From Summer Bay to New York City, Isla Fisher has moved on a bit … but what about her dress sense?

Isla Fisher throws her head back and cackles uproariously. Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer, sitting next to her, has just said something mildly amusing that has clearly tickled her. But this isn’t a one-off. Laughing heartily is something that Isla does throughout the 30 minutes

I am in her company; she lets rip at the merest sniff of a light-hearted comment.

Frankly, it’s refreshing but it’s also a laugh that makes you clench and grimace if you’re sitting within a few feet of her, such is its unbridled power.

It’s an incongruous sound from a person of such sweet looks – with her angelic features, flowing titian locks and petite frame – but gives clear evidence as to how she’s turning ditsy, comedic roles into something of a speciality.

And for this, she gives credit to her other half, the fabulously funny Sacha Baron Cohen – aka Borat and Ali G.

“Sacha was actually the reason I got into comedy,” she says. “I was actually auditioning for a lot of dramatic roles and having no success at all and sort of losing confidence in my abilities when he recommended that I do comedy.

“You know, he always felt I was really funny and when someone as funny as him recommends that, I listened to him and actually auditioned for Wedding Crashers which ended up being my big break.”

Her role as dizzy credit card junkie and modern literary heroine Rebecca Bloomwood in new comedy Confessions of a Shopaholic (adapted from the best-selling Sophie Kinsella novel) is her first leading role and cements her place as an up-and-coming comedy talent in Hollywood.

She’s come a long way from Summer Bay and the role that first brought her to the attention of British audiences as Shannon in Aussie soap Home and Away, of that there is no doubt.

And she follows in some pretty impressive footsteps including those of former co-stars Melissa George, Naomi Watts, Guy Pearce and Heath Ledger.

Given the sheer scale of the film (with über-successful Hollywood heavyweight Jerry Bruckheimer behind it, there’s no doubting it has anything other than blockbuster written all over it) and the phenomenal popularity of the Sophie Kinsella’s books, did Isla feel any pressure in taking on the role of Rebecca Bloomwood?

“[I was] extremely worried,” she says. “When you’re in the lead of a movie, suddenly you’re more responsible for the tone of the film and then obviously the added pressure of taking on such a beloved character.

But I was so fortunate in that I was truly the biggest fan of Sophie Kinsella’s books and I’d sort of…”

She pauses, then continues somewhat breathlessly: “This is going to sound pretentious but I had the vibrations of that character since I’d read it in my imagination. The moment I started thinking about, you know, when I met with Jerry and we discussed the role … I just thought about it every day.

“Everything I did, if I was driving my car, if I was cooking, whatever I was doing I was thinking about Becky Bloomwood and what she would be thinking about and that’s sort of how it began.”

Her excitement and incredulity at having been handed the role is tangible. You get the impression she still can’t quite believe where she is and her enthusiasm is infectious.

The role also gave her the opportunity to be dressed by legendary Sex and the City stylist Patricia Field, the woman responsible for turning Carrie Bradshaw into a worldwide fashion icon.

Every girl’s dream, surely? “I’m not a fashionista,” says Isla. “I don’t have much experience in that world but I was kind of educated in the end and I feel that my own fashion style is now more brave and I enjoy dressing a lot more.

“loved wearing the costumes but they’re Rebecca Bloomwood’s costumes and I felt like her in them. I don’t know how it would have felt in my every day life in those heels!”

Ah, the five-inch heels. Well, they were Isla’s idea.

“I thought there was something funny about a shopaholic impractically buying ridiculously high heels and tottering throughout the comedy,” she says.

“I thought it would be amusing. It was less amusing, of course, when I was actually doing it every day.”

Isla continues: “The great thing about doing physical comedy in films is that if it doesn’t work it ends up on the cutting room floor so it gives you a lot more room to experiment. But I really enjoyed doing it. I’m very comfortable tapping into my inner idiot.”

A trait she has perhaps picked up from her famous other half. But which one of them does she think will be the first to tackle a dramatic role?

She says, modestly: “I don’t know. But he’s definitely a lot funnier than me.”

Confessions of a Shopaholic is currently on nationwide release.

Source: Get Reading