Elaine Hendrix Talks ‘Grown Up’ Lindsay Lohan in ‘Freakier Friday’ (Exclusive)

For Elaine Hendrix, reuniting with her Parent Trap costar Lindsay Lohan in Freakier Friday was a long time coming. 

“I hadn’t seen her since she was a little girl,” Hendrix, 54, tells PEOPLE at the Dancing with the Stars Season 34 cast reveal event on Wednesday, Sept. 3. 

“I hadn’t seen her since The Parent Trap,” admits the actress, “so coming back together now, she was all grown up — and I feel like I’ve lived an entire lifetime since then!”

Hendrix made a cameo appearance in Freakier Friday as Blake Kale, a stylist character whose name is reminiscent of her Parent Trap character Meredith Blake. In the 1998 remake costarring Natasha Richardson and Dennis Quaid, Hendrix played would-be-stepmother to Lohan’s long-separated twins Hallie Parker and Annie James. 

Reuniting with the 39-year-old Lohan over 20 years after The Parent Trap, continues Hendrix, “We were meeting each other on a whole new level in a whole new way. So it made our reunion that much richer. I love Lindsay and I love her whole life and what she’s gone through and how beautiful she’s turned out.”

She adds with a smile, “I’m just so proud of her and happy for her.”

Ahead of Freakier Friday’s Aug. 8 release, Lohan shared a sweet selfie from the movie’s set of her smiling with Hendrix, who also joined her at the July 22 premiere alongside Parent Trap costar Lisa Ann Walter. The sequel to 2003’s Freaky Friday also reunited Lohan with costars Jamie Lee Curtis and Chad Michael Murray, adding Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons and Manny Jacinto to the body-swapping mayhem. 

Hendrix told Entertainment Weekly in June that she and Lohan “spent a lot of time together on set, hanging out, reminiscing, and catching up. Now, we’re better about staying in touch with one another… It’s nice, in these new chapters of our lives, to be in contact.”

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ABC’s Dancing with the Stars Season 34 will feature Hendrix alongside dance partner Alan Bersten. Speaking with PEOPLE at the cast reveal event, the Dynasty actress says her “heart was immediately fluttering” upon getting the call to join the competition show. “It was an immediate yes for me.”

Bersten, 31, says he’s thrilled to be dancing with Hendrix. “Elaine has definitely surpassed all expectations I’ve had already. She’s gonna surprise a lot of people.”

Dancing with the Stars premieres on ABC and Disney+ on Sept. 16. Freakier Friday is in theaters now.