One of the most interesting horror projects to have been announced in recent years is Orphan: First Kill. The upcoming horror film will be a prequel to Orphan, the 2009 movie which starred Isabelle Fuhrman as a grown woman who appears to look like a 9-year-old. Now, in this new prequel, Isabelle Fuhrman will attempt looking like a 9-year-old again despite being a grown woman. It’s a concept that has fans interested and anxious to see how the project turned out. Now Isabelle Fuhrman has opened up a little more about the process, and what it’s like to be a kid again.
She explained the process while speaking with THR in a new interview. Interestingly, Fuhrman noted that there aren’t any prior films where an adult actor reprised a role they played as a child. As such, this is the first film to break the mold.
Here’s what she said:
“I love the challenge of being able to play a kid because that’s never historically been done in cinema — I was like looking all this up, because I love looking up old movie history and things like that, and I was like, ‘Oh, an adult has never reprised the role that they played as a child,’ Will Smith, for example, recently did that movie [Gemini Man] where they de-age somebody, but to reprise a role that you literally did as a kid as an adult has never been done before. It’s kind of impossible. And we did it.”
She further explained that the film didn’t quite use any special effects to make the process happen either:
“We didn’t use special effects, we didn’t use any crazy makeup tricks. And I think that’s what makes the movie work, is because you really can’t figure out how I look like a [9-year-old], but I do. And it’s really creepy.
“I was there every day. I know all the tricks, and I’m so thoroughly disturbed right now, because I somehow am nine years old again, and it doesn’t make any sense… I was like, how do I revisit this part and then also convincingly play a kid? Because that was the easy part last time, the hard part was trying to be an adult. Now the hard part is I have to be kid.”
It certainly will be exciting to see Orphan: First Kill, and how well Isabelle Fuhrman reprises the role she made iconic as a child. Hopefully we’ll have more details soon. Unfortunately, the previous release date given was unconfirmed. As such, fans can stay tuned to ScreenGeek for a proper update on that front when we have it.