Isla Fisher says she was proud to channel her inner Australian bogan to portray her character Mel in her latest movie Spa Weekend.
The Perth-raised, now UK-based actress was convinced by directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore — writers of The Hangover and Bad Moms — to act in her native accent to bring an Aussie flavour to the new comedy.
The film follows three friends — Leslie Mann, Anna Faris and Michelle Buteau — who go on a spa weekend that descends into chaos when their trainwreck friend (Fisher) joins, leading to hilarious consequences.
“I definitely was channelling a lot of people from my childhood,” Fisher told The Daily Telegraph of the role.
“There’s something about Aussie women. We’re just tough. We play dirty – and so there’s been something fun about playing Mel with that backdrop of how I was raised and bringing that kind of redneck, bogan, Perth-Aussie thing into this quite uptight American puritanical group.”
Shot in Queensland, Fisher was welcomed with open arms from her fellow Aussie locals and crew. Fisher’s return Down Under was so well received Buteau went as far as to label her “the red-headed Beyoncé of Australia”.
“It was amazing,” she told the outlet. “Everyone was like ‘Oh hello, Isla’. I got treated how American actors get treated in America. It felt so good.”
At the movie’s Las Vegas premiere on August 7, the Confessions of a Shopaholic star shared insight into her personal life one year after finalising her divorce from Sacha Baron Cohen.
“I’m much stronger than I thought I was, and I would say that my friendships, my female friendships, have really been instrumental to me discovering or recovering that strength,” she told E! News.
“I’m incredibly grateful.”
The former couple were married for 13 years and share three kids together.
Spa Weekend is officially showing in Aussie cinemas on Thursday with early preview screenings rolling out on Wednesday.
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