Elaine Hendrix Calls ‘Parent Trap’ Costar Lisa Ann Walter Her ‘Life Security Blanket’ (Exclusive)

Elaine Hendrix is competing in season 34 of Dancing with the Stars — and she’s had one of her biggest cheerleaders in the house every week: Lisa Ann Walter.

The two starred together in the 1998 Disney classic The Parent Trap and have remained close friends ever since. In fact, while chatting with PEOPLE at DWTS‘ week 2 show in Los Angeles, Hendrix, 54, called Walter, 62, her “life security blanket.”

“[Dance partner] Alan [Bersten] is my show security blanket, and Lisa is my life security blanket,” she says. “And I look at her and I instantly feel calm.”

“She just knows,” Hendrix continues of the Abbott Elementary star. “We know what to say to each other because we know each other so well. So when I start to get on the edge, she knows how to bring me back and how to calm me down. And so, having her here means everything to me.”

Asked if they have a team handshake and name, Bersten, 31, told PEOPLE, “We’re stuck with that incredible handshake, and we’re proud of it,” referring to the secret handshake that twins Annie and Hallie (both played by Lindsay Lohan) perform in The Parent Trap. Hendrix and the dance pro incorporated part of the iconic handshake into their choreography during DWTS‘ 34 season premiere.

“Our team name is Team Partner Trap,” Bersten adds.

As for Walter, Hendrix says her former costar plans to “be here every week” to support her during her DWTS journey.

Walter opened up about the pair’s friendship in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE last year, calling Hendrix her “best friend in the whole world.”

“She’s beautiful and she’s charming and she’s funny as all get out. I love her dearly. She’s also a great caretaker,” Walter said.

She also revealed at the time that the two friends looked through each other’s dating apps and helped pick prospective dates.

“She does send me her choices if either one of us is ever brave enough to go online and on the apps and look at guys,” Walter said. “She’ll say, ‘What about this guy?’ And, ‘I think that could be fun.’ But then we kind of talk each other out of it. So we’re not great in that way.”

In 2023, in a surprising development, Hendrix and Walter discovered a connection in their respective family histories. Walter was featured in the premiere episode of Ancestry‘s YouTube series, unFamiliar, which had her revisiting the streets and buildings her relatives inhabited on New York City’s Lower East Side.

She learned that longtime friend Hendrix also has roots on the same street. Hendrix’s great-grandparents lived just blocks away from Walter’s great-grandparents on Elizabeth Street during the early 1900s.

“Of course they knew each other,” Hendrix said in the episode, adding, “It was fate.”

Discussing the unFamiliar episode at the time, Walter told PEOPLE that, ever since meeting Hendrix during auditions for The Parent Trap, she’s been the first person she calls — for just about everything.

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“I have to call my life partner, Elaine, and tell her that this thing happened or I’ve got this audition coming or I’m sobbing because some jabroni broke my heart,” Walter said. “She just was the person that I called. Everybody has a person they check in with about everything in their life. And Elaine is it for me.”