I, Isla

For more than two decades she’s been charming Hollywood with glamour and giggles, but life hasn’t always been a laugh for Isla Fisher. After learning to rise above rejection, she’s built a career and a family on her own terms, writes Caz Tetaz

- Caz Tetaz

Chateau Marmont is Hollywood’s bastion of secret trysts, notorious tantrums and decadent parties, but mid afternoon on a Tuesday in March, it’s subdued. The first day of spring has brought the threat of rain, and it’s quiet on the patio as I sit among the palms and rattan chairs, scrolling through Isla Fisher’s Instagram.

It’s not the carefully curated account you might expect from a movie star. In between shots from events and film sets are pictures of a “vagina lemon” from her garden, a fence of bras from a motorhome trip around New Zealand and a failed Thanksgiving gingerbread turkey. Hashtags include #polishingtheturd, #braggyoldfishtits and #rockinglastnightsmakeupallday. The self-crowned “ginger ninja” doesn't believe in filters. As long-term friend Naomi Watts confirms, “Everything she says is uncensored.”

Fisher appears suddenly behind a window, a burst of colour in a flowing Kate Spade New York dress and Alice and Olivia blazer, her red hair in a loose braid. She gestures to come inside as she sits back among the green velvet chairs and gold-flecked mirrors, at home amid the old Hollywood glamour.

Although she is often self deprecating about her roles, and jokes about being mistaken for Amy Adams, Fisher, 42, is one of the hardest-working actresses in Hollywood. She’s been in demand for over 20 years, starring in films such as Confessions of a Shopaholic; Definitely, Maybe; and Now You See Me, and working with top directors David O. Russell (I Heart Huckabees), Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals) and Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby).