When you think about 2000s movies that had the most mind-blowing plot twists, you either feature 2009’s Orphan in the list or you haven’t seen it. The Jaume Collet-Serra horror film delivered a surprising twist on the “creepy kid” trope, and provided newcomer Isabelle Fuhrman with a heck of a breakout role. Now, more than a decade later, the actor stepped into the shoes of Esther once again for the upcoming Orphan: First Kill, which is set to tell the origins of the character – but the 24-year-old actress is still playing a 9-year-old version of the character. Wait, what?
Last June, Fuhrman had already stated that “people will be shocked” when they see her playing the same role that made her famous. Now, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor offers more detail about how they managed to make the reprisal convincing and, yes, it’s disturbing:
“I love the challenge of being able to play a kid because that’s never historically been done in cinema — I was like looking all this up, because I love looking up old movie history and things like that, and I was like, ‘Oh, an adult has never reprised the role that they played as a child. Will Smith, for example, recently did that movie [Gemini Man] where they de-age somebody, but to reprise a role that you literally did as a kid as an adult has never been done before. It’s kind of impossible. And we did it. We didn’t use special effects, we didn’t use any crazy makeup tricks. And I think that’s what makes the movie work, is because you really can’t figure out how I look like a [9-year-old], but I do. And it’s really creepy.”
Orphan told the story of a diabolical little girl who gets adopted and turns out to be a psychopathic killer with a rare condition that makes her look like a child. So, the challenge for 12-year-old Fuhrman at the time was to convincingly play an adult masquerading as a child. Now, the tables have turned as the adult actor has to play a child while not being one. If it sounds confusing to you, you are not alone. Furhman also shared her feelings about this in the interview:
“I was there [filming] every day. I know how we did this. I know all the tricks, and I’m so thoroughly disturbed right now, because I somehow am nine years old again, and it doesn’t make any sense… I was like, how do I revisit this part and then also convincingly play a kid? Because that was the easy part last time, the hard part was trying to be an adult. Now the hard part is I have to be a kid.”
Orphan: First Kill is directed by William Brent Bell (The Devil Inside, The Boy), with a screenplay by David Coggeshall (The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia). The prequel will follow Esther as she orchestrates a brilliant escape from an Estonian psychiatric facility and travels to America by impersonating the missing daughter of a wealthy family. As she slips into life as “Esther,” an unexpected wrinkle arises that pits her against a mother who will protect her family at any cost.
The cast of Orphan: First Kill also features Julia Stiles, Matthew Finlan, Rossif Sutherland, Hiro Kanagawa, and Morgan Giraudet.
Orphan: First Kill is yet to get a release date and trailer.