Now You See Me Isla Fisher Interview

Isla Fisher  joined co-star Jesse Eisenbrg in London for a Q&A event to promote their magical new film Now You See Me. The film has already worked it’s magic on the US Box Office prompting immediate talk of a sequel. Here’s what famously flame haired star Isla had to say:

How would you describe Now You See Me?

It’s a heist movie, it’s an action thriller. It’s a little Ocean’s Eleven meets The Prestige, with the illusions being these crimes were committing.

Tell us a bit about your character?

I play Henley she’s an escapologist, her role in the four horsemen is to get them out of tricky situations.

How much personality did you add to the character that wasn’t in the script?

We didn’t want to step on the fact the four horsemen were this like mysterious, illusive and enigmatic group. They’re morally ambiguous so we didn’t want to add too much character, but we wanted to add some spice so you got a bit of comedy in there too.

What made working with your director Louis Leterrier special?

Just how comfortable he was with us improvising and coming up with ideas. The way he sot the movie the camera was moving at all times. It was sometimes on a wire it was other times on a crane, but it was always transient. So it was a liberating experience because he was moving the camera around so much, so we got so many takes and got to try a million different things. We got very comfortable being on stage by the end, despite Jesse and I both not naturally being that comfortable on stage.

What can people expect form the Magic in the film?

I know people haven’t seen the movie yet but there’s a phenomenal magic trick in there that was all David Copperfield’s idea. It’s the bubble trick, it’s actually one of he few magic tricks in the movie that’s CGI and not a trick you can actually do. But the technology is being developed and it will be a magic trick that you will be able to perform soon. That was definitely something which came from David Copperfield’s imagination.

How did you train for the role?

I studied a lady magician called Dorothy Dietrich. She was the first American lady magician to catch a bullet between her teeth. That wasn’t something I practiced at home, despite probably a lot of people wanting me to.

Did you ever have a trick go wrong on set?

As you can see in the trailer I’m in a tank at one point chained underwater, which of course is not a dream come true for any actress. I actually ran out of oxygen when we were shooting that and my chain got stuck and I thought I was going to die in a swimming suit, bloated behind glass. So that was pretty awful. I didn’t have a signal to let people know I was in trouble, that’s how it went wrong. I doggy paddled down to the bottom and set myself free, so in the end it all turned out okay. I didn’t know I could have a stunt person until the very end of the shoot.

How good are you and the rest of the cast at magic now?  Who is the best?

I think I could definitely do a kids party for 5 year olds and Jesse could do one for 10 year olds. Jesse has some skills. Dave Franco is amazing; he can chop a banana in half by throwing a playing card. He could make you a fruit salad if he was here right now. Jesse was great too but Dave picked up the dexterity really quickly. Woody Harrelson is a mentalist in the movie and he kept reading everybody’s minds. At the beginning it was super annoying. He was always like “Hey Isla.. think of a number between one and ten” and I was like “Woody, please stop!”. Mark Ruffalo actually got Woody really well with a practical joke. Woody believed he’d hypnotised Mark into thinking everything was the colour blue, Mark played along a bit but I guess he was only pretending. So we had some laughs on set. I’d say I was the weakest magician of all because I don’t have the stamina to keep something going. I tried with the ping pong ball, I tried with the cards but then I got super frustrated and just gave up.

Why do you think people love magic so much?

I think we live in very uncertain, crazy world to believe in an overriding force that could equalize things is a very alluring concept spiritually. It’s nice having something you can’t solve that feels greater than you. It’s a nice notion.

What’s it like working with Woody and Jesse in particular?

The two of them are so talented together it’s like watching Laurel and Hardy or something, they’re just perfect together. We would just watch them and laugh sometimes on set it was great.

The film has a complex plot; did you find it easy to follow when you read the script?

I was occasionally a bit confused even during shooting about how we were able to pull of some things. Our character’s the horsemen are robbing banks and giving money back to the audience through these illusions.

We heard you re-shot some parts of the film, is there anything you’re happy changed?

I was a bit uncomfortable with some things originally. The writing was a bit too on the nose at times. For example they had this scene in the movie where we were giving money back to people in New Orleans whose homes were missing. But we were saying specifically about hurricane Katrina.

We’ve also just seen you on Arrested Development, how much fun was it juggling romances with Michael Cera and Jason Bateman on season 4?

Don’t forget I also made out with Will Arnett’s character too! They did not tell me when I took the gig exactly how much whoring my character would do! There are still a few members of the Bluth family I haven’t made out with yet… but not many.

Are we going to see the resolution of that love triangle in season 5 or perhaps an Arrested Development movie?

Netflix won’t reveal the numbers of how many people watched it. Allegedly it was a huge success, that’s what it’s reported to be. When we shot it all Mitch kept saying this is what we’re going to do in the movie this is how your character is going to get resolved. Obviously I can’t reveal how it would work out but yeah I would love to make the movie of that, I had such a great time on that show.

 Now You See Me will be magically appearing in cinemas across the UK on 3rd July. 

Matthew Morrison West End Live Interview

Red Carpet News TV caught up with Glee star Matthew Morrison while he was attending this year’s West End Live 2013 celebration in Trafalgar Square. Matthew told us why he thought it was important to be a part of the annual two day free concert event, featuring performances of top West End musical shows.

Matthew also admitted that he’s thinks his charming Glee character Will should maybe be looking after a few kids of his own in season 5. He also spoke about his recent amazing live performance at this year’s Oliver Theatre Awards ceremony.

Exclusive video clip below:

Sopranos Star James Gandolfini Dies in Italy

Actor James Gandolfini, best known for his Emmy Award winning role as Mob boss Tony Soprano, has tragically died of a presumed heart attack while on holiday in Italy.

The stars managers Mark Armstrong and Nancy Sanders released a statement confirming the news:

“It is with immense sorrow that we report our client James Gandolfini passed away today while on holiday in Rome Italy. Our hearts are shattered and we will miss hoi deeply. He and his family were part of our family for many years and we are all grieving”.

Gandolfini’s Sopranos co-star Joe Gannascoli expressed his own shock and sadness at the news

“James was Fifty-one and leaves a kid – he was newly married, His son is fatherless now. It’s way too young.”

The Sopranos was a huge television landmark, running from 1997-2007 on HBO, the American television network released its own statement following the news.

“He will be deeply missed. He was a special man, a great talent, but more importantly a gentle and loving person who treated everyone no matter their title or position with equal respect. He touched so many of us over the years with his humour, his warmth and his humility.”

Isla Fisher Talks Arrested Development Plans

Red Carpet News spoke to beautiful Australian actress Isla Fisher during a London Q&A event to promote her magical new heist movie Now You See Me and asked the flamed haired star about the future of Arrested Development.

Isla played Ron Howard’s fictitious illegitimate daughter Rebel Alley on Netflix’s rebooted 4th season and found herself juggling onscreen relationships with both Michael Cera and Jason Bateman.

We asked whether we’d be seeing that Bluth father & son love triangle resolved in a movie or a 5th season and here’s what Isla had to say:

“Netflix won’t reveal the numbers of how many people watched it. Allegedly it was a huge success, that’s what it’s reported to be. When we shot it all Mitch kept saying was this is what we’re going to do in the movie this is how your character is going to get resolved. Obviously I can’t reveal how it would work out but yeah I would love to make the movie of that, I had such a great time on that show.”

On the subject of her character’s complicated romance with the Bluth boys she added:

“Don’t forget I also made out with Will Arnett’s character too! They did not tell me when I took the gig exactly how much whoring my character would do! There’s still a few members of the Bluth family I haven’t made out with yet… but not many.”

While carefully avoiding plot spoilers, obviously it seems pretty clear that the shows creator Mitch Hurwitz still remains committed to plans to follow the 4th season with a movie as opposed to a another series.

Interviews below with the cast from the Arrested Development Netflix London Premiere:

Jesse Eisenberg Wants Zombieland Sequel

Red Carpet News caught up with Jesse Eisenberg at a London Q&A event to promote magical new heist movie Now You See Me and asked the fast talking star about whether or not a sequel to 2009 cult hit Zombieland could still be on the cards.

Amazon recently commissioned a pilot episode of a spin off TV series but due to a fiercely negative reaction from fans of the movie version they dropped the project. This lead Zombieland creator Rhett Reese to take to Twitter to publicly vent his dismay and confusion at the fact diehard Zombielad fans had “successfully hated it out of existence”.

Here’s what Jesse had to say about the prospect of a sequel:

“We wanted to do a sequel to Zombieland but then they tried to do a TV series instead. Then someone told me the TV series was cancelled so maybe it will happen again. Although it seems like maybe you wouldn’t want to do a movie after a TV series. Zombieland was originally written as a TV series so it made sense that they wanted to try to make it into a show. But they should have made a sequel I think!”

Whether co-stars Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin feel as enthusiastic about another big screen trip to Zombieland remains to be seen. It’s also unclear if the fan backlash against the TV series will ultimately help or hinder any potential sequel plans.

Though the painful failure of the TV series might cause creator Reese to focus efforts on a second movie instead, there’s an obvious danger that studios might mistake the fan backlash against the small screen reboot as a perceived lack of enthusiasm franchise. When in truth fans were only disappointed that the production value and casting of the pilot didn’t quite live up to the high standards set by the movie.

Let us know what you think in the comments and what you’d like to see from a Zombieland 2.

Bonus Gallery of Pictures of Jesse Eisenberg & Isla Fisher below from the Q&A: