From big-hearted comedies to freaky slashers, these are the movies that most effectively harnessed the possibilities of trading places.

ByJon O’Brien|Aug 8, 2025, 12:03 PM EDT

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Tom Hanks and Elizabeth Perkins in a promotional shoot for ‘Big.’ | Aaron Rapoport/GettyImages

One of the film world’s earliest forays into the body swapping genre occurred way back in 1917, when a rich jerk and a young blacksmith switched places in The Eye of Envy. But while there were a few pictures that later expanded on that far-fetched scenario (Hal Roach’s screwball comedy Turnabout in 1940, for example, or 1960 Danish fantasy The Greeneyed Elephant), the trope only really took hold toward the end of the 20th century.

Since then, Hollywood has given us role reversals involving attorneys and adult film actors (The Change-Up), middle-aged criminals and teenage cheerleaders (The Hot Chick), and even workaholic billionaires and cats (Nine Lives). And with the sequel to 2003’s Freaky Friday, Freakier Friday, arriving in the wake of It’s What’s Inside, By Design, and Grafted, the concept appears to be as popular as ever. Here’s a look at 10 great movies about literally walking in someone else’s shoes.

All of Me (1984)

“My mature film career started with All of Me,” Steve Martin once said, an odd claim considering the 1984 comedy finds his mild-mannered estate attorney accidentally imbued with the soul of an oddball heiress, played by Lily Tomlin. The funnyman still gets plenty of opportunities to manically contort his face and frame in a movie that continually veers from existential panic to full-blown farce. And then there’s the fact that Martin’s future wife, Victoria Tennant, plays a criminal schemer who willingly transfers her spirit into a horse. But no matter your interpretation of a grown-up picture, Martin is undeniably in his comedic prime—his constant sparring with Tomlin’s unwelcome guest produces all-time zingers such as “I never liked you when you were in your body; I certainly don’t like you in mine!”

IMDb Rating (out of 10)	Standout Review
6.7	“All of Me shows a fine appreciation for the little weirdnesses of life, and with comedies in short supply, it may provide the best shenanigans of the season.” —People magazine

Big (1988)

From Vice Versa and 14 Going on 30 to 18 Again! and Like Father, Like Son, the late 1980s was a boom period for the body swap comedy. But towering above them all was the film that cemented Tom Hanks (a replacement for Robert De Niro, if you can believe it) as the most amiable man in Hollywood. The star earned a Best Actor Oscar nod for capturing the wide-eyed innocence of a teen fast-forwarded into adulthood via a vintage Zoltar fortune teller machine. Sure, the infamous scene in which Elizabeth Perkins’s oblivious exec essentially sleeps with a 13-year-old wouldn’t pass muster today. But packed full of heart, warmth, and memorable set-pieces—the Walking Piano sequence, in particular, is an indelible part of ’80s cinema—Big’s charms far outweighs its shortcomings.

IMDb Rating (out of 10)	Standout Review
7.3	“[D]irector Penny Marshall doesn’t hammer any themes or satire into the film; she, quite shrewdly, keeps Big likeablysmall. The comedy is natural and unforced, in no small part because of Hanks’s wonderfully slapstick performance.” —The Hollywood Reporter

Face/Off (1997)

As its title suggests, John Woo’s finest Hollywood hour is more interested in swapping faces than bodies, but the theme still applies. Here, John Travolta’s FBI agent Sean Archer undergoes some science-defying cosmetic surgery to discover where exactly Nicolas Cage’s terrorist—a man named Castor Troy who’d killed Archer’s son six years previously—is hiding a soon-to-be-detonated bomb. Of course, the latter doesn’t take kindly to having his face transplanted onto the enemy and vengefully confuses matters further by adopting the same form of extreme cosplay. Face/Off’s premise is gleefully absurd, of course, but both leads gamely throw themselves into all the madness, resulting in a hyper-stylized, hyper-violent, and hyper-entertaining reinvention of the cat-and-mouse thriller. It’s the kind of action cinema they simply don’t make anymore.

IMDb Rating (out of 10)	Standout Review
7.3	“Beyond the bold strokes of casting these roles perfectly and creating a field day for his shrewd superstars, Mr. Woo … accomplishes something near-impossible. He makes the viewer buy this film’s loony premise, and buy it with a smile.” —The New York Times

Being John Malkovich (1999)

The maverick duo of director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman were never going to create your average bodyswapper. But even so, the singular surrealism of Being John Malkovich is still a sight to behold. John Cusack plays a creepy New York puppeteer, Cameron Diaz a frumpy, frizzy-haired chimpanzee owner, and the titular thespian a version of himself whose mind can be inhabited by anyone with access to a special 7½ floor portal. Just the usual. Nominated for three Academy Awards, the cult classic poses all kinds of questions about autonomy, disillusionment, and self-identity. But it’s just as visually challenging, none more so than when a bewildered Malkovich steps into his own mind to witness a gathering of Malkoviches speaking in the language of Malkovich.

IMDb Rating (out of 10)	Standout Review
7.7	“The movie has ideas enough for half a dozen films, but Jonze and his cast handle them so surely that we never feel hard-pressed; we’re enchanted by one development after the next.” —Roger Ebert

Freaky Friday (2003)

While 1976’s Jodie Foster/Barbara Harris version of Freaky Friday spearheaded the body swap renaissance, the 2003 remake remains the definitive. Then at the peak of her teen queen powers, Lindsay Lohan displayed a maturity when playing her character’s continually disapproving mom, which suggested a glittering career ahead. And Jamie Lee Curtis, who replaced Annette Bening just four days before filming, was clearly having a blast as a rebellious rock chick horrified to wake up as the “Crypt Keeper.” Throw in One Tree Hill heartthrob Chad Michael Murray riding a motorcycle, some era-appropriate slang (“Could you, like, chill for a sec”), and a high-spirited punk-pop soundtrack featuring double threat Lohan herself, and you have one of the quintessential comedies of the early ’00s.

IMDb Rating (out of 10)	Standout Review
6.4	“What could have been another teen/tween knockoff is transformed by Curtis, who puts her venerable, classy mug right in front of the camera.” —San Francisco Chronicle

13 Going on 30 (2004)

Pretty much the female equivalent of Big, this 2004 rom-com finds a teenager humiliated at her own birthday party wishing her life away (“I want to be 30 and flirty and thriving”), only to wake up the next morning 17 years into the future. Jennifer Garner is positively radiant as the shy and sweet nerd who discovers she’s now a glamorous fashion editor who will stop at nothing to get to the top; Mark Ruffalo and Judy Greer also provide strong support as her “Thriller”-dancing love interest and mean girl best friend, respectively. 13 Going on 30, which has since been adapted into a West End musical, might not reinvent the body swap wheel, but it’s still a joyously nostalgic helping of Hollywood make believe.

IMDb Rating (out of 10)	Standout Review
6.3	“This sprightly coming-of-age-too-soon comedy rises above its derivative concept by virtue of a well-cast ensemble and Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa’s quick-witted screenplay.” —TV Guide

Your Name (2016)

“For me, it’s incomplete, unbalanced,” self-critical director Makoto Shinkai once said of his fifth feature. “The plot is fine but the film is not at all perfect.” The fact it was critically lauded (98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), inspired Hollywood to greenlight a live-action remake, and overtook Spirited Away as the highest-grossing anime of all time suggests the wider world vehemently disagreed. Your Name centers on two disenchanted teens—one from an isolated mountain town, the other the bustling metropolis of Tokyo—who intermittently get the opportunity to see if the grass really is greener on the other side. Incorporating elements of sci-fi, coming-of-age comedy, and star-crossed romance, the lushly drawn picture is equally adept at switching genres as it is bodies.

IMDb Rating (out of 10)	Standout Review
8.4	“As well as being a wonderful visual and emotional experience, it’s a reminder that ‘universal’ stories don’t need to be generic, but instead thrive on specificity.” —The Daily Dot

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2017)

Hollywood once again seemed destined to tarnish childhoods when they announced a remake of ’90s VHS staple Jumanji. Yet Welcome to the Jungle unexpectedly managed to retain the original’s family-friendly charm while offering a contemporary body-swapping spin. Instead of being sucked into an old-fashioned board game, the film’s four teenage heroes are transported inside the console equivalent and forced to inhabit wildly different avatars. So the school star athlete is now a pint-sized zoologist with an aversion to speed. The socially-awkward nerd is now a supremely confident muscle man. And most amusingly, the self-involved princess is now a plump, hirsute cartographer who looks suspiciously like Jack Black. What follows is a high-octane, high-stakes (lose all three lives and it’s game over in life itself) caper that appeals to kids and kids at heart alike.

IMDb Rating (out of 10)	Standout Review
7.0	“Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle gets you chuckling within moments and keeps you chuckling all the way to its effective and unexpectedly poignant ending.” —The Mail on Sunday

Freaky (2020)

After giving Groundhog Day the slasher treatment with the two Happy Death Day films, Christopher Landon further cemented himself as horror’s great new genre-splicer with this deranged take on Freaky Friday. Vince Vaughn plays a serial killer named the Blissfield Butcher who swaps bodies with Kathryn Newton’s unpopular teen student shortly after she survives one of his attacks. The former makes for a surprisingly convincing teenage girl, whether it’s nailing a cheerleading routine or puckering up to a football jock. The latter, meanwhile, turns Freaky into something of a feminist revenge movie, dispatching the scourge of high school life with everything from a table saw to a cryogenic chamber. It’s the rare horror-comedy that brings both the laughs and the scares.

IMDb Rating (out of 10)	Standout Review
6.3	“Newton’s transformation from wallflower to psychopath is both chillingly convincing and archly amusing. Same goes for Vaughn’s highly skilled work heading in the opposite direction.” —Australia’s Herald Sun

The Substance (2024)

Demi Moore pulled off one of the great modern comebacks in the unlikeliest of vehicles: an unashamedly grotesque body horror that gradually reduced her to an amorphous blob. She even nearly bagged an Academy Award for her fearless performance as a faded actor who uses a black-market serum to compete with today’s younger starlets. Of course, she ends up competing with herself when her alternative Lolita-esque body (played by Margaret Qualley) develops a mind of her own, aging her real self more quickly than you can say “pus-oozing hunchback.” The monstrous set-pieces will make your jaw drop—but as a meditation on the pressures of fame and society’s obsession with youth, Coralie Fargeat’s visceral tour-de-force also has plenty of substance to its gonzo style.

IMDb Rating (out of 10)	Standout Review
7.2	“Darkly funny, intense, and extremely graphic, this is a shocking assault on the senses, in a good way – on second thoughts, in a masterful way.” —Ireland’s RTÉ

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20 Movie Stars of the ‘90s Who Disappeared From Hollywood

While some have experienced resurgences in their acting careers, others have remained totally out of the spotlight.

ByPaul Anthony Jones|Oct 28, 2026, 4:54 PM EDT

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Phoebe Cates, Omari Katz | Cates: LGI Stock/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images. Katz: Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch via Getty Images

Vietnam-born actor Ke Huy Quan starred in both Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (his debut) and The Goonies in the 1980s. But despite having two of the previous decade’s biggest hits on his resumé, in the 1990s he found that the parts dried up and the opportunities just weren’t falling for him as they were for other actors.

After a string of minor film roles and TV bit-parts, he stepped away from acting in 2002 to focus instead behind the camera, working as an AD and stunt coordinator. That was until the 2020s, when, approaching 50, he decided to give acting one more try and ended up auditioning for an off-the-wall sci-fi fantasy drama called Everything Everywhere All at Once. The film was a critical and box office smash, and not only thrust Quan back into the spotlight after a two-decade hiatus, but earned him his first Oscar.

Clearly, not every ‘90s movie star who steps away from the limelight ends up disappearing altogether, and in the notoriously fickle world of acting, there’s no telling what might lie in a performer’s future—including those on this list!

KATE CAPSHAW

Kate Capshaw starred alongside Ke Huy Quan and Harrison Ford in 1984’s Temple of Doom (directed by her future husband, Steven Spielberg), followed by a string of movies and TV roles in the 1990s including crime thriller Just Cause and How to Make an American Quilt.

She retired from acting in the early 2000s, however, and has since forged a successful career as a painter, exhibiting her work at the likes of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

PHOEBE CATES

Having broken out in ‘80s hits like Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Gremlins, actress Phoebe Cates stepped away from acting after a series of lacklustre movies in the early ‘90s, including Drop Dead Fred and Bodies, Rest & Motion.

Her last movie, Princess Cariboo in 1994, was made with her husband Kevin Kline, after which she stepped away from movies to focus on raising her and Kline’s two children. In 2005, she opened a boutique gift store on Madison Avenue in New York, called Blue Tree, and has worked successfully in business ever since.

DAVID CARUSO

Having appeared in the likes of ‘80s box office smashes First Blood and Twins, David Caruso became a household name in the 1990s thanks to his role as Detective John Kelly in the ABC police drama NYPD Blue. He famously stepped away from the series just a few episodes into its second series allegedly over a pay dispute, but struggled to monopolize on the show’s success until returning to television in 2002 with a lead role in CSI: Miami.

When the show ended 10 years later in 2012, Caruso quietly retired from acting altogether and now works successfully in the art world.

JOAN CUSACK

Saturday Night Live alumnus Joan Cusack earned an Oscar nomination for her role in Working Girl in 1988, which led to a string of successes in the 1990s, including a now legendary supporting role the cult classic Addams Family Values and a second Oscar-nominated performance in critically acclaimed comedy In & Out opposite Kevin Kline.

After appearing in 2003’s School of Rock, however, Cusack stepped away from acting to raise her children, and quietly opened a gift shop in Chicago named Judy Maxwell Home. Asked to reprise her performance as the feisty cowgirl Jessie in 2026’s Toy Story 5, however, Cusack recently made her first red carpet appearance in over a decade and has since stepped out on occasion to promote the animated movie.

CAMERON DIAZ

Still one of the most recognizable and successful movie stars of recent decades, The Mask and There’s Something About Mary star Cameron Diaz quietly retired from acting in the early 2010s to focus on her family. After a 10-year hiatus, she recently made a tentative return to Hollywood with the appropriately titled spy thriller Back in Action in 2025.

SHELLEY DUVALL

Perhaps best known for her staggering appearance in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror The Shining (a performance that, despite its veneration today, originally earned her a Razzie Award nomination), Shelley Duvall’s career in fact spanned six decades.

But having struggled to find good roles or critical success in the ‘90s, Duvall abandoned acting at the end of the decade when her brother was diagnosed with cancer. She quickly took to a quieter life back home in Texas, and became a regular sight around the small town where she lived until making a singular return to acting in 2023’s indie horror flick The Forest Hills.

Duvall died in 2024 at the age of 75—two years after the Razzie Awards made the rare honor of rescinding her Shining nomination more than four decades earlier.

LEE EVANS

British standup comic Lee Evans broke into Hollywood in the late 1990s with roles in the likes of The Fifth Element, There’s Something About Mary, and Mouse Hunt. With his Hollywood career just beginning to take off, however, Evans stepped away from film roles and returned to standup comedy in the UK, becoming one of the first British comics to sell out an arena tour.

At the height of his standup career, however, Evans retired from comedy too, and has quietly worked in both theatre and music ever since.

LINDA FIORENTINO

Having made her debut in 1985’s Vision Quest, Linda Fiorentino became one of the most talked-about actresses of the late 1990s with starring roles in 1997’s Men in Black and 1999’s Dogma. Rumors of on-set difficulties and an infamous clash with Dogma director Kevin Smith (which he later walked back and largely took responsibility, more than 20 years later) derailed Fiorentino’s career in the early 2000s, and she made her most recent on-screen appearance in 2009.

BRIDGET FONDA

Bridget Fonda is all but Hollywood royalty: daughter of Peter Fonda and niece of Jane Fonda, she’s also been married to legendary movie composer and musician Danny Elfman since 2003.

With ‘90s roles in the likes of The Godfather Part III, Single White Female, and Jackie Brown, however, Fonda’s own Hollywood resumé is just as impressive as those of her family tree’s. But at the height of her career Fonda stepped back from acting to focus on her and Elfman’s family (and to recover from a car accident that left her with a fractured vertebra), and has not been seen on screen since 2002.

DENNIS FRANZ

Despite having acted on screen since the 1960s, it wasn’t until the ‘90s that Dennis Franz became a household name when he was cast as New York Detective Andy Sipowicz in NYPD Blue. The role earned him a Golden Globe and four Emmy Awards, but when the series came to an end in 2005, Franz all but immediately retired from acting, and now leads a quiet life in rural Idaho.

HEATHER GRAHAM

A supporting role in 1998’s Boogie Nights, a decade into her acting career, made Heather Graham one of the biggest actresses of the millennium, and roles in Bowfinger, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and acclaimed Jack the Ripper horror From Hell soon followed. At the height of her career, however, Graham had a series of encounters with now disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, and in the aftermath found lead roles hard to come by for some time.

She has continued to work ever since, however, mixing film with television—including regular roles in Scrubs and Californication in the 2000s and 2010s, and more recently in 2026’s Prime Video adaptation of Carrie. Up next, she will appear in The White Lotus season 4.

OMRI KATZ

The star of ‘90s supernatural series Eerie, Indiana and cult Halloween classic Hocus Pocus, Omri Katz largely stepped away from acting shortly afterward and reportedly retired in 2022. With a film like Hocus Pocus on his resumé, however, Katz remains a fan favorite at conventions and regularly reunites with his former castmates.

CHARLIE KORSMO

Known for his childhood roles in Dick Tracy and Hook in the early 1990s, Charlie Korsmo has since stepped away from acting altogether. Having studied at MIT and Yale, he worked as a lawyer for the Environmental Protection Agency, and is currently a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.

EVA MENDES

Having made her acting debut in the late 1990s, actress and model Eva Mendes went on to star in the likes of Training Day, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Hitch, and Ghost Rider in the 2000s, before stepping away from acting altogether.

“I got tired fighting for the good roles,” she said in an interview with Variety in 2022. “There just was a point where I thought, ‘I’m going to create my own opportunities and become a producer on things and create my own material.’”

RICK MORANIS

Rick Moranis followed up ‘80s blockbusters like the Ghostbusters movies, Little Shop of Horrors, and Spaceballs with ‘90s hits including the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids trilogy and 1994’s Flintstones movie. After his wife Ann Belsky died of breast cancer in 1991, however, Moranis gradually wound down his acting career to take care of the couple’s two children as a single dad, making only occasional returns to film and television ever since.

Now in his 70s, Moranis is set to reprise his Spaceballs role as Lord Dark Helmet in its long-awaited sequel, The New One, in 2027.

CHRIS OWEN

His role as Chuck “Sherminator” Sherman in the classic teen comedy American Pie kickstarted Chris Owen’s career in 1999, and besides the original movie’s sequels, Owen also went on to star in the likes of October Sky, Black Sheep, and The Mist in the 2000s.

In the 2010s, however, roles became harder to come by and Owen was reported to be working a sushi restaurant by the New York Daily News in 2014. “Life doesn’t always go the way you planned,” he was quoted as saying at the time. “I love acting, and this job lets me stay in the fight.” The article, ironically, led to a flurry of film and TV roles in the 2020s.

KARYN PARSONS

Best known for her ‘90s role as Hilary Banks in TV’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Karyn Parsons has continued to act ever since but largely stepped away from the spotlight in the 2000s to focus on her family. In 2005, she established the Sweet Blackberry Foundation, which works to educate children about African American history and achievement through short films, and has also since made a successful career as an author of books for young adults.

JOE PESCI

Having made his film debut way back in 1961, roles in the likes of Goodfellas (which earned him an Oscar), JFK, My Cousin Vinnie, and the Home Alone movies made Joe Pesci one of the 1990s’ biggest movie stars.

At the height of his career, however, Pesci stepped back from acting; seemingly never one to enjoy the spotlight (he famously gave one of the shortest Oscar acceptance speeches in history), he also expressed a lack of enthusiasm for the roles he was being offered and opted instead to focus on music.

He effectively remained in semi-retirement for over 20 years, before a late-career return in Martin Scorsese’s epic The Irishman in 2019. Despite reportedly turning down Scorsese’s request to star in the movie some 50 times, Pesci’s performance went on to earn him an Oscar nomination at the age of 76. He has continued to make occasional screen appearances ever since.

MEG RYAN

CANNES FESTIVAL: FILM 'PARIS MATCH' — Meg Ryan | Eric Robert/GettyImages

Star of ‘90s hits Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and City of Angels, at one point in her career Meg Ryan was commanding a reported $15 million per role—but largely stepped away from lead roles in the mid 2000s, to work instead on smaller projects, and behind the camera.

She made her directorial debut with Ithaca in 2015 (which also marked her first on-screen film role in six years), followed by 2023’s What Happens Later (which was likewise her first on-screen role in eight years).

MARA WILSON

Known for roles in the likes of Matilda, Miracle on 34th Street, and Mrs. Doubtfire, Mara Wilson was one of the 1990s’ most in-demand child actresses. In 2000, however, Wilson took a hiatus from acting to focus instead on her work as a writer, and as an advocate for a number of charitable organizations.

Although she has made occasional forays back into acting, she continues to work as a writer and, more recently, as voice artist and audiobook narrator.

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