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Name That Redhead: Amy or Isla?

Name that copperhead.

18 comments

Name That Redhead: Amy or Isla?

POSTED: Friday, February 13, 2009, 11:28 AM

Carrie Rickey, Film Critic

Name that copperhead.

One of these adorable ingenues is Isla Fisher, the overzealous bridesmaid who snares Vince Vaughn in "The Wedding Crashers" and the title character in "Confessions of a Shopaholic," opening today.

The other is Amy Adams, the fairytale princess who falls down a well and comes up a manhole in "Enchanted," who gets romanced by Ryan Reynolds in "Definitely, Maybe" and plays the novice in "Doubt."

I've confused the two ever since I saw "Talladega Nights" and thought the cute redhead was Fisher and then the credits i.d.'ed her as Adams.

This is how to tell them apart: Adams (on the left) is wide-eyed and demure, Fisher (on the right) wild-eyed and unstable in a Lucille Ball way.

They both make me laugh. You? Other actors you confuse?

18 comments

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Comments (18)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:31 AM, 02/25/2009

The critic James Agee liked to use "a dish" to describe the women on screen who bewitched him. It's an expression that fits both Amy and Isla.

— Pash

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:32 PM, 02/20/2009

Juliette Binoche: French. Julia Ormond: English. Both pretty brunettes whose names start in Juli-. Juliette starred with Johnny Depp in Chocolat; Julia with Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall. (She also has a cameo in Benjamin Button.) Julia has an Oscar as the nurse who tends to Talph Fiennes in "The English Patient."

— carrierickey

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:42 PM, 02/18/2009

Binoche was in The English Patient. This one is easy: Binoche is French and Ormond English. Tho Ormond played Brad Pitt's daughter in "Benjamin Button" and the woman who loved in in "Legends of the Fall.

— carrierickey

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:55 PM, 02/17/2009

I often confuse Juliette Binoche and Julia Ormond. To me they look a lot alike and I always forget which one was in The English Patient.

— allison811

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:11 PM, 02/15/2009

Hmm, you know, I like writers like you. I was being a jerk and you put me in my place without even getting nasty. Kudos.

— MGreen27

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:18 AM, 02/15/2009

i used to confuse rob lowe and myself ALL the time. so i came up with this handy little device to remember who was who: rob has a great career, looks and money. i, on the other hand, am from philly. simple!

— skipintro

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:48 AM, 02/15/2009

Mgreen, You're right, I'm wrong -- I did consult the essntial imdb -- and subconsciously transposed the filmographies -- which both proves the point, and how despite best efforts, I made a mistake. Thanks.

— carrierickey

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:47 AM, 02/14/2009

EYE-la

— carrierickey

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:55 PM, 02/13/2009

Wait, this is a joke right? You must know that it was Isla Fisher in "Definitely Maybe". An IMDB search will really help with these simple questions and I highly recommend it before writing inane articles like this.

— MGreen27

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:37 PM, 02/13/2009

on the topic of redheads ..... though not necessarily confused ones .... i just wanted to add that one o' cinema's most va-va-voomish reds, Rita Hayworth, made it happen in B&W.

— bob ickes

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:34 PM, 02/13/2009

i think it's curious that one o' cinema's most smoldering redheads, Rita Hayworth, made her name via B&W

— bob ickes

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:17 PM, 02/13/2009

I used to confuse Sam Waterston and David Strathairn until Waterston became boxed in as Jack McCoy on L&O. And some of those British gentlemen of a certain age get a bit mixed up in my casting brain... for example Brian Cox and Albert Finney seem to look more and more alike as they age. Or is it just me? And even on a bad day, Sir Ian McKellen can veer over to that neck of the woods... Or maybe I just need a new prescription. Whaddya think, Carrie? Time for a visit with my optometrist?

— Rolando Teco

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:12 PM, 02/13/2009

I confuse John Heard and William Hurt.

— curtandsheila

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:55 PM, 02/13/2009

What I need to know is, How do I pronounce Fisher's first name? Eela? Eyela? Izla? No clue. And I'd like to know, since she was very funny in "Wedding Crashers." As far as actors I confuse, for many years I thought John Payne, of "Miracle on 34th Street" fame, was nothing more than a typo for John Wayne. When I finally saw "34th Street," I was surprised to discover he was his own separate person.

— wwolfe

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:05 PM, 02/13/2009

For me, Paxton is the generic hero of mainstream movies. Pullman, who was the president in "Independence Day," as generic and mainstream as it gets, often is in more offbeat fare, like "The Last Seduction" and "Zero Effect." Pullman was pretty funny as the fiance shed by Meg Ryan in "Sleepless in Seattle," too.

— carrierickey

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:32 PM, 02/13/2009

Bill Paxton and Bill Pullman. Bill Paxton was in Aliens, Twister and Big Love. Bill Pullman was in Independence Day, right?

— masodark

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:15 PM, 02/13/2009

Me too! This is my Mc/Dermot mnemonic: Mulroney has pronounced lips and was Julia Roberts' b.f. in "My Best Friend's Wedding;" McDermot has a widow's peak and was engaged to Julia Roberts in "Steel Magolias." Then there's that Mary Louise Parker/Mary Stuart Masterson thing.

— carrierickey