Isla Fisher on Christmas comedy Godmothered, lockdown maths and how she survives a Borat film

Aussie star Isla Fisher reveals why she signed up for Christmas movie Godmothered and how she copes with husband Sacha Baron Cohen’s outrageous antics.

For all the many challenges brought by the pandemic, Isla Fisher had an added difficulty: surviving another Borat movie.

While most of the world bunkered down and the vast majority of TV and film productions were shuttered, Fisher’s husband Sacha Baron Cohen was raising hell in Trump’s America as the intrepid Kazakh reporter, baiting racists at gun rallies, scandalising Southern society and punking the President’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

But rather than worry about his outrageous — and sometimes downright dangerous — antics before one of the most volatile US elections ever, Fisher says she slept soundly thanks to their don’t-ask, don’t-tell policy.

“I am lucky in that I am not privy to the information usually until it happens,” she says, via Zoom call from her LA home. “So, I don’t see he was at a gun rally until he was home safe. I think he has learned the hard way if he gives me the information upfront then I put the kybosh on it. I find out what happens afterwards and that’s how I sleep at night — otherwise I would be too worried.”

Isla Fisher as Mackenzie and Willa Skye as Mia in a scene from Godmothered.

If anything, lockdown proved to be a restful experience for Fisher and her three children, Olive, Elula and Montgomery, with the additional family time also giving her time to brush up on her educational skills.

“I feel like I have mastered grade 3 long division, something I didn’t do when I was in grade 3,” she says with a laugh. “And I suppose just the slowing down and the looking around and taking small moments we maybe took for granted and finding pleasure in them.”

Since this interview, Fisher and Baron Cohen have been spotted in Sydney, leading to speculation of a move to the city in which they met 20 years ago. She’s viewed the way the crisis has been handled here compared with her adopted home with no small amount of pride.

“It’s brilliant how Australia has handled COVID and New Zealand. It’s fantastic and I am very proud to be Australian.”

Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher have been seen in Sydney, raising speculation of a move back to Australia. Picture: Valeria Macon / AFP)

Coronavirus nearly put paid to Fisher’s new family Christmas comedy, Godmothered, which was shut down with two days of shooting left but with enough already in the can that it could be completed. In a modern twist on the traditional fairy-tale scenario, proud feminist Fisher plays a single mother who is visited by an enthusiastic but inept fairy godmother (Jillian Bell), who takes it upon herself to magic up a “happily ever after”.

“I think it was just so wonderful to be on a lady-centric set,” Fisher says. “It was a lot of women, a female director and a story that subverts the genre of a fairy tale in the traditional sense and allows the idea that one doesn’t need a castle, a prince and a dress to live happily ever after.”

Jillian Bell plays an enthusiastic but amateur fairy godmother opposite Isla Fisher in Godmothered.

In addition to being a family-friendly Christmas comedy, it’s also a rather pointed and timely critique about media and social media, and Fisher says if she was granted one wish by a fairy godmother it would be “the death of fake news”. Although she has 1.6 million Instagram followers, which she has used to promote film projects and encourage Americans to vote, she’s critical of social media for spreading misinformation and hate speech.

“They need to be regulated … and people need to take responsibility. Social media is now how we get our news and it’s totally unacceptable that anybody can say anything.

“We have to have a common sense of what is a fact and what is not a fact, otherwise we have these mad conspiracy theorists taking over the planet and we are going to have a vaccine that people say ‘oh, I can’t take this vaccine’ because of whatever reason and that needs to be stopped now.”

Godmothered streams on Disney+ from Friday