Isla Fisher Web | The Isla Fisher Online Resource

Press Archive

Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in /home/islafish/public_html/press/cutenews/inc/functions.inc.php on line 20

Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in /home/islafish/public_html/press/cutenews/show_news.php on line 41

Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in /home/islafish/public_html/press/cutenews/inc/shows.inc.php on line 54

Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in /home/islafish/public_html/press/cutenews/inc/shows.inc.php on line 54

Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in /home/islafish/public_html/press/cutenews/inc/shows.inc.php on line 54

Confessions of a rom-com queen

Filed in Magazines

Source: InStyle UK

A scene-stealing turn in Wedding Crashers, the lead role in Confessions of a Shopaholic and a baby with Borat … Isla Fisher has come a long, long way from Summer Bay.

This is going to end in tears!” In the elegant surrounds of A-list Los Angeles haunt Chateau Marmont, Isla Fisher (former soap actressturned-movie star) is standing bolt upright in the lounge, busily juggling… condiments.

Admittedly, she has been encouraged a little by In Style to show us her talent, and she gleefully grabs the mustard, mayo and ketchup to demonstrate what one year at a prestigious theatre and arts school in Paris can do for a girl.

Isla refers to L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq as “clown school” (“I call it that to make the journalists laugh,” she giggles), but her stint at the school in 1997, aged 21 – where she learnt theatre, juggling, mime and other thespian skills – has helped her bridge the gap between soap life (she played Shannon Reed in Aussie soap Home and Away for three years) and headlining a major new Hollywood movie (this month’s Confessions of a Shopaholic). So who’s the clown now? Can you juggle three in one hand? “Oh yes.” Very impressive. “Not really that impressive.” Can you mime “woman trapped in a box”? “Definitely – but first, tell me, is this an audition? And what do I get at the end of it?” A glowing interview. “Then here it is.” Wow, it’s like you really are in a box. “Right! Terrifyingly. Oh God, what was I thinking? Please don’t take the piss out of me in this interview!”

As if. Isla Fisher is easy company. Comfortable in her own skin, casual in black skinny J Brand jeans, a baggy vintage boho top, and Repetto flats that do little to boost her five-foot-three-inch stature, she leaves her un-coiffed red hair stretched half-way down her back.

It’s incredible to think that a mere ten years ago, Isla was just another hopeful from an Aussie soap. At first, she did what any young starlet in Britain would do in the Nineties: cheeky poses for the lad mags, guest spots on The Big Breakfast, plus a brief engagement to Darren Day, whom she met in 1998 while starring in the musical Summer Holiday, following his split with Coronation Street actress Tracy Shaw. (“Oh my God!” she exclaims at the memory.)

Then, out of the blue, in 2001, Isla got a call about a role in the big-screen version of Scooby-Doo. “I thought, there’s no point in going to the audition, I’m never going to get this.” But before long, she was filming in America and meeting Hollywood bigwigs. She lowers her voice to a whisper. “I met with one big agent and he goes to me, ‘You are so talented’. I said, ‘Oh, gosh, thank you. What have you seen me in?’ And he said, ‘Nothing’. It was my first real taste of Hollywood.”

Now, thanks to her engagement in 2004 to comic Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G, Borat and Austrian fashion pundit Bruno) and scene-stealing roles in major films (including Wedding Crashers), she’s part of a Hollywood power couple, attending the Oscars and Golden Globes and counting A-listers such as Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston and fellow members of the “Koala Mafia” Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman as her best friends. She and Sacha have vacationed in Mexico with the Arquettes, and at their daughter Olive’s recent first birthday party, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Ben Stiller and Keanu Reeves were reportedly on the guest list.

But despite her A-list life, Isla is friendly and down-to-earth. She orders a decaf latte “because I’m breastfeeding” and she’s all smiles as she unfurls into an armchair. I ask her how she managed to pull off that other Hollywood trick; snapping back into shape so quickly after having Olive. “Things have changed – believe me,” she laughs. Isla says she’s “not an exercise person” and never pushes herself hard at the gym. “You know the point where somebody working out starts to feel tired?” she asks. “Apparently, you get this second wind and you eally start to sweat, and that’s when you get addicted. But for me, that’s the point I get off and have a cup of tea and a slice of cake.”

It’s easy to see how 32-year-old Isla captured Sacha’s heart when they met back in 2002. In fact, it was he who encouraged her to forget the dramas she was auditioning for and try her hand at comedy instead. “I was getting rejected so much and Sacha said, ‘You’re so funny’, so that, coming from him…” What did he find funny about her? “Good question,” she ponders. “I just think it’s the fact that I can juggle condiments for him.”

At home, she says, Sacha’s the funny one, but the strain of multiple post-Borat legal cases has taken its toll. “Most people can say to their partners, ‘How was your day at work? What time are you home for dinner?’ I have to say, ‘Are you getting sued? Have you been arrested? Are you in jail? Are all your limbs still attached?’ He has more lawsuits than the Baldwin brothers.”

Legal woes aside, Isla took note of Sacha’s advice and turned her attention to comedy, starring as the excitable love interest Gloria in the Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn smash Wedding Crashers. “The director wanted me to play it like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct and I said, ‘No – you mean Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.”

But although Isla’s happy with a bit of banter, when pushed on her relationship with Mr Cohen, she makes it clear that personal topics are strictly off the table. “The thing is, you have to protect something,” she explains. “You need to have something just for you.”

And then she frets a little after revealing that she baked a lemon cake for Olive – who, by the way, she describes as “by far my greatest accomplishment”. I ask her if Sacha supports her career, and she answers, “With all relationships, people definitely support each other in every area,” adding, “See how generic that was!”

In a rare unguarded moment, she talks of meeting “the love of my life”, going on to say, “Love is an incredible gift if you’re lucky enough to receive it and give it, and I think having a baby is another whole level of love”. She continues, saying she converted to Judaism for her religious fiancé two years ago and talks of the joys of celebrating the Sabbath. “I think it’s great to have those boundaries and have one day that’s sacred where we don’t talk about work,” she says. “And I love having more structure and rituals in my life – it’s really enriching.”

It’s understandable that she’s a little closed when you know how life has changed for the couple since the success of Borat and Wedding Crashers. “If you followed me around for a day, you’d see it,” she explains. “With the paparazzi, it’s really difficult. You make decisions during your day based around how much privacy you can get for your child, and when you’re protecting a tiny person from scary men swarming around them with massive black things in their face, screaming their name, it takes on a whole new thing.”

So we move on. Isla talks about the responsibilities that come with success, such as walking the red carpet – something she suspects is as important as what goes on in the cinema. Though her attempts to dazzle haven’t always gone quite as planned.

“At the Golden Globes last year, I wore this beautiful midnight blue Hervé Léger dress with a fitted bodice and a huge skirt – it was incredible, like a princess meets a slut,” she says. “But someone stepped on my train and ripped the back. There’s a classic shot where I’m smiling really serenely over my shoulder, but my tush is totally exposed! The Sun called me ‘Isla Flasher’, but what can you do?”

We laugh about how it could have been worse, remembering Tara Reid’s exposed boob. “I don’t understand how you wouldn’t feel the breeze!” she laughs. “Maybe it’s the implants.” Talking of which, no amount of visits to LA – the couple rent there and call London home, insisting they still “haven’t committed” to their American life – are likely to convince Isla that plastic surgery is the way to go. “Being proud of who we are as people is more important than cutting into ourselves to create this false idea of beauty,” she says. “I don’t even find it beautiful.”

But in this town, as people get older…
“They do this?” she asks, pulling back the skin on her face. “I think nothing’s sexier than laughter lines. I think Lauren Hutton is beautiful and she’s natural. I haven’t done the white teeth – I haven’t really Americanised my look. But we’ll see what happens when you interview me in five years. Maybe I’ll be looking permanently surprised.”

It’s no surprise then that playing an obsessive shopper in her new film, Confessions of a Shopaholic, was anathema to Isla. She even enrolled in both Debtors and Shopaholics Anonymous meetings as research for her role as Becky Bloomwood, an out-of-control spendaholic. “I shop very rarely and very poorly,” she confesses. “The [fashion] things I buy are rarely a hit. I’ll see something I like and then take it home and it doesn’t work with anything else.”

But the movie did have her indulging in fashion speak, albeit briefly: “Like ‘deconstructed’!” she laughs – and she says she tried to keep some of Becky’s flair for dressing after the cameras stopped rolling. “I was mixing bright colours together and just being more confident with the high heels, but after a week and half I was back in jeans.”

She jokes that after Sacha’s Bruno movie (his Borat-style attack on the fashion world) comes out next year, “probably no one will lend me anything again”, but that suits her just fine. “You know, having a baby really changes your priorities,” she says, gathering her BlackBerry and finishing her coffee. “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life – it’s pretty hard to wipe the smile from my face.”

Isla's Laugh
THE BORAT MOVIE
‘It’s so satirical and smart and at the same time, there’s so much clowning and physical comedy. I love it. And I think there’s nothing sexier than a handlebar moustache. We have a spare one at home – and I wear it.’

THE PINK PANTHER SERIES
‘Blake Edwards is a really great director and obviously Peter Sellers [right] was a genius. That classic idiot – when you see a really funny idiot on screen, there’s nothing better.’

KATH & KIM
‘Hilarious. Just the fact that they [right] can call your lady bits “a welcome mat” is the single best line I’ve ever heard. They’ve really tapped into the Australian suburban life. As an Australian, it’s so funny.’

BLACKADDER
‘I’m the biggest Richard Curtis fan. He could do anything and I’d think it was gold. That was my favourite Rowan Atkinson [below right] stuff and Queenie was hilarious.’

SEINFELD
‘I love that whole Jewish humour. That’s a classic example of

Content Management Powered by CuteNews

Texts copyright to their respective owner but are especially collected and/or transcribed for Isla Fisher Web. Please ask permission before using them on any another site. Thanks!