While you probably don’t know Isla Fisher’s name, you most likely know her face – she played the crazy girl who goes after Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers. Since then she has done a few movies and has a few more lined up, but this is the first one to arrive.
So how did you rate this role? Is this an unusual one compared to the parts that you played?
Definitely. I kind of read the script and this is a role I instantly had to audition for. This is a role I knew where I would be up against huge obstacles to get being a comedic actress, or at least being that way in the marketplace, and knowing there were X number of very celebrated, serious and better comic actresses, going in. So, it was one of those situations where I read the script and thought, “This is the take. I don’t want to play the cliché femme fatale. I don’t want to come in and be the woman with the sexual appetite, who wants to take down this man. I want to come in and make her this big beating heart, and innocent -- a woman who has no identity, who knows the man she’s with, who doesn’t have an agenda.” Because every character in the script has an agenda. I thought how interesting if Luvlee doesn’t have one -- if she’s a victim of her own kindness. So, that was my starting point. And, I did a little bit of work and went in there and thought, “They’ll either like it or hate it,” and I was lucky that Scott totally loved it.
Yeah, I built my own back story. I think she was
No, I don’t have a plan like that because I think that’s a very scary way to live your life, in any area. And so, I just read the material. I’m attracted to good dialogue, and Scott’s dialogue is just incredible. You read great dialogue and you think, “Oh, please let me say this,” instead of half the time when you’re reading, you think, “How would I even deliver that line? Who would say that line?”
No, because I didn’t want her to have any experience. That was her charm. I wanted her to see this blind guy for the first time, reach out and touch him, and have no clue how to . . . You know, the best thing about acting with people with impediments -- people with brain damage, or who are blind -- is that you, in a weird way, are so much less exposed. Jeff’s not looking at you, he’s looking around, and Joe is looking through you. In a weird way, there’s less intimacy, which I found easier. I can’t explain why. Just as a performer, I felt it was easier to tap into my emotions, and much more relaxing than the full intimacy of another acting playing [directly to you]. I really loved it.
That’s what was great about Scott. I’m not a big fan of over-working something till you know exactly who’s going to do what, at what time. We worked in a way that we discussed our back stories and how our characters felt about . . . just the history of everything. Then we kind of read things in a really gentle way and felt around them, but there was not the pressure of final product. I didn’t make any decisions in rehearsal that I knew I’d have to stick to on the day, and I left it so that my imagination was still alert, alive and excited by filming, instead of sometimes thinking, “We rehearsed for hours and I probably did it a thousand ways, and now I think that’s a wrap.” It just takes away the hunger, for me. Not all the time, but sometimes.
Well, that was interesting. That was a comedic choice that I made, that I thought, “They’ll never put that in.” That scene, to me, was like a good joke that I did on that day, to amuse myself. I did other versions of that. But, the thing in the movie, I think worked really well. I mean, you know she’s not the brightest spark in the shed -- is that the term? The sharpest tool in the shed? But, that’s really confirmed in that little moment, and I think it’s very endearing. But, I suppose it’s what you took away from it. Did you hate it?
Well, that’s something interesting about this character. Everybody feels very differently about her. And, I can see when I’m talking about her with certain journalists, that people feel that it’s not what they saw, and I think that’s what’s great about the movie.
No, I think she finds out when she sees the guns. I think she could possibly know somewhere inside her, but she’s just one of those classic characters who is in denial and goes about their lives without thinking . . .
No, no, no. I hope not.
Yes. She definitely feels guilt.
Yes. We did the scene where she tells him about seeing him at the hockey game, and I had one of those defined moments where his shoe lace just came undone during the audition, which is such a blessing because, if you get the opportunity to do something real within the structure of a fake scene, it just connects you to the reality of the truth of the scene. So, his shoe lace came undone and I was able to be really maternal and loving with him, and do it up very gently. I think that was what really helped my angle on the character.
I’m not writing Trashy Chick Lit anymore. [Laughs] I did write with Amy Poehler this treatment called ‘Groupies,’ which is a great female driven comedy that we set up at
Yeah, they did really well, at that time, for me.
Yeah. Writing is great, but you guys all know it’s also a bit anti-social. Not anti-social, but you’re alone in a room. It’s isolating. I’ve discovered that with age. I was very young when I wrote, and I wrote with my mother, so it was more collaborative, and I had a lot of help. I really love creating characters and I love following a structure. It’s exciting, writing. Acting, you’re told where to stand, what to say and you’re always being cut out of the exciting bit, where you could go anywhere and do anything with any character. Ultimately, I’m too gregarious.
I started when I was 18 with my first book. But, before that, I was always in special writing classes after school, and I had always written. My mom wrote, and I had always wanted to be a writer. But, then I just realized that I liked to play dress up too.
No. It’s totally different things.
Yeah. But, with all writing, you think on the spot, really, and then you go back and make sure it all fits together. Amy and I wrote a lot of the structure and a lot of the gags, but we hired another writer, Erica Rivinoja -- this really talented female writer who came in and wrote the actual script -- so there wasn’t as many jokes written as there was just making sure that we girls got to be funny for once, and we didn’t stand there while some boy made a joke.
No, a lot of that was improvised. But, Scott Frank’s dialogue reads like it really is happening. It’s not the same clunky stuff you normally read.
Who Bones steers away? Supposedly, it was his farmhouse. It’s unclear. You know what? You have to ask Scott Frank that. It’s either a home invasion, or it’s somebody’s distant relative who they kind of know. Whatever happens, you know that guy does not know what’s going on. That actor was so great.
Matthew’s hilarious.
Yeah, and he did a great job, didn’t he? He’s so charismatic. Matthew is similar to me, in the fact that we’re not method actors. Joe stayed in character, and had to. He had to isolate himself, in a way, in order to play such a challenging character, not that he did so at dinners in the evening. He’s the loveliest guy. I would at least stay vocally in character through the day, just to keep my American accent up. But, Matthew’s hilarious because one moment he would be Gary, this mean, hard, charismatic, dark guy, and then you’d cut and he’d be this charming English, happy guy. He was two very different people, every day.
No. I know that a lot of Australians come out to the States with those ambitions, but weirdly enough, I only came out on the back of ‘Scooby Doo’ -- for the premiere of ‘Scooby Doo.’ And then, I ended up getting representation and ended up getting a job, almost straight away. So, I was fortunate, in that I didn’t have to come out to
I don’t really live here. I live 50% of the time in
I don’t know. I didn’t grow up in those other places. But, I definitely think that
Yeah.
I lived there for 9 months, just till I was 9 months old.
It’s essentially two girls who . . . It’s a little like ‘Dumb and Dumber’ with two women. We’re these really deluded, over-confident, dumb dumbs who fall in love with the band, and we believe that they share the same love for us. [Laughs] And, we run their fan club. It’s called ‘Groupies,’ and we are the world’s worst groupies, but we think that we are king of the mountain.
We’re the worst groupies because we never get into the VIP section, even though we’ve been going for 15 years. The band have restraining orders out on us and we have no idea. We think that they love us. It’s a classic, very broad comedy idea.
No. During ‘Wedding Crashers,’ I had a lot of women come up to me and say, “Your character in that movie is exactly the same as me. It’s so good to see it.” And, I was like, “Okay!” That was the only thing that was interesting to me -- how many women really related to Gloria. When I was reading Gloria, she was so absurdly mad, it was amazingly funny. That’s where all the comedy came from. So, to meet people who proudly owned those characteristics was definitely amusing.
I don’t know yet.
Not yet.
Thank you!
I don’t see why not. There’s no plans, but I think all couples really end up collaborating on things anyway. We help each other out. I happen to love reading scripts, so I do a lot of script reading. [Laughs] But, yeah, I don’t see why not.
I guess it’s like anyone who has a relationship with someone who does things that create situations. I try not to think about it.
Joseph said that when you came on the set in
There were no women.
There were a lot of men, and it was just me. I’m lucky I grew up with brothers, so I’m very comfortable in that role. And, I definitely got very good at pool. My pool got better.
I think it always depends on the men. Nobody in this movie had that frat boy humor that isolated women. There was no misogynism. That can happen in movies where the boy’s club happens, and it’s very isolating. I’ve definitely experienced that. But, that wasn’t the case. Every man in this movie, starting with the captain of the ship, Scott Frank, is extraordinarily intelligent and sensitive and respectful of all human beings. So, I never really felt any different from anyone else.
I don’t know. No, ‘cause Tinsel [Korey] worked with me a lot -- the girl who plays Maura in the movie. So, she was with me and we all spent a lot of time [together]. I’ve got to say, I don’t really know how they saw me. It definitely didn’t stand out to me. It’s only now, that you mention it, that it does dawn on me that I was the only girl.
Hell, yeah. I’m from
I have a movie called ‘Hot Rod.’ And then, after that, I have a movie called ‘Definitely, Maybe’ with Rachel Weisz and Abigail Breslin.
I haven’t seen the movie yet. I’m very excited to see it. I think I’m going to get to see the movie either this week or next week, so I’m very excited.