Dave Franco & Isla Fisher Video Interview On ‘Now You See Me,’ Magic
Dave Franco and Isla Fisher play two members of the magician troupe The Four Horsemen in the new caper film Now You See Me. The group is being hunted by the FBI after one of their shows ends with an impossible bank robbery. Being the only woman — alongside Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg — in the Horsemen didn’t faze Fisher. “I gotta tell you, I never felt like the only woman among the Horsemen,” she told Uinterview exclusively. “These guys are just so nice. I know everyone says that when they’re promoting a movie, but every single one of the guys on this were so inclusive, and it never crossed my mind.”
Both stars have Hollywood in their family. Franco, 28, who previously appeared in 21 Jump Street, is the brother of James Franco. Fisher, 37, who is married to Sacha Baron Cohen, is best known for her role in Wedding Crashers and this summer’s The Great Gatsby.
Despite their pedigrees, both actors found that playing magicians required many nights of training. “Throughout the film, I would go home most nights and be a dork and sit in front of the TV and practice my sleight-of-hand moves for hours on end,” Franco told Uinterview. “It’s pretty phenomenal to see, seriously,” Fisher said. “He’s the real deal.”
Dave Franco: You know, we didn't have a ton of time to rehearse, but I remember my first day of rehearsal. We showed up and rather than sitting down with the director and breaking down the script and going over the character, who this guy was, they basically locked me in a room, gave me a stack of playing cards, set up a banana across the room, and told me to try and cut it in half by throwing cards at it. So I was in there for about three hours the first day. Isla Fisher: He can do that. He can do that! It's amazing; it blows your mind. Franco: But yeah, throughout the film, I would go home most nights and be a dork and sit in front of the TV and practice my sleight-of-hand moves for hours on end. Fisher: Yeah, Dave is the only one from this movie - we all, obviously, went through the same magic training and applied ourselves in the same way - but he's the only one with any natural prowess, and is actually, could be a magician. It's pretty phenomenal to see, seriously. He's the real deal.
Fisher: You know, I gotta tell you I never felt like the only woman among the Horsemen. These guys are just so nice. I know everyone says that when they’re promoting a movie, but every single one of the guys on this were so inclusive, and it never crossed my mind, and I feel like it wouldn’t have crossed [my character] Henley’s mind, and so it was kind of right for the character. Franco: Isla was the funniest one on set, too. She kept us going through those late nights. Fisher: Oh, thank you. We did play some silly games, where we would try to guess – it’s so ridiculous, but we had a good time. There were long hours. I would say shooting an action movie, having never done one before – [to Franco] well you did 21 Jump Street, so I suppose there’s some action in that. Franco: Yeah, but not like this. Fisher: I did not know how many times – I mean, you put a bag down in the movie, they shoot it from underneath the bag, from the point of view of like, a bird in the sky, from this side, from that side – you really shoot a lot, a lot, a lot.
Franco So Mark and I, we both played sports our whole lives, so we insisted on doing all of our own stunts, and it was so much fun for me. I mean, I remember while we were doing it, I remember thinking, ‘Why would I wanna do these serious drama movies where I’m crying all day when I could be flippin’ over tables and jumping down trash chutes?’ And of course I do wanna do those more serious movies as well, but in the moment it’s just – I don’t know, I love the physicality of it all, and it really takes me out of my head and I just get into it.
Fisher- He’s so good at it. I mean, Mark was also, I think, a wrestler when he was at university, but the two of them, that scene, it’s kind of one of the best action sequences and what I love about this movie is that we really didn’t rely on CGI. As Dave says, he had the skills, fortunately, and so did Mark, to make that scene look so phenomenal. I mean, I just think – I love this movie and I’m so proud of it because everything you really see us do, aside from the odd, special effect, we actually do, and a magician could do, and I think that’s what people want during the summer. They wanna be surprised and refreshed, and they want a break from the aliens and the superheroes.
Franco: So Mark and I, we both played sports our whole lives, so we insisted on doing all of our own stunts, and it was so much fun for me. I mean, I remember while we were doing it, I remember thinking, ‘Why would I wanna do these serious drama movies where I’m crying all day when I could be flippin’ over tables and jumping down trash chutes?’ And of course I do wanna do those more serious movies as well, but in the moment it’s just — I don’t know, I love the physicality of it all, and it really takes me out of my head and I just get into it. Fisher: He’s so good at it. I mean, Mark was also, I think, a wrestler when he was at university, but the two of them, that scene, it’s kind of one of the best action sequences. What I love about this movie is that we really didn’t rely on CGI. As Dave says, he had the skills, fortunately, and so did Mark, to make that scene look so phenomenal. I mean, I just think – I love this movie and I’m so proud of it because everything you really see us do, aside from the odd, special effect, we actually do, and a magician could do, and I think that’s what people want during the summer. They wanna be surprised and refreshed, and they want a break from the aliens and the superheroes.
Fisher: Oh gosh, I’m gonna go for— Franco: I think we both have to go for the hand game. Fisher: Yeah, the hand game [laughs] Franco: It’s very intricate, so try to pay very close attention. So— Fisher: We would all put our hands in, the Horsemen, and we would basically — one of us would pick a finger, and then the other person would have to guess which finger they’d picked. Franco: Very, very complex. Don’t try it at home, you might get hurt. Fisher: But this would wile away hours, and we really got so into it. Franco: Really, cumulative, like 48 hours playing the hand game, yes.
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