Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/J. Merritt/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Reminds one of the sorry-but-not-really era of #MeToo apologies.
|
Lindsay Lohan is promoting the long-awaited sequel to Freaky Friday — and somehow, that led to the resurfacing of a disturbing old clip of Anthony Anderson interviewing her when she was 17 years old and living with Raven-Symoné. In the clip, Anderson tells Lohan that some older men “like ’em young” and then adds, “I’m one of ’em.”
The Black-ish star has since released a statement offering a conditional apology — in case you didn’t find his “joke” funny and sprinkling in vague threats of litigation in case you want to speculate about his intentions. The statement, obtained by People in full, reads: “This interview was clearly intended as comedy. He regrets if the humor was in poor taste and maintains the utmost respect for Lindsay. Any implication to the contrary is both inaccurate and potentially defamatory.”
The full context doesn’t do him any favors. Anderson had been asking Lohan about her living arrangement with Raven-Symoné during an interview that originally aired in 2003. At the time, Anderson was 33. After the typical daytime talk show fluff — complimenting her past work and teeing up jokes — things veered into awkward and downright creepy territory when he asked whether they had men coming over. Lohan tried to remind him she was underage, but Anderson plowed right through the boundary. What remains now is a viral clip and one of the clearest case studies in how not to behave on daytime TV — then or now.
Anderson has had a complicated past in Hollywood. He’s faced three sexual assault allegations — accusations that hover around his reputation and tend to resurface whenever he’s hosting an award show or when something like this clip gets unearthed by the internet. His cold and unapologetic response here is also a pattern; it mirrors how he responded when his name came up during the MeToo movement. At this point, these allegations seem destined to shadow him for the rest of his career.
That being said, Lohan is thankfully well past this period in her life. She’s revisiting rosier parts of her past — like Freakier Friday. The trailer is officially out, and this time, it looks like more than just her and her onscreen mother will be swapping bodies. Early reactions have started trickling in, and critics are calling it hilarious — a worthy follow-up to the original classic.
As for Anderson, this is probably the final thing he’ll say on the matter. But the callousness of the clip feels emblematic of the time — a period where you could say something like that to a young starlet and not a single person on set would bat an eye. Thankfully, society and pop culture have evolved. Because whether you brush it off as “just a different time” or complain that “people can’t take a joke these days,” it’s clear Lohan looked deeply uncomfortable in that interview.
Hollywood and filmmaking are inherently collaborative and intergenerational. By that nature, people of all ages and backgrounds must coexist within the industry. At the very least, it shouldn’t be too much to ask that everyone feel safe doing so.
Published: Jul 26, 2025 12:52 pm