Isla Fisher: Instagram is toxic for children and filled with fake news – The Independent

Isla Fisher has a solution to the problem of dodgy landlords, though admittedly it may not be one available to everyone: rent a house from Jennifer Aniston instead. Back in the mid-2000s, the Australian star of Wedding Crashers, Now You See Me and Confessions of a Shopaholic was in need of an LA home to share with her then-boyfriend, now-husband Sacha Baron Cohen. A dinner with Courteney Cox led the pair to her Friends co-star, who happened to have a spare abode.

She was the nicest landlady, Fisher says. When we arrived, shed left a basket the size of a desk and in it were flowers, fruits and the sweetest handwritten note. There were magazines and I think she put a book in it? Id rented countless apartments and Id just never, ever had a landlady or landlord even say hi to me. I couldnt believe it if you can rent from Jennifer Aniston, you absolutely should.

That Fisher can make a line like that last one not only non-maddening but sweet and funny is a credit to her innate buoyancy. Then again, the 46-year-old is so quick to self-deprecation that you barely have time to notice if she says something starry. When she asks me not to publicise where she and her family are currently living, she acknowledges that its not the usual thing to do. Its for security, Im just a worrier, she sighs. Similarly, when she pops up for a few seconds on her Zoom camera before switching it off entirely, she admonishes herself with a joke. I have no make-up on and Im also 105 years old. Its not the greatest. I do typically try to look presentable when attempting to sell my TV show. Shes naturally disarming. I imagine everyone who meets her is convinced shell be their new best friend. Until that happens, though, we must make do with her work.

Fishers TV show is Wolf Like Me (soon to air in the UK on Prime Video); its a genre-bending dramedy about a boy, a girl and the werewolf she turns into every full moon. She plays Mary, a traumatised advice columnist in Adelaide, who mysteriously smashes into the car of widower Gary (Josh Gad). Gad and Fisher are somewhat cast against type: there are laughs here, but theyre deliberately subtle. I was taken aback by how moving the show is, and the sense of operatic urgency that writer/director Abe Forsythe grants it. There are emotive voiceovers, sweeping vistas and lots of running. Wolf Like Me is about the horrors of new love, and what happens when two broken people seem fated to be together.

Were so used to seeing romcoms where were only given the nice bits of people connecting, Fisher explains. It feels quite original. Love is scary! Once you give somebody your heart and they give theirs, obviously youre completely vulnerable. The show is more an exploration of love mixed with shame and fear. Fisher says she gravitates towards characters with secrets, but I also enjoyed playing Mary because shes so lonely. Im super gregarious, I love people, I socialise whenever I can. Marys the total opposite of me, and shes got all this baggage and doesnt feel safe being around people

Its at this point that Madame Tiny Paws has had enough. Fisher gasps. OK, so while Im talking to you, our cat has just got up on two legs and opened the door in front of me. Shes actually taken it upon herself to Houdini the s*** out of this room. She breaks into laughter. Even in our household, where everyone has such big personalities, somehow Madame Tiny Paws is the boss. Honestly, you should just chat to her. Im sure itd add some real dimension to this interview.

Josh Gad, Isla Fisher and a bag of bloody meat in Wolf Like Me

(Mark Rogers/Prime Video)

Few of Fishers characters would ever cede the spotlight like that. Her creations tend to have the energy of a drunk stranger in a nightclub bathroom, people as startlingly deranged as they are wise. Wedding Crashers, Shopaholic and the pitch-black comedy Bachelorette cast her, respectively, as a nymphomaniac, a credit card junkie and a cocaine fiend, all of whom rattle with manic desperation. Youd think theyd be more well-regarded, but like most kinds of character comedy, they typically fly under the radar. Particularly when it comes to major awards bodies.

Comedy is the most vulnerable sort of performance, she says. If you miss the mark, theres nothing to catch you. Its not like drama, yet comedy just isnt considered equal to it, particularly in the eyes of the Oscars. She reels off an embarrassingly long list of great comic performances that didnt crack the Academy Awards: Emily Blunt in The Devil Wears Prada, Regina Hall in Scary Movie, Goldie Hawn in bloody everything. So many mainstream comedies have these fantastic performances, and yet they dont get the love they deserve.

Slapstick, mime, making a funny face: theres just something about that I enjoy more than anything

She expresses disappointment at interviews in the past that have ignored how she does what she does. Usually it tends to be [questions] about when I last saw an infinity pool, or details about my husband. Without sounding like a luvvie and getting all thespian, I did go to clown school. I studied with Jacques Lecoq, whos a phenomenal clown teacher. He taught me to think about how [my characters] walk and talk its like putting on a costume, and doing that then informs all the internal work. You prepare and you prepare, and you try to be as meticulous as you can.

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Is there an element of sexism to peoples lack of curiosity about female comedy acting? Its really complicated I sort of dont want to weigh in on it because then it becomes the quote. She remembers years ago telling a journalist that its unfair that women are so often cast in comedies as the straight-woman who rolls her eyes at the overconfident, dumb-dumb guy. But then it trailed her. It just proliferated the internet, and I was always having to give interviews about it. Things feel better today, she says, both in the industry and during interviews. I love being asked more meaningful questions about what I actually think about things. And hopefully, even though Im deeply proud of and completely in love with my beautiful husband and family, Ill be asked about more than that [too]. I surreptitiously scribble out the Borat questions from my notepad.

Fisher, Lizzy Caplan and Kirsten Dunst in 2012s pitch-black comedy Bachelorette'

(Gary Sanchez Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock)

As I keep accidentally reminding her throughout our conversation, Fisher has been around for a while. Long before she broke out as Shaggys hippie girlfriend in Scooby-Doo in 2002, shed become famous in 1994 playing the perpetually unlucky Shannon Reed on Home and Away. In 1997, she moved to the UK to find work here. I assume her late-Nineties London era where she made BBC One comedy dramas with Amanda Holden and dated Darren Day were her lost years. I wouldnt say they were my most focused years professionally, she says. It was that classic period of your life where youre just trying to work out your identity. I definitely didnt have my wings clipped in London. I remember doing a lot of West End theatre, and, honestly, just having a great time in pubs.

She was also learning, travelling back and forth between London and Paris to study at clown school. While shed always made people laugh moving schools and countries a lot thanks to a UN worker father meant humour became a defence mechanism she didnt train as a clown for that reason. Really, she just loved Geoffrey Rushs performance as the pianist David Helfgott in Shine (1996). I found out he studied with Jacques Lecoq, so I thought, Hey, I have to study with Jacques Lecoq, too! Im the new Geoffrey Rush, I thought. She quickly interrupts herself. Im kidding oh god, please dont print Isla Fisher: Im the new Geoffrey Rush! Because that is exactly not what I thought. I just wanted to one day be able to physicalise my comedy like that. Slapstick, mime, making a funny face: theres just something about that I enjoy more than anything.

All of that being said, she didnt realise she was a natural comedian until Cohen pointed it out to her. My husband said, Youre the funniest person I know you should be doing comedy, and before that it just never crossed my mind. This was shortly after they got together in 2001. They married in 2010, and have three children. Fisher makes a point not to talk about her family in interviews, but does mention Cohen occasionally in conversation, and often posts pictures of him to her Instagram. But in an echo of her husbands crusade against social media companies in 2019 he called Facebook the greatest propaganda machine in history she has problems with the platform as a whole.

Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher at the 2018 Vanity Fair Oscar party

(Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

We all know what Instagram is, she sighs. Its toxic for children and [for] the proliferation of fake news. They dont have to meet publishing standards, it appeals to our base instincts. Actually, Im being gentle Instagram increases bullying and fear of missing out and leads to anxiety and depression. So, obviously, I am no fan of Instagram. I try to focus as much as possible on [posting] work-related stuff, and not posting anything personal. Sometimes Ill post, like its Valentines Day today, so I may post something later on

A few hours after we speak, I visit Fishers Instagram and see that she has indeed posted a Valentines message to her husband. Sacha, you are my rock, she writes, alongside a blurry photograph of a rock shaped like a massive erection. It is deeply silly, quirkily romantic, and maybe more revealing of the humour at the heart of their chemistry than anything she might have said out loud. Love is scary, but it can also be funny.

Wolf Like Me can be streamed on Prime Video from 25 February

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Isla Fisher: Instagram is toxic for children and filled with fake news - The Independent