Residents slam Isla Fisher miniseries filming on inner west streets during lockdown

A miniseries starring Isla Fisher has been slammed as ‘overly entitled’ as it films metres away from hotspot LGAs.

The filming in Sydney of a miniseries starring Isla ­Fisher has been slammed as “overly entitled” with “a false sense of security” as it goes ahead against a backdrop of lockdowns and spiralling Covid cases.

As many as 40 car spots will be barricaded on Monday as the production crew continues filming in Ashfield, in the city’s inner west for the Stan series Wolf Like Me. The six-part ­series also stars American actor Josh Gad.

Isla Fisher is starring in Wolf Like Me …

… which has been filming in Ashfield.

While crew members say they are complying with health orders, residents have gone cold at the prospect of workers travelling from all over Sydney to their quiet suburban street during a pandemic.

“They have a false sense of security and are overly entitled,” a resident said. “We are in the middle of a pandemic.”

Filming started at the location between June 9 and 11 and then June 15 to 18.

“Up to 100 people were there before,” the resident said of the June shoot.

“There were food trucks and crew coming in and out of houses.

“Of course people were coming out to have a look and spot celebrities.

Fisher and husband Sacha Baron Cohen moved their family from LA to Sydney last year.

The Victoria Square and Tintern Rd location is about a kilometre from the Wyoming Residential Aged Care Facility in Summer Hill, which has this month had a Covid-19 cluster of 20 cases and three deaths.

It is also 530m from the Canterbury Bankstown local government area, which has ADF and police routinely scouring the streets to ensure locked-down residents comply with strict rules.

Canterbury Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour said: “While Canterbury Bankstown residents are subject to a curfew and under the harshest restrictions imaginable, only a few hundred ­metres away you’ve got a film crew doing something which is non-essential”.

Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne said: “The army is ­deployed on the streets and just down the road a miniseries can shoot scenes freely in public. It’s a tale of two cities at the moment.”

Locked-down residents say the shooting in tone deaf.

Fisher getting her Covid vaccine.

The series producers said the “production is supported by the NSW government and is in compliance with Public Health Orders with strict, detailed Covid-safe measures to protect the ­safety of our crew and the community, including but not limited to regular Covid-19 testing for all crew and cast members, the provision of personal protective equipment to all crew, and limits on the numbers of ­people on set or on site”.

A NSW Health spokeswoman said people in Greater Sydney who do not live or work in an LGA of concern can attend work if it cannot be done from home.

“Film crews do not require an exemption to film if the crew members are not from LGAs of concern and filming is not taking place in LGAs of concern,” she said.

“All workplaces must put in place and follow Covid-safe plans. NSW Health recommends against any unnecessary travel or gatherings at this time.”

Originally published as Residents slam Isla Fisher miniseries filming on inner west streets during lockdown