Dennis Quaid Thinks His ‘Parent Trap’ Character Nick Parker Would Still “Be Sipping Some Of The Wine Out Of His Vineyard” Today: “Not Traveling Too Far From Home”

By Alex Vena
Published April 15, 2024, 11:37 a.m. ET

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The Parent Trap (1998)

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Dennis Quaid

The Parent Trap may have been released nearly 26 years ago, but according to Dennis Quaid, not much has changed for his character Nick Parker since. While speaking with E! News, the star of the 1998 film speculated about where the Parker family patriarch would be now.

“I guess he’d be sipping some of the wine out of his vineyard,” he shared, “not traveling too far from home.”

Quaid claimed that Nick would still be able to keep up on his Napa Valley business, noting that there’s “no cane involved.”

As for Nick’s love life, Quaid highlighted that he’s “still with Elizabeth,” referring to the role portrayed by the late Natasha Richardson, who died in 2009.

“Natasha, God bless her,” he told the outlet. “She passed from us about 10 years ago and she’s so sorely missed. What a beautiful, beautiful woman, great person.”

In the remake of the 1961 The Parent Trap, Quaid’s Nick and Richardson’s Elizabeth are reunited under a plot devised by their twin daughters, Hallie and Annie (Lindsay Lohan), who reunite themselves at sleepaway camp. As for Lohan, Quaid revealed that they have remained in touch, and that she even recently “sent a video wishing [him] a happy birthday,” as he turned 70 on Wednesday (April 9).

Natasha Richardson and Dennis Quaid in 'The Parent Trap'
Photo: Everett Collection

“She came to screen test and I think she was 11 and—wow—I couldn’t believe it,” he recalled. “She just had such control over her talent and what she was doing and during the shooting.”

He continued his praise for Lohan, whose acting chops “had [him] believing there were two girls.”

“She was completely fearless,” he added.

During a March 14 appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Lohan opened up about a particular full-circle moment she experienced with her son, who she caught watching The Parent Trap.

“I started crying because I’m like, ‘He doesn’t even know that’s Mommy,’” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Do I turn it off?’ He was kind of just staring — because maybe my voice is still similar to how it was then. So I was like, maybe he knows a little bit that it’s me because it sounds like me.”

Ultimately, she deemed the moment “really magical,” and even “took tons of pictures of it” to capture it.

The Parent Trap is streaming on Disney+.