Isla Fisher’s latest a labour of love

ISLA Fisher has clearly made the long leap from Perth popette to Hollywood hierarchy.

Busy promoting her latest film – another romantic comedy, this time opposite Ryan Reynolds in Definitely, Maybe – Fisher ticks all the boxes attached to an ascending star.

Engaged to a movie mogul (Borat creator Sacha Baron Cohen)? Check.

Young mother? Check.

An unwavering desire to deflect any line of questioning about her personal life? Check, again.

While at ease about locking lips with Reynolds, who has a touch of the Ben Afflecks about him, Fisher keeps schtum on her life and her dramatic post-birth shrinking.

“Honestly, motherhood is my favourite topic – but in private,” she says. “Publicly, I don’t want to talk about it.

“I don’t want to draw any attention to her (four-month-old daughter Olive). She didn’t choose to be born into, you know, this.”

There’s an argument here that while Olive didn’t choose a life of Tiffany baby rattles and Hollywood hobnobbery, her mother did. But that’s for another day, with Fisher enforcing her approach.

“You’re going to hate me – I’m never going to talk about that,” she insists.

In Definitely, Maybe, the 31-year-old again proves her deft comic timing, this time as April, confidante and best-friend to Reynold’s divorcee dad, Will.

“April’s great – she says what she thinks. I always seem to play these characters who have less social etiquette than others,” she says.

Despite the strong comic elements, Fisher admits that the emotional undercurrents of Definitely, Maybe scared her.

“But it was also that fear that inspired me to take the role. So, it wasn’t my first idea to take it; it was more to challenge myself. But I love great, flawed people – (with them) you can really inhabit the emotional landscape.”

Labelled as the best “rom-com” since Annie Hall, the film – which opened, appropriately, on Valentine’s Day – sees Fisher play her part in her father Will’s recollection of the three different loves in his life.

Also featuring the subtle beauty (oh, and talents) of British export Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener), Fisher says the film explores the fact that love comes without a handbook.

“There’s no hard and fast rules (with love),” Fisher offers. “I think you can find love, and the person you’re supposed to be with, under really inconvenient circumstances and still pursue it.”

Does this translate to her meanderings in love? Possibly – but she’s not about to say.