Let’s just get it out of the way: Manny Jacinto is the scene-stealing star of Freakier Friday. The Filipino-born Canadian actor who plays Lindsay Lohan’s on-screen fiancé, Eric Davies, commands the screen from the moment he bumps into Lohan’s Anna at their kids’ school. But it’s the moment where he channels Patrick Swayze’s Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing that will be the reason you’re Googling Manny Jacinto after you see the film.
Obviously those Dirty Dancing moves are the first thing I want to bring up to Jacinto, 38, but he has more pressing matters on his mind. With a world press tour about to get underway for Freakier, the actor best known for the NBC sitcom, The Good Place, and Disney+ Star Wars series, The Acolyte, is looking for travel advice. “Do you have any jet lag tips? Because I think that’s the one thing I’m really worried about.”
The press tour (“which I’ve never quite done before,” he says) will take Jacinto to Los Angeles (his current location), New York, London, and the Philippines. It’s exciting, no doubt, but Jacinto wants to be present—and sans jet lag—for all of it. “I’ve never been able to actually go to the Philippines to promote something, so it feels really special,” he says of the country where he was born. “I still have family over there. I think I can finally prove to them that things are okay and that all my pursuits in acting are paying off. The fact that I can be there and share that with them means so much.”
Needless to say, things are more than okay, and his pursuits have definitely paid off. But the road to mainstream stardom felt lightyears away when Jacinto—who was named one of People Magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive in 2024—first moved to L.A. in 2012. Originally interested in a career in dance, the industry proved more disheartening than he realized. Jacinto pivoted, and eventually found a path that was even more successful than he could have imagined.
With plenty of roles under his belt (in addition to The Good Place and The Acolyte, there’s also Top Gun: Maverick and Nine Perfect Strangers), Jacinto is too modest to guess what might happen after opening weekend, but there’s no denying what so many of us already know: he’s a star, and Freakier Friday will prove it.
Get ready to know Manny Jacinto like you haven’t before.
Glamour: Tell me what you remember from the first Freaky Friday movie. Did you see it in theaters at the time?
Manny Jacinto: Yeah, I’m pretty sure I saw it in theaters with my sister, my parents, with the family, the whole thing. That’s why it’s so wild that I get to do it with the OG crew. I never would’ve thought that older Manny would be dancing it out with all these other actors that I saw when I was a kid. It’s pretty nuts.
So when did this role in the sequel come about?
Luckily, Nisha Ganatra, our director, is a big fan, and I got the call from my agents that she wanted to meet. I was in Las Vegas because I wanted to go see Usher’s “Lovers & Friends Festival,” but it got canceled. So I was in a bad mood. I was like, “What’s going on? I came all the way to Vegas.” But the silver lining was I got the call, and I had to go back to LA to have this meeting with Nisha.
Wow.
We’re both Canadian and we have very similar values and priorities. And the things that we want to accomplish in this industry are very much in tandem. So we just got along really well, and very luckily, she just offered me the part after we met. And it’s not always the case. I realized how lucky that is. So I didn’t have to audition. It was just a simple meet and greet.
So did they tailor the character of Eric to you, especially with the dancing?
Yeah, and that’s the great thing about Nisha, is that she’s super incredibly collaborative. We were trying to think of ways to just make the scenes with Lindsay and I even more fun. There was the option of doing a Pilates class, a hot yoga class, and then I told Nisha, “Hey, I dance, and I know the bride and groom tend to prepare for the first dance, so maybe that’s an option.” And she loved that one. Then it just continuously evolved until it became an ode to Dirty Dancing. And then it became the incredibly fun scene that it was. That was not on the page the first day. It came up out of our collaboration.
For those who may not know, you actually have a professional dancing background. Tell us about that.
Well, that was the whole pursuit. I wanted to dance for an artist and tour the world. I initially came to LA in 2012 to pursue that dream. But it’s a tough, tough industry; even harder than acting because there’s definitely not a lot of glory. There’s not a lot of organization. You’re just sitting outside of the studio, hundreds of people just waiting to be seen. Dancing in rooms that are 100 degrees, and trying to stand out from a whole crowd of people. So I was a little disheartened after that. In my head I was thinking, Instead of being the guy in the back doing the moves, why can’t I be the guy in the front? So once that clicked, I pursued that feeling and here we are.
You make it sound so easy, but it’s not. Were you a fan of Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing?
Yeah. He made all those scenes in the movie so iconic. In my head, I was like, If I can make it look as good as he does, then I’ve hopefully done my job. But there’s no comparing, that’s for sure.
You were brilliant. How well did you know that dance before you did it for the movie, and how much prep went into it?
We had a bit of time, maybe a couple of weeks beforehand. As a trained dancer, sometimes you learn the choreography a day or two before you have to perform. But luckily we had a couple of weeks. And then we tweaked it again, so I had another rehearsal maybe a week later. But the beauty about film and television is that you can do takes over and over again. It’s not live. And you can make things better and better. I can’t take all the credit. I think it’s the shirts that get tighter and tighter, which makes it look very Dirty Dancing. I was like, “Nisha, I don’t know if we can make this shirt any tighter. I can hardly breathe here.” But that, combined with Nisha’s belief in me, helped me through those scenes.
Did you perfect this dance in front of friends or family?
I showed it to my wife because she’s also a dancer. She was also there on the day. And I had her as my coach to make sure that the lines were proper. My hips were moving the right way. Everything down to the fingers, making sure that it was on point, because she’s definitely a better dancer than I am.
And what was her verdict? Was she like, “This is the hottest thing ever?”
No, I think if anything, she’s like, “I think you could have done this better.” No, I think she’d hold me to a higher standard, which I love. But at the same time, it’s also a lot of love. And having her there as a cheerleader made that scene easier because it’s tough. It’s trying to be ‘sexy,’ and you’re in front of all these people. And a lot of them didn’t know that I was a dancer. It was cool because they offered the same reaction of, “Manny, I couldn’t believe, I didn’t know you had that in you.” Or, “How long did it take you to train for that?” Or, “Manny, those hips don’t lie.” It was all really fun.
Okay, so when they remake Dirty Dancing, you and your wife are going to play Baby and Johnny, right? Are we going to announce this now?
Sign me up. Yeah, why not? Let’s go all the way.
Were you nervous going into this film, dancing scenes aside?
Oh yeah, 100%. Luckily, Nisha and our producers wanted to gather us together beforehand so, me, Lindsay, Julia [Butters], and Sophia [Hammons] could get to know one another. Also, this is the first time I’ve played a dad. I am not even a dad in real life, so building those relationships was super key. Freakier Friday is a comedy, and there are a lot of big moments and comedic scenes, but it all is grounded in those relationships of love and care. So I’m happy that Nisha brought us together.
What was it like meeting Lindsay Lohan for the first time?
I remember going into the elevator, and then Lindsay rushes in. I didn’t know what to do. I just stood in the corner because I didn’t want to embarrass myself. So I just waited until we awkwardly got out together, because I don’t think she had a clue I was playing Eric yet. And then we just walked towards the production offices, and then finally shook hands and met. [After that], we got to do all these acting exercises to get close and get to know one another. She was super open and so great. But it was nerve racking, 100%. My heart was at 180 beats per minute, but it was all worth it in the end. It was fantastic.
You guys have such great chemistry, but I would imagine that’s a lot of pressure on you.
100%. I remember watching not only Freaky Friday, but Mean Girls and just all of Lindsay’s stuff back in the day. It was her moment when I was growing up, so I had to pinch myself after that first meeting of being like, Okay, this is actually happening. I’m here. Get with it, Manny. You got to bring your game.
And you did.
It was the best experience.
You mentioned doing acting exercises with Lindsay to get close. What does that mean? Trust falls?
[Laughs] I love it, but not exactly. We would actually write secret notes to one another, like, how do you think we met? Or how did you feel the first time that we met? Basically, imaginary husband and wife things. I think we also had some movement [exercises]. I don’t know if we rehearsed our first dance,just to get closer and get used to us being in close proximity. To be honest, I was just trying not to sweat the whole time. It was a blur. But definitely a lot of kooky, random acting exercises.
That’s so funny. Meanwhile, I feel like Jamie Lee Curtis must have just adored you on this film. What was it like working with her?
Yeah, Jamie is a fireball. When I grow up, I want to be Jamie Lee Curtis. Just to have that energy, that focus and that want to make a scene better and better. A lot of people can just come in and just say the lines, but maybe it’s also because Freaky Friday is also her baby. She wanted to make sure a lot of things made sense, that we’re hitting the right beats. So she’s tuned in. She doesn’t take anything for granted. And she actually is our captain. She brought the energy right away, and from the moment I stepped into the trailer, she gave me a big hug and welcomed me into the family. There’s no better captain than Jamie Lee Curtis. I’m glad that she was on the team.
What did working on this movie teach you about yourself?
To be honest, what it was on the page when I first read it was pretty different from what ended up on screen in terms of, we didn’t have the dance scene, and I don’t know if the immigration scene was as deep and as involved.
So I was coming in with the attitude of like, “Oh, okay. I’m here as another actor and these actors will shine.” But the learning process that I underwent was that if you have ideas, if you really dig into your character, people will listen. And luckily enough, again, Nisha is a huge collaborator, and so are all of our other producers. And they wanted to hear what I had to say. So you never know what’s going to come. It could be a super small role at first, and then it could evolve to something a bit bigger. I feel very grateful that it became the role that it is on-screen. So it was a huge learning process, along with learning how to be a father.
Yeah, that must’ve been weird to all the sudden have a 16-year-old.
Yeah. At first, I was having a panic attack because I was telling my wife, “Am I really that old now? Has my time come and gone?” Not that people who are dads are now in the background. I was like, “Oh, man, I’m older now.” And it was almost a reality check in a way. Like, “Oh, okay. No, I can step into roles that are a bit more mature.”
I will say as I was watching the movie, I did keep trying to do the math in my head because I was like, “How old is Lindsay? She can’t have a 16-year-old. That’s crazy.” I understand they had to do it this way to make it work, but at the same time, I also didn’t quite buy her having a 16-year-old kid.
It’s pushing it. And that was definitely a concern as well. There were a bunch of concerns in terms of how truthful can this be? But then I would remind myself that it’s a movie about people switching bodies and you can lighten up a little bit. He can have a little of room in terms of the reality.
Yes. But you’re very young.
I’m turning 38 next month.
Okay, that’s young. Manny, that’s young.
Thank you. But I will say after that dance scene, my body was like, “Bro, what are you doing? You are not 22, 25 anymore.” So my body needs convincing, if anything.
So, lastly, have you thought about how your life might change after this movie? It’s such a star-making role, especially for those that may not have been as familiar with your other work, even though you’ve done so much.
I always come in with every screening premiere and project with very low expectations. I don’t know. I’m not the type to really…I try and take it day by day. If anything, I am Canadian, so I can hide out in Canada for a little bit if need be. Out in the boonies, have a time to escape. And then just remind myself, that if there is a big wave that comes, it is a wave and that it’ll pass. Just like everything. And just not to get too anxious over it and too in my head. Just enjoy the moment and let it be what it is. But know that it’s not going to last forever. So chill bro. But thank you for saying that. That helps so much.
Freakier Friday is now in theaters.
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