Esther’s terrifying saga continues with The Orphan: The Origin (Orphan: First Kill), prequel to the hit and heartbreaking horror film The orphan (2009), directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. This time, Esther, starring American actress Isabelle Fuhrman, after orchestrating a brilliant escape from a psychiatric clinic, heads to America and poses as Leena, the missing daughter of a wealthy family. However, there is an unexpected turn that confronts her with a mother willing to protect her family from the murderous “girl” at all costs.
Fuhrman reprises the role that made her famous as the soulless, psychopathic child adopted by a marriage devastated by the loss of their unborn baby. At the orphanage, the couple falls in love with little Esther and take her home, unaware that the naive girl hides evil intentions. On that occasion, the actress was 13 years old and today, at 25, she hasn’t changed much physically for the role, thanks also to makeup.
The new film reveals how Esther came to the United States from Estonia and her early experiences in this country. Although Alex Mace -story writer- and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick -screenwriter- loved the idea of revisiting Esther’s world, it seemed to them that the bar to convert it was very high. “The original movie has such a great twist that we felt that in order to justify the prequel, you had to include an equally bold twist,” explains Mace. “We knew that people were going to expect that twist. And it took us a while to come up with this one because the truth is that giving it a good twist and making sense is difficult”.
Also, they both wanted Esther to go through new circumstances that would lead the audience to think that maybe they were getting something they hadn’t seen before and then taking it away. The new story begins in the confines of a sanatorium, where Esther is hospitalized. It’s an intense start to the movie and sets the tone for who this woman really is. The suspense builds when she devises a plan to pose as the missing daughter of a Connecticut couple, who went missing four years earlier. The family has come to accept the fact that her daughter is gone forever and is left with no hope until the day a detective calls them to let them know that Esther was found in Estonia and is being brought back.
The actress
“I liked the movie a lot The orphan original,” Bell confesses. “It’s a great movie with a great twist. Sometimes when you have a film that holds up so much (because it’s a modern classic in the genre), it’s hard to follow. However, when I read the prequel, it had a spectacular twist that I didn’t expect and even forgot to keep an eye out for it. It works very well and is very different. I thought, ‘Wow, guys, you did it!’”
Fuhrman began his acting career at the age of seven. He acted in Cartoon Fridaysfrom Cartoon Network, and a few years later he made his film debut with the film hound dog. Her big break came in 2009, when she starred in the horror movie The orphan. Her role as Esther garnered her rave reviews from critics worldwide with a performance that was hailed as “one of the most momentous examples of child acting in years.”
A lot went right for the production when it came to convincing audiences that Isabelle Fuhrman was 13 years old. “His face is similar to what he had when he was ten years old,” Mace explains. “This doesn’t happen to a lot of people.”
William Brent Bell, the director of the prequel, says that “Isabelle did very well in the first film, in a unique way. He stood out and created such a believable character that we couldn’t see any other way to make the movie without his return. It would have been an injustice to the film.”
The actress still has an angelic, girlish face, and the idea of starring in the new film excited her. “Bell was really supportive of me getting her in the movie and I appreciated it because I was really intrigued if they were going to make her look like a girl and how this would work. From day one, she said, ‘You certainly could do it. We will find a way to achieve it.’ And I’m really, really grateful because I had a great time when I did this character again.”
One of the benefits of having the same actress play the role was that this time she was an adult playing the adult, even though Esther sometimes looks like a child. “We know her secret from the beginning of the movie, which makes it that much more interesting,” adds Bell.
As a source of inspiration to reprise the role of Esther, Bell says that she used another creepy movie character. I thought a lot about Hannibal Lecter from The silence of the inocents to define who Esther is, how he acts, moves and thinks. She is always smarter than everyone and enjoys the good life. I tried to incorporate this because she is an elegant and sophisticated woman, which is shown by the fact that she is a brilliant pianist and an excellent chef. Also, we can appreciate all her artwork, which is great. She has a criminal mind, but her feet are on the ground.
Since Fuhrman still has the face of a child, the job was reduced to complementing some of her features with techniques that, according to Doug Morrow, head of the Department of Makeup and Special Effects, are “as old as makeup.” It expands: “She has great skin, eyebrows, lashes and features, so it was more about emphasizing what she already has, which was very easy. I ended up giving her a heavier airbrush makeup, which makes your skin look flawless. I did it in two applications: the first was a more intense spray and then the second was more of a mist that smooths everything out. Then I used highlighter, shadow or contour makeup in a very subtle way. She would take a highlighting color and apply it to her face to make it appear rounder and use it on her jawline to emphasize that it was not accentuated, which is what happens to many people as they age.”
see The Orphan: The Origin in Ecuadorian movie theaters from this Thursday, September 15.
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
