CinefestOZ names Isla Fisher a Screen Legend

CinefestOZ names Isla Fisher a Screen Legend

CinefestOZ Film Festival has awarded actress Isla Fisher its Screen Legend prize for 2021.

The award recognises an Australian actor or filmmaker of international repute and their role in supporting excellence in Australian filmmaking.

Fisher, who was born in Oman and grew up in Perth, has been a fixture of Australian screens since she was nine, when she started in TV commercials before being cast as Shannon Reed in Home & Away, a role she played for three years.

Her career internationally took off with The Wedding Crashers, followed by a range of roles in films such as Rango, The Great Gatsby, Nocturnal Animals, Definitely, Maybe , Now You See Me, Hot Rod, The Brothers Grimsby alongside her husband Sacha Baron Cohen, and Blithe Spirit. Her most recent role is in Stan/Peacock’s upcoming series Wolf Like Me, opposite Josh Gad.

Fisher studied commedia dell’arte in Paris at the renowned L’école Jacques Lecoq performance school, and in June 2016, made her debut as a children’s author with ‘Marge in Charge’.

“I am so honoured to be receiving this award and to be able to support this important festival in the state where I grew up,” said Fisher.

“I feel at home in Perth, and I am delighted to be able to support CinefestOZ and the arts industry.”

Past recipients of the award include Kelton Pell, Sigrid Thornton, Hugo Weaving, Joel Edgerton, Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown, David Wenham, Jacqueline McKenzie, filmmakers Fred Schepisi, Bruce Beresford, Gillian Armstrong and Scott Hicks.

The prize will be presented to Fisher, who is also on the festival jury, at a Gala Night in Busselton on Saturday 28 August.

(IF.com.au)

Isla promotes Ring Fit Adventure on Nintendo Switch

Isla posted a new video on her Instagram of a commercial she has done for Ring Fit Adventure on Nintendo Switch. We’ve tried to find more information about this partnership but so far nothing – not even a press release – so we don’t know whether this is a one-off or if we can expect more. So for now, here’s Isla enjoying the game:


Continue reading Isla promotes Ring Fit Adventure on Nintendo Switch

Josh Gad, Isla Fisher to Star in Peacock Rom-Com Series

Josh Gad, Isla Fisher to Star in Peacock Rom-Com Series

Peacock has handed out a straight-to-series order for a romantic comedy series starring Josh Gad and Isla Fisher.

The duo will topline and executive produce Wolf Like Me, which the NBCUniversal streaming service describes as a “genre-bending” rom-com about two people who bring unique sets of baggage to their relationship. Creator Abe Forsythe (the 2019 feature Little Monsters) will write and direct all six episodes. Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories (Big Little Lies, The Undoing) produces in partnership with Endeavor Content and Australian streamer Stan.

“We fell in love with Abe Forsythe’s imaginative storytelling and gift for creating complex and compelling characters,” said Lisa Katz, president of scripted content at NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “With the incredibly talented Isla Fisher and Josh Gad at the center, Wolf Like Me will be engaging, quirky and wholly original.”

The story centers on Gary (Gad) and Mary (Fisher). Following the death of his wife, Gary is an emotional wreck and struggling to provide for his daughter. Mary, meanwhile, has a secret she can’t bring herself to divulge to anyone. The universe brought these two together; they just need to follow the signs.

“Wolf Like Me is a very meaningful project for me. The stakes are extremely high but grounded by things we can all relate to,” said Forsythe. “I’m so excited to have Isla and Josh on board, and I know the audience will be surprised seeing them in a different way as these characters. I was never going to tell this story with anyone other than Made Up Stories, and I feel very fortunate for us all to be teaming up with Endeavor Content and to have found a home with Peacock and Stan.”

Gad is coming off HBO’s Avenue 5 and is set to star in a Disney+ series featuring his and Luke Evans’ Beauty and the Beast characters, LeFou and Gaston. The voice of Olaf in the Frozen movies, Gad also does voice work on Apple’s Central Park. He’s repped by Imprint, WME, Sugar23 and P.J. Shapiro.

Fisher starred in the 2020 Disney+ movie Godmothered; other recent credits include Blithe Spirit, Greed and the most recent season of Arrested Development on Netflix. She’s repped by UTA and Sloane Offer.

Forsythe executive produces Wolf Like Me with Gad, Fisher, and Made Up Stories’ Papandrea, Jodi Matterson and Steve Hutensky.

(THR)

Isla on the cover of Stellar magazine

Isla is on the cover of Aussie Sunday newspaper lifestyle magazine Stellar this weekend (March 21st edition). The feature is to promote Blithe Spirit, and Isla also talks about how she picks her projects these days, her family and privacy, social media, her husbands roles, and being a ‘power couple’. Alongside the new interview is a brand new photoshoot, too. Read the interview below, and find the photos in our Gallery:

“I still think I should be cleaning the pool – not getting to lie by it”

Fisher and Baron Cohen certainly have all the makings of a celebrity power couple, but the mere mention of the term only makes her feel uneasy.

Despite her three-decade career, Australian actor Isla Fisher remains as awestruck by her success as she does co-stars like Dame Judi Dench, who made her feel like “jelly on legs”.

She’s also mystified about being known as a power couple with husband Sacha Baron Cohen – although she does “adore” Borat.

After a year that found her wearing almost nothing but trackies and sports bras, Isla Fisher finally saw glamour make its return to her wardrobe at the start of March.

On the first day of the month, she put on an Alex Perry couture gown to attend a virtual Golden Globes ceremony alongside her husband Sacha Baron Cohen, who picked up two gongs for his latest Borat film.

“I’ve really enjoyed the feeling after lockdown and COVID to get a dress on and get my hair and make-up done,” Fisher tells Stellar two days later, as she lounges around in a Gucci jumpsuit for our photo shoot. “It felt fun. And what I love about Alex Perry is that for anyone who has given birth, he makes you feel like you stepped off a runway.”

Continue reading Isla on the cover of Stellar magazine

Isla interviewed for Empire Podcast

Empire interviewed Isla for one of their recent podcasts – she talked about the novels she wrote as a teenager, Blithe Spirit, how she got into comedy, Hot Rod, working with Judi Dench, and which Australian actor is the worst at doing accents. Have a listen below (Isla starts at about 21 minutes):

Empire Podcast #448: Isla Fisher, Rose Matafeo
This week’s Empire Podcast goes Down Under — metaphorically speaking, of course — as Chris Hewitt has fun-filled chats with two wonderful Antipodean actors. First off, there’s Isla Fisher, the Australian star of Blithe Spirit, who tells Chris all about her affinity for accents, Hot Rod, and working with Judi Dench, while Chris makes an impromptu purchase. Then Chris has a chat, and a Kurt Russell quiz, with Baby Done star, the New Zealander comedian and actor, Rose Matafeo.

Then, in the virtual podbooth, Chris is joined by Helen O’Hara, James Dyer and, for the first time this year, Amon Warmann, as they exchange facts in The Three Fact Structure, talk about actors and directors who deserve a McConaissance, discuss the week’s movie news including that big MCU rumour, and review Baby Done, MLK/FBI, Outside The Wire, and The White Tiger. A jam-packed show, and no mistake. Crikey! Enjoy.



Rotten Tomatoes TV – Godmothered’s Jillian Bell & Isla Fisher Play ‘Name the Review’

This press interview for Godmothered deserves it’s own post – Isla and Jillian Bell played ‘Name the Review’ for Rotten Tomatoes TV and once they’d identified the film the review was for, they chatted briefly about the films. Isla talked about how proud she is of Definitely Maybe and how Ryan Reynolds is her favourite co-star, watching the stunts in Hot Rod, and working with Sacha in Grimsby. And Jillian Bell talked about how much she loved Isla in Wedding Crashers.



Isla on the cover of The Daily Telegraph Magazine

Isla featured on the cover of The Daily Telegraph (UK)’s Magazine supplement yesterday, with a brand new photoshoot and interview! The interview and photoshoot were initially conducted at the start of the year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Isla’s movie Blithe Spirit being pushed back, the publication of the feature was delayed, and the interview was re-done last month. It’s a really good interview – Isla talks about Blithe Spirit, why she pulled out of Guilty Party, how she’s handling the pandemic, her family and not talking about her kids publicly, some of her interests (collecting old tea sets), how she feels about aging, Marge In Charge, and her screenwriting. It’s also a beautiful photoshoot – which you can see in high quality in our Gallery. If anyone can help us out with scans from the magazine please get in touch!

Isla Fisher: ‘In the middle of the night, I have those “I can’t quite breathe” moments’
The star of a new film adaptation of Blithe Spirit talks about life with Sacha Baron Cohen and having to cancel work due to Covid worries

In a low-key bakery not far from the Hollywood home she shares with her British actor/comedian husband Sacha Baron Cohen and their three young children, Isla Fisher is telling me about her latest role in a new film adaptation of Blithe Spirit, one of Noël Coward’s best-loved plays.

‘I was so nervous,’ she confesses, dipping a buttered baguette into a bowl of chicken soup. ‘Being an Australian in a British period drama! I was working with my dialect coach and I just thought, “If I get this accent wrong, I’m going to be in so much trouble.”’



It’s an unseasonably cold day when we meet – prior to the pandemic – and wrapped up in a brown coat complementing her trademark long red hair, wearing minimal make-up, she looks a decade younger than her 44 years. Having made an enviable career starring in popular Hollywood comedies – from playing the obsessive Gloria in Wedding Crashers (2005) to the lead role of Becky Bloomwood in Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) – her facial expressions and deadpan humour have got her where she is today. And they’re front and centre in Blithe Spirit.

Directed by Edward Hall (son of former National Theatre director Sir Peter), this lively adaptation of the 1941 comedy classic tells the story of a crime novelist (Dan Stevens) visiting an eccentric mystic, Madame Arcati (Judi Dench), in search of inspiration. She then accidentally summons the spirit of his first wife (Leslie Mann), who becomes embroiled in a hilarious love triangle with his current wife (played by Fisher). ‘Judi Dench is the greatest living actress on the planet and I was in a scene with her. I mean, that’s pretty amazing.’

Read full interview