Isla Fisher reveals her final thought when she almost drowned after movie stunt went ‘horribly wrong’
Isla Fisher revealed what her final thoughts were when she almost drowned while filming a stunt for a popular mystery-thriller.
The Australian actress played an illusionist assistant named Henley Reeves in the 2013 blockbuster.
The movie follows a group of four illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances, rewarding their audiences with the money.
And it was a stunt in the opening scene that almost saw Fisher lose her life.
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We are, of course, talking about Now You See Me.
The glamorous escapologist appears chained to the bottom of a tall water tank, with pirañas circling above her.
In the scene, Reeves manages to free herself from the shackles before realising that her chains are trapped between the grates at the bottom of the tank.
So, it's expected that the Australian actress would appear quite distressed at this point.
But she wasn't acting at all; she was actually fearing for her life.
The actress admitted that her chains actually became trapped while shooting the scene underwater for two-and-a-half minutes.
She started frantically banging on the walls of the tank to alert the crew, but they thought she was acting.
You can watch the scene below:
But there was one thing on her mind as Fisher began to accept her fate.
She previously told press: "Not in a swimming costume. No one wants to go in a swimming costume.''
Fisher explained in a Rotten Tomatoes commentary uploaded to YouTube that she was unable to reach a safety button, or 'kill switch', which would have drained the thousands of gallons of water from the tank in 70 seconds.
"They had a guy who was off camera, but he was a long way away with a can of oxygen... by the time I realised I couldn't get up and beckoned for him, I realised that I had run out of air," she went on.
"Luckily, I managed to get free and stay level-headed and got out before it went even more horribly wrong."
While such stunts are usually performed by highly-trained professionals, Fisher opted to do this one herself.
She told Cosmopolitan in 2013: "I don't see myself as particularly brave. If something terrifies me, I am going to do it.
"The director (Louis Leterrier) said to me, 'Wow. I've worked with so many actors on big action movies, and you're the only one who's done all their own stunts'."
She added: "I said, 'I didn't know I had a choice'. I thought you just had to get on with it. It's the Australian way!''
Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity, Hollywood
Ellie Kemp