The Untold Truth Of Isla Fisher

Isla Fisher has been around for decades, but flies somewhat under the radar compared to other celebrities of her stature. The privacy-minded Fisher got her start in Australia but came to the attention of audiences worldwide when she appeared in the 2005 comedy "Wedding Crashers." She continued to dazzle with other comedic performances, such as her leading role in "Confessions of a Shopaholic," and supporting parts in "Hot Rod," "Definitely, Maybe," and "Bachelorette." That is not to say that she can only do comedy, as Fisher has also proven skilled at handling drama ("The Great Gatsby"), horror ("Visions"), and crime capers ("Now You See Me").

Nonetheless, comedy is where Fisher shines the brightest, and her IMDb credits reflect that. In addition to her live action roles in films like "Tag" and "Keeping Up with the Joneses," Fisher is a skilled comedic voicework actor who has tackled characters in everything from "Horton Hears a Who!" to "Rango" to "Back to the Outback." As of this writing, she can be seen in the streaming series "Wolf Like Me," a comedic drama that runs on Peacock, and will next appear in "Strays," a Will Ferrell-fronted movie about abandoned dogs seeking revenge. Here are some interesting facts and untold truths about movie star Isla Fisher.

Isla Fisher has an interesting origin story that contributed to who she is, as well as her comedic sensibility. She was born in the Middle East — in Oman, to be exact — to Scottish parents who had moved there for her father's job as a United Nations Banker. She moved to Australia at age six (via Marie Claire), but the family continued to move around, which Fisher believes was good for her developing personality. "We were very transient when I was small — I went to a different school almost every year of my life until high school," she told Glass magazine in 2019. "When you're the new girl, you have to develop skills to fit in fast because you don't have those old relationships, so maybe my humor was born out of a need to make friends quickly at a new school."

Fisher's banker father and novelist mother have four other children — all boys — and Fisher has credited growing up with so many brothers (two are step brothers) as the source of a lot of her humor. She told Red that her brothers called her "Slug Face" and that she was a huge tomboy as a child. Her brothers also helped her develop the ability to face Hollywood's never-ending rejection. "I had a thicker skin when I got into show business and that may have helped with the longevity of my career."

Isla Fisher is famous in her own right, but together with her husband, "Borat" star Sacha Baron Cohen, she is one part of a true Hollywood power couple. According to Brides magazine, the duo met more than two decades ago when they both showed up at the same fancy party in Sydney, Australia, in 2001. They were engaged a few years later, but did not marry until 2010, when they had a secret wedding. In the interim, they welcomed their first child, daughter Olive in 2007. They have since had two more kids, Elula Lottie Miriam in 2011, and Montgomery Moses Brian in 2015.

Before Fisher wed Cohen, she had to convert to his religion of Judaism — something she has spoken about in many interviews. "I've always been really into family and food, so culturally it was the right fit for me," she told Women's Health, while also noting that she had to study for multiple years before the conversion. In a separate interview with the Evening Standard, conducted prior to their nuptials, she noted that she would have swapped to any religion to be with the man she loved. "I will definitely have a Jewish wedding just to be with Sacha. I would do anything — move into any religion — to be united in marriage with him," she said. Per Marie Claire, their wedding took place in Paris and was rather small, which fits with their low-profile way of life.

Isla Fisher grew up loving the outdoors, and she has continued this connection with nature as an adult. In an interview with Women's Health, she discussed how much time she spends in her garden, and how she grows her own produce like tomatoes. She also noted how her family raises chickens, presumably for their fresh eggs. It all fits with Fisher's homebody vibe and overall domesticity. In another interview, she noted cooking and baking as two things that make her happy, despite not being a "great cook" (via Red).

Though she prefers vegetarian options, Fisher does not live a no-meat lifestyle. In the interview with Red, for instance, she orders chicken on her salad. And when she spoke with Women's Health, she noted eating fish regularly for the Omega-3 in contains. That said, she strongly defaults to salads and vegetables most of the time. "I do actually like organic vegetarian food," she told Women's Health. "But the reason I prefer the veggie option is I l just love my animals too much. I can't eat anything that breastfeeds." Of note, neither chickens nor fish have mammary glands, so she's being honest about her line in the sand, no matter how odd the reasoning.

Once Isla Fisher's family settled in Australia, it did not take her long to catch the acting bug. She credits some of her interest to her mother, who was involved with community theater and who took her backstage at a young age. "My mother was actually an amateur [dramatist] when I was a kid, and I remember seeing 'Twelfth Night' when I was about four, and she was the lead in that," she told Glass magazine. "I thought, 'Ooh, this seems really exciting and fun' when I was backstage and everyone was getting their dresses and makeup done. From the time I was very young, I always liked the idea of performance, but equally, I was very shy."

That shyness seemed to subside enough by her preteens, at which point Fisher started to audition for local commercials. She told Entertainment Weekly that her first acting gig was a commercial for the lottery, which she filmed at age 12. "When you watch it I'm so small, I'm just a blur. But I was so excited," she said. Per her IMDb, she then went on to appear in a couple of small television roles, including playing Bec in the TV movie "Clowning Around 2" and Vanessa Walker in one episode of the series "Bay City."

Despite being known worldwide as a comedic actor, Isla Fisher rose to fame in her native Australia as a soap opera star. It was Isla Fisher's three episodes of "Paradise Beach" that set her up for success in soaps, even if the role did not require much. "I wore a bikini everywhere," Fisher once told Allure of the character. "To a funeral you would wear a bikini. I wore a bikini to a restaurant and had a meal in a bikini once. It was ridiculous." This small part was then followed by a three-year stint on the legendary "Home and Away," which has also launched the careers of mega-celebs like Chris Hemsworth, Naomi Watts, and Heath Ledger, amongst others.

Fisher played Shannon Reed in just under 400 episodes of the long-running soap opera, from 1994 to 1997. She credits the show with helping her learn "how to deliver bad dialogue convincingly – a skill that really helped in the early days of my career," per The Guardian. In another interview, she reiterated that the show was "a great training ground," but that three years was enough for her to get tired of it and want something new (via So Feminine). At only 21, it was time for Fisher to explore the world and herself.

After leaving her role on "Home and Away," Isla Fisher made the unexpected choice to move to Paris, France, and enroll in school. She chose the Jacques Lecoq theatre school, which she has repeatedly referred to as a "clown school" in interviews. "One of the things we worked on was embracing our [so-called flaws]," Fisher said in a Marie Claire interview. "Because I'm short, I'd wear very big clothes that would drag on the floor — and I turned that into a side gag. I learnt to embrace my size. The things I once tried to hide have ended up being the things that differentiate me." In a separate interview with So Feminine, she noted that she went there, at least in part, because it sounded "different," and she once told The Guardian that it was her education made her enjoy acting again.

Despite clown school, Fisher was going up for all dramatic parts when she first moved to Los Angeles — something that was not working for her in the slightest (per Allure). She credits her husband Sacha Baron Cohen with encouraging her to try comedy. "He said, 'Listen, you're one of the funniest people I know, why don't you go for comedy roles?'" Fisher recounted to Balance. "I certainly hadn't ever considered that being funny could actually be a job. I cringed with embarrassment when I asked my agent to put me forward for comedies, but I'm glad I found the courage."

Isla Fisher broke out in America with her supporting role in "Wedding Crashers," a 2005 comedy starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughan. The movie brought in over $200 million in domestic grosses and $288 million worldwide (per Box Office Mojo), and she won an MTV Movie Award for it. In fact, people love the movie so much that there has been talk about a possible sequel, despite the original coming out nearly two decades ago. In June 2021, Variety said the sequel was in the very early stages but that all key people, including Fisher, were on board.

While the period after "Wedding Crashers" should have been a key one in Fisher's career, she has spoken about how she struggled in the 12 months after the film came out. She told Entertainment Weekly that she got a lot of weak scripts offering her "not-funny 'girlfriend' roles" and that she passed on most things that came her way. She also lacked success at auditions for more substantial parts, as she discussed with Women's Health in 2013. "I had 12 months where I was auditioning three times a day and I didn't get a single job. That was a real low point," she said. "But with hindsight, those movies turned out to be awful, so I dodged a bullet. If I'd got any of them, I wouldn't be where I am today."

Isla Fisher and Sacha Baron Cohen have moved multiple times, much like Fisher did when she was a child. By all accounts, they were at one point settled in Los Angeles, but Fisher found balance between family and career difficult to achieve there (via Daily Mail). "There's not really a culture of bringing your kids to dinner parties or to restaurants past 6pm. I tend to entertain at home because I want to be with my family — it's easier to put your kids to bed and have a wine with friends," she said of living in Hollywood.

The family was holed up at home in Los Angeles for at least part of the COVID-19 quarantine, but that seems to have been temporary. Per the Daily Mail, they were living in Sydney, Australia, for a period before settling in Perth, Australia, where Fisher spent a good deal of her childhood. "I feel like I can be myself in Australia," Fisher told Marie Claire in 2021. "I love the people. I love the colors and the sights and the taste and the smells. And there's something about being home which is just ... it feels very magical. I miss it so much when I'm away and I have a very Australian sensibility." A Women's Health article noted that the Fisher-Cohen family also used to live in London, England, where Cohen is from, prior to moving to Australia full-time.

Isla Fisher is incredibly reluctant to discuss her private life in public, especially when it comes to talking about her children. While she will occasionally open up about married life with Sacha Baron Cohen — like when she explained that it was "love at first sight" to the Daily Mail – she rarely touches upon the topic of motherhood in interviews. In June 2021, she told Marie Claire that it is actually one of her favorite topics, but one that she prefers to discuss in private with friends and family. "Obviously, I am a mom and motherhood is the thing that I'm most proud of and it's my favorite topic in my personal life. If you were my friend and we went for coffee, you would be like 'Oh my god. All she talks about are her kids,'" Fisher once said on "The Today Show."

One big part of Fisher's anti-media strategy is regulating her children's images as best she can. Neither Fisher nor Cohen post their kids' photos on social media, and they do not take them to public events. "I want our children to have a normal childhood — being able to play outside without pressure or scrutiny," she explained to Marie Claire in 2021. "All kids have the right to just be kids, and I would never sell a film or magazine by speaking about [mine]."

For some reason, famous redheads tend to be seen as interchangeable for many audience members, and Isla Fisher has been confused for them all. In one interview with Allure, she mentioned being mistaken for Debra Messing, who is nearly a decade her senior. In particular, however, is the confusion between Fisher and fellow actor Amy Adams, which has become a long-running joke. "I find it a huge compliment because I think Amy's gorgeous," Fisher told ET. "I've been mistaken for her a couple times in my career. One of them was kind of amazing because it was Lady Gaga. She congratulated me for my performance in American Hustle."

Though they never shared the screen, both Fisher and Adams would later go on to appear in the film "Nocturnal Animals." A year later, Fisher made a hilarious fake PSA for "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," wherein she poked fun at the confusion. That's not even the funniest thing she has done, as she reportedly once swapped out her own face with that of Adams on a family Christmas card. "I cut and pasted Amy Adams' face over mine, so it was Sacha, Amy and the kids. And then we said, 'Seasons greetings from Sacha and Isla,'" she explained on "The Today Show" in a 2016 interview. "No one noticed! Everyone was like, 'Oh, your card was so cute.'" We can't help but love Fisher's sense of humor and overall playfulness.

Isla Fisher has always enjoyed writing, but it took her a while to figure out what form best suited her. She published two cheesy novels as a teenager, entitled "Bewitched" and "Seduced by Fame," and even once wrote a movie with Amy Poehler (though she told Women's Health that it likely will never get made, for whatever reason). She poked fun at her writing skills in a 2013 interview with The Guardian, not realizing what was to come. "I'd like to be a great writer, but I just have to read the Great Gatsby and I realize there's no point in putting pen to paper," she explained.

In what would perhaps be a shock to her 2013 self, Fisher has become a great writer — of children's books. Though she has downplayed her skill in interviews, like this one with Metro, Fisher's "Marge in Charge" has become a well-regarded series that may be made into a television show (via Metro). "I love acting and writing equally. I get lost in both experiences — and I get to act out all the parts in my head as I am writing," she told Barnes & Noble in an interview. "Plus writing is not such a solitary pursuit as I have wonderful consistent dialogue with my editor."

Unlike so many Hollywood actors, Isla Fisher has been real and upfront about her lack of love for the gym. She once told Cosmopolitan magazine that she has never found comfort in traditional gym activities and that she is "not very motivated by vanity." For Fisher, it appears that a lifestyle of balance is most important, and her active, on-the-go life has assured that she stays fit and trim just by living mindfully. This means incorporating things like meditation, yoga, and hiking into her usual routine (per Women's Health). "Yoga's great. It helps with posture, muscles, cardio. I do vinyasa, with lots of inversions – headstands and handstands," she explained of her three-times-a-week hobby. "And we incorporate a lot of pranayama breathing techniques. It's true, after yoga, you really do feel happier!"

Yoga also pairs well with meditation, which is something else Fisher has begun to explore since becoming a mom. In an interview with Balance, Fisher praised meditation app Headspace, which she said her husband Sacha Baron Cohen suggested to her. "'I'm hooked, but I usually do it when it's too late! By the time I get around to it, I'm already feeling the stress – which isn't healthy," she explained. "Meditation definitely works though. It quietens frantic thoughts and unlocks creativity.'" In that same interview, she said that drinking loads of water, eating clean, and sleeping well are all also important for her overall health.

Like many accomplished actors, Isla Fisher does a lot of preparation for each and every one of her roles — even the animated ones! To voice a snake in the film "Back to the Outback," Fisher studied animal behavior to make sure she understood her character appropriately. "I just did a little research on kind of the concrete stuff, like how snakes move and eat, their lifestyle," she explained in an interview with ComingSoon.net. "Then the rest of it was just kind of creating Maddie's inner world, which was really fun because she's someone who's been conditioned to believe she's this horrible thing, and she has to learn to accept who she is and not only that, but be empowered by it and lead this kind of gang of animals back to the outback."

This is perhaps a more subdued approach than how Fisher prepares for her live-action roles. For instance, not only did she study an illusionist for her role as an escapologist in the heist flick "Now You See Me," according to Glamour, but she also learned to do her own stunts, which led to her almost drowning when trapped inside a tank of water (via Cosmopolitan). Her other endeavors have been less dangerous, such as learning a posh accent to play an English woman in "Blithe Spirit," or being taught how to play drunk by "Bachelorette" co-star Kirsten Dunst.

Given her husband's massive net worth of $160 million , as reported by Celebrity Net Worth, Isla Fisher could easily rely on him to support their family of five. That said, the actor has a substantial net worth of her own, after more than two decades in Hollywood. Since Celebrity Net Worth combines Fisher's data with that of husband Sacha Baron Cohen, we had to look at other sources. The Richest puts Fisher's own net worth – discounting that of her husband – at $25 million, which sounds reasonably feasible after looking at her resume.

Her starring role in 2009's "Confessions of a Shopaholic" likely netted her a hefty salary, as we would also expect from her work in the big-budget films "Now You See Me" and "The Great Gatsby." Big voice roles can pay pretty very well, too, and Fisher has voiced characters in massive films like "Rango" and "Rise of the Guardians," both of which brought in hundreds of millions at the box office. She also makes money from writing children's books and endorsements, such as the ones she has done for ING. While we do not know exact stats, we know that Fisher's living life very comfortably, even without Cohen's contributions factored in.