I had no idea watching this at the time, but apparently Australian actress Isla Fisher had a near-death experience while filming the 2013 blockbuster hit “Now You See Me.”
The heist-thriller which grossed $351.7 million worldwide, is arguably one of the best magician movies of all time, but one scene nearly took Isla Fisher’s life.
Let’s take a look.
Henley Reeves (Isla’s character) was performing an escape stunt inside a water tank when her chain got stuck underneath the slat.
This happened at 43s of the video.
During an interview with On Demand Entertainment, Isla revealed that this was the moment she almost drowned.
“Even though I had a quick-release magnetic you know thing on my handcuffs, the chain that went between my ankles and my wrists was simply not able to be broken and it got stuck underneath the slat and I was trapped.”
Now that I’m re-watching this whole incident unfold, I can feel the sheer terror that Isla was experiencing at the time. You can see how hard she was trying to free herself.
They thought it was good acting
The shocking part is that none of the crew members, not even the director, realized that Isla was actually drowning. When she was banging on the glass walls desperately begging for help, they all thought it was just good acting.
“Yeah, I was very scared and I was banging and saying you know set me free, but everyone just thought I was doing fabulous acting. They thought I was being Meryl Sheep actually I was drowning. All I was thinking that was me on the autopsy table bloated in a swimming costume with heels and how humiliating that would be…”
Of course, with some editing, the whole scene played out smoothly.
But little did we (the audiences) know the trauma Isla went through to make this scene a success.
No safety word or signal
I couldn’t believe it when I heard this.
Despite having sophisticated safety equipment and procedures, they forgot the most basic thing….a signal or a word to end filming in case something do go wrong.
If you go back to 52s of the above video, you can hear Isla screaming for help and also, STOP!
Not sure about you, but I think she might actually said STOP FILMING!
That’s probably the only thing she could have said to get their attention.
“I’d walk through all the safety procedures, there was a quick release you know switch that could empty the tank in 70 seconds and that all the procedures set up, but I realized we had forgotten one basic thing which is that you need a safety word or a safety signal you know to when things go wrong…”