH Power of attorney?
LAW Power of attorney. I think that should be you. Everybody else would be like, “How much is in the will?” You wouldn’t do that.
EH Of course, she’s my emergency contact on, like, all my medical stuff…
LAW You’ve got to talk about the stuff that matters to you. Not just, “What’s going to happen to my stuff?” but like, “Do you want to be cremated or not cremated?”
EH What do I want to be?
LAW Cremated.
EH Or…
LAW Buried next to a tree with your dogs?
EH Well, in a tree, but yes. They bury people in trees, like in the roots.
LAW I’m glad that we’re doing this interview so that we could cement this. I just want to be cremated and separated out a little bit, and some of it could be on the counter, like in the kitchen, where I keep my mom. And then some should be at your house. But I don’t want it scattered. Don’t scatter my damn ashes.
EH I’m not scattering them, you’re coming with me!
Are there moments that stand out when you’ve been each other’s rock?
LAW When Elaine’s mom passed. She called me and was brokenhearted, as I was when I lost my mom a few years ago. I think families can be difficult when somebody really close passes. Elaine called me so that I could tell her, “You’re not alone.”
EH It meant everything. I say that equally about losing my mom as I do about having her at Dancing With the Stars and as her helping me move seven times.
LAW The person that you know will never, ever let you down. That’s one of the things that really came out during Dancing: We both have had people that we’ve loved in our lives, you know, male partners, and not saying it’ll never happen again, but I don’t ever have to worry that she’ll fall out of love with me. I don’t ever have to worry that she’ll leave me. She might get mad, but I’m not going to lose her.
Any other ways in which you’ve stepped in and helped each other?
LAW I have four kids, and they’re wonderful. We had a time back when one was having a really rough time, and emotionally, he had a situation with his dad and wasn’t seeing him anymore. I had to be Mom and Dad, and it was tough. One time he was going off on me, and Elaine snapped him like a bug. She grabbed him. She was like, “That’s enough.” Being a single mom’s tough, and sometimes the reason why is because when there isn’t a second person in the house to say, “Don’t talk to your mother like that,” the kids feel like they can get away with it. In that moment, I just needed someone to do that.
EH I’m more of, like, Auntie. I’ve known the kids since they were little. So it was more about supporting her than getting involved with the kids.
More than three decades after Hayley Mills wooed fans in 1961’s The Parent Trap, Disney rebooted the classic and produced an equally as big box office hit. The 1998 film, which starred Lindsay Lohan as identical twins, Annie James and Hallie Parker, followed the sisters after they are reunited while attending the same Camp Walden […]
Elaine, can you share a moment where Lisa’s really shown up for you?
EH I’ve been in the hospital twice, and both times it was, “Have you called Lisa? Where’s Lisa?” The first, my appendix burst. I was in the hospital for eight days, and she was the one who came and made sure my room was OK and that my flowers were arranged, got me ice cream, had blankets, walked up and down the hallway with me when I had to do exercises. Then when I [injured my ribs during] Dancing With the Stars, there was only one person allowed back in the emergency room, so it was Lisa who was there with me.
Have there been times when you’ve helped each other with an acting gig?
LAW In this business, [it’s important] to have a person that doesn’t want anything from you. Elaine coached me [for Abbott Elementary, Wednesdays, 8:30 p.m. on ABC] and then read with me on tape. So when they saw my audition and decided right away that’s the one, it’s her voice reading with me, because this was during the pandemic.
How do you help each other navigate an industry that isn’t always kind to women over 40?
LAW The business is tough on women as they age… It doesn’t represent who we are. Men do most of the writing and directing, so if they center themselves and their experience, and we are the wife of, the boss of, the sex object of, so even writing what our dynamic is, our friendships, they don’t know. That’s why so many shows involve women fighting each other over a man or over clout or whatever they do on Housewives because they don’t get that these friendships can exist without us competing or being jealous. I’ve had beautiful girlfriends my whole life. I never once was jealous of them being tall or gorgeous, like this one. I celebrate it.
EH Ageism, sexism, racism, it’s very real. I feel incredibly fortunate that we are at the stages of our lives that we are and we are still in the game, working, thriving. I do not take that for granted, because that’s not something you can plan for — it’s something you hope for. It’s something that you work your ass off for, but you can’t plan for it. And so the fact that we’re here, we’re doing this, and at the level that we are. Let’s go! Doing Dancing With the Stars was so important because, yes, I was doing it for myself, but I was also doing it for everyone else, to go, Hey, it’s not too late. Please don’t let a number stand in your way. It’s so important, because the moment you believe that for yourself, you can make it happen.
And Lisa, you have your first standup special coming in 2026 on Hulu!
LAW Most people don’t know I came up doing standup. So I wanted to do a special where I went back to my roots, which is a club in a city that has embraced me as one of their own, Philadelphia, and do a special that was a gift back to the audience. I still have a lot of fans that are, like, “I saw you in Rochester,” “I [saw] you in Boston 10 times.” So that’s why I wanted to do it.
Elaine Hendrix has struck a chord with the Dancing With the Stars audience. The actress, who first gained some recognition in the ‘90s for guest appearances on TV shows like Ellen and Married… with Children, earned her breakout role as Meredith Blake in Nancy Meyers’ 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. Since then, she’s starred […]
Do you give each other dating advice?
EH All the time.
LAW There were years when she first moved to New York and then Atlanta, I would get a slew of… because look, when she puts her picture out there, she’s gonna get a response.
EH Same, so when we were in the same town, we’d be, like, laying in bed or whatever. “OK, what about this one?” Yeah, no. Swipe right. She’s better about it. But I instantly am, like, ready to talk myself out of virtually every single man passing through.
LAW And I’m about 50 percent of that.
EH I think that’s being generous. We would decipher all the code that was in the creepy, like, what was in their bios and stuff. So then finally, though, we just gave that up because apps are, like, [sighs].
LAW I dated a lot of the guys on the apps.
Would you ever date a guy the other didn’t like?
LAW Apparently, all of the people that I’ve dated.
EH You just grin and bear it and wait for it to be over. And it’s not that I didn’t like them. One of them I liked, I just didn’t think… he was right for you.
LAW The young one?
EH The young one. My whole long thing about dating is that, unless it’s going to happen the old-fashioned way, like a meet-cute somewhere…
LAW You smell them.
EH Yeah, it’s not gonna happen because no one has anyone to introduce you to, and I’m not doing apps. So then, like, what else is there?
LAW I always assume they just won’t give up their eligible male friends because… every guy wants a girl, at least in this town, that’s 10 to 15 years younger, and then I always feel like I’m 20 pounds and years over what they’re selling. I said one time to a lesbian friend of mine, “Really, man, I would love to date a woman, but I really, really like penis.” And she said, I got a box for that under my bed… Imagine how great a couple [Elaine and I] would be.
EH Oh, God, but no offense, then I’d have to kiss you.
LAW Do you know how many people want to kiss these lips? God gave them to me. I didn’t buy these.
EH I know. Have at it. I’m not standing in the way at all. Please go for it.
Lisa, you mentioned a rough split with your second husband. How did Elaine support you through that?
EH Mostly it was like, “Are you sure you don’t want to leave?”
LAW It was a lot of, “Let’s get you out of this.” There was a lot of tough love and bolstering up.
EH Especially at this point in our life, it’s really hard to beat this. You’ve got to beat this [friendship] to get in here, because our lives are so big and wonderful and fun, and we offer each other so much. So it’s like, why interrupt that?
LAW Our plan is just to spend the future together and to be in our little bestieville. In our tiny home community with our friends, and then send out for a big-armed man every once in a while.
Which roles of each other have been your favorites, and which do you think deserve more attention?
LAW Give me your IMDB.
EH The Trouble with Dee Dee was very underrated. It’s hard to get independent films really out there.
LAW I think you should have won Dancing with the Stars.
EH But I made it to the final.
LAW You did. I can say it now that it’s over: She wasn’t given the scores she deserved for doing proper ballroom. I know because I did ballroom in a movie and I was trained quite well.
We have to ask: Is there a chance for a Parent Trap sequel?
LAW That’s a Disney question.
EH Above our pay grade.
Where would your characters, Meredith and Chessy, be?
EH I think by a large consensus, people want Chessy and Meredith to get together.
LAW That’s on Reddit. That’s a very specific group of people on Reddit.
EH I wouldn’t say no.
LAW Well, then you’d have to kiss me.
EH No tongue. You would be so lucky.
For more on Walter and Hendrix, watch the exclusive video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly — on newsstands now.
