In 'Freakier Friday,' Manny Jacinto plays Lindsay Lohan's love interest. Why his leading man status is a big deal.

Yahoo

2 days ago

Jacinto hive, rejoice: Our boy's a romantic lead.
At this point, it's an undeniable fact: Manny Jacinto is in his leading man era.
It's been a whirlwind few years for Jacinto, who is currently on the press tour for Freakier Friday, the Freaky Friday sequel out Aug. 8. A follow-up to its 2003 predecessor, Freakier Friday sees Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis reprise their roles as body-swapping mother-daughter duo Anna and Tess Coleman, who find themselves in familiar territory two decades later, only this time, Anna's daughter and stepdaughter-to-be are thrown into the mix.
Jacinto plays Eric Davies, Anna's husband-to-be, who's completely unaware that his fiancée has swapped places with his stepdaughter-to-be, and that his daughter has traded places with his soon-to-be mother-in-law.
The 37-year-old actor is aware of how big this opportunity is.
'It's wild that I get to do this. I never would have thought I'd play the love interest to Lindsay Lohan; I watched Lindsay Lohan as a kid,' he told InStyle in an interview published Tuesday morning. 'It's wild what you can do if you put your mind to it.'
More than starring opposite Lohan, Jacinto was mostly drawn to the role because of its significance to the Asian American community. It's not often we see a man who looks like Jacinto in such a mainstream role — and he knows that.
'I mean, you don't get to see a lot of Asian American males as a love interest, or as a solid father figure, and that was definitely the part that enticed me about it,' Jacinto told Deadline last week.
With Freakier Friday, Jacinto fully seizes his leading man potential. For fans who have been following him since The Good Place, his rise to fame — and newly minted heartthrob status — is a point of pride.
'Without giving the algebra of representation too much credit, there's something pleasurable about seeing an Asian man romancing anyone and getting a break from the more familiar interracial combo of white man/AAPI woman,' Veronica Fitzpatrick, a Filipino American adjunct assistant professor of modern culture and media at Brown University, told Yahoo. 'That we're seeing it in a mainstream film like Freakier Friday … helps further normalize the very normal, very not-novel idea that AAPI men have sex appeal and romantic currency.'
Raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Filipino Canadian actor nabbed his breakthrough role on NBC's The Good Place, where he charmed audiences as the often aloof but well-intentioned Floridian Jason Mendoza. From there, Jacinto landed a starring role on the Nicole Kidman-led series Nine Perfect Strangers before appearing in her ex-husband's blockbuster hit Top Gun: Maverick a year later, despite all his lines famously being cut.
Jacinto's rise to the top has been slow and steady, though his portrayal of brooding Sith Lord the Stranger on Disney+'s The Acolyte triggered a shift in how Hollywood perceives him: as an Asian male worthy of a lead role. Jacinto has even received the TikTok treatment: He was the subject of several shirtless, lustful edits on the app that had loyal Acolyte fans rethinking their allegiances.
'The Stranger flips classic gender tropes of hypersexualization,' Leslye Headland, The Acolyte's creator and showrunner, previously told GQ. 'But a true sex symbol is someone who resonates emotionally with fans. Manny's magnetism is rooted in his acting, not just his physique. His ability to access vulnerability, empathy and longing is very compelling.'
Women, it seems, have played a crucial part in Jacinto's continued success and rise to stardom. His female fans are plentiful, but Jacinto is especially moved by the championing that women behind the scenes are doing for him. Without them, he told InStyle, his career wouldn't have gone in the direction that it has.
'Women have been a huge champion for me. It's always been women who have been able to look past what I have done and see the potential of what I can do,' he said, naming Kidman, Headland and Freakier Friday's Nisha Ganatra. 'Thank God I get to do this during this day and age when there are so many women at the top … who see my potential and are not afraid to explore that.'