Despite the Lizzie McGuire reboot on hold, Hilary Duff still got the Lizzie McGuire cast back together yesterday (May 11) on one of the seminal episode’s anniversaries. This really is what dreams are made of!
Nineteen years ago, Lizzie McGuire and her best friend Miranda Sanchez (played by Lalaine) bought their first bras for the “Between a Rock and a Bra Place” episode. Duff and Lalaine, both 32, relived that awkward, coming-of-age moment with the rest of the gang from the 2001-04 Disney Channel sitcom via Zoom, including: David “Gordo” Gordon (Adam Lamberg), Matt McGuire (Jake Thomas), Sam McGuire (Robert Carradine), Jo McGuire (Hallie Todd), Kate Sanders (Ashlie Brillault), Claire Miller (Davida Williams), and Larry Tudegman (Kyle Downes, who filled in for the late David Carradine).
Not to mention Duff periodically brought out her animated alter ego, who served as the voice inside her head during each episode, with five-second pre-taped snippets swooping in and out of the video chat frame.
“LIZZIE MCGUIRE retro table read! Some fun for you this Monday! Hope you guys have fun watching this! We could not stop laughing reading lines from tween us…this is the first time we were all ‘together-ish’ in almost 18 years!” Duff captioned the 44-minute Instagram TV video. “This week marks the 19th anniversary of this episode ‘Between a Rock and a Bra Place!’ Do excuse our delayed singing…we will be taking singing lessons as a group to work on our craft!!”
Jake Thomas originally came up with the idea, while his father Bob, who also wrote two Lizzie McGuire episodes, narrated the script. Screenwriters Nina and Jeremy Bargiel chimed in during the chat to give an oral history of the episode.
Although purchasing her first bra seemed scandalous for the tween actress’s main character at the time, Duff recently opened up about how the show’s reboot needed to keep exploring mature themes for Lizzie as the now 30-year-old explores adulthood, no longer a 13-year-old navigating through middle school. After Lizzie McGuire‘s original showrunner Terri Minsky left the show in January, production for the Disney+ project came to a halt. Duff later asked Disney+ to move the reboot to Hulu so her character’s authentic experiences wouldn’t have to be censored.
“I’d be doing a disservice to everyone by limiting the realities of a 30 year old’s journey to live under the ceiling of a PG rating,” Duff wrote on Instagram in February. “It’s important to me that just as her experiences as a preteen/teenager navigating life were authentic, her next chapters are equally as real and relatable. It would be a dream if Disney would let us move the show to Hulu, if they were interested, and I could bring this beloved character to life again.”
Watch season 1 episode 12 of Lizzie McGuire like never before below.
Via: Billboard
