After terrorizing a family in 2009, Esther is back this Wednesday at the cinema to make you tremble in “Esther 2: The Origins”. Focus on Isabelle Fuhrman, who takes over the role of Esther 13 years after the first film.
In 2009, the spectators met Esther, an orphan who, under her innocent airs, sowed death around her. This Wednesday, the killer is back in theaters in Esther 2: Origins, still played by Isabelle Fuhrman. The 25-year-old actress returns to the role that made her famous.
Daughter of a former political candidate and business consultant and a journalist emigrated from the USSR, she made her film debut at the age of ten in Hounddog (2007). But it was two years later that she made her mark by playing the title role of Esther. She is a 9-year-old child adopted by a couple who, behind her pigtails and her angelic air, hides dark intentions. Jaume Collet-Serra’s feature film seduces audiences and critics alike and establishes the character of Esther among the most disturbing killers in cinema’s short pants.
We find the actress in 2012 in Hunger Games, where she is one of the participants of this deadly game. If the roles do not come to miss thereafter, Isabelle Fuhrman has difficulty, however, to reconnect with the success of her debut. She appears in the Masters of Sex series and shines in various genres, from comedy (Good Girls Get High) to romance (One Night) to thriller (The Novice). She nevertheless remains faithful to the horror that revealed her, with productions like Don’t Let Me Go, Cell Phone, Blackwood, boarding school and The Last Thing Mary Saw.
Warner Bros. France / Olivier Borde / Bestimage
It is finally in 2022 that the actress is talked about again with Esther 2: The Origins. In this prequel, we follow Esther’s arrival in America after her escape from a mental institution. Aged 23 at the time of filming, Isabelle Fuhrman had to take up the challenge of looking even younger than in the 2009 film!
A challenge that did not discourage the actress, as she says in an interview with the site Morgue street : “You know, I felt from the start, especially after reading the script, that I loved – I loved the twists, the twists, the excitement that it provided – that I had to come back and play this role, that no one else could play. And to do that, I realized that I really had to get back to who I was when I was 10.”
To give the illusion of being a little girl, she sometimes had to squat, while her playmates were sometimes made to wear platform shoes. For wide shots, she was doubled by two young actresses, Kennedy Irwin and Sadie Lee. Isabelle Fuhrman told the HollywoodReporter not having used digital effects but only make-up and forced perspective filming techniques. Does the illusion work? Answer from this Wednesday in theaters.