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Isabelle Fuhrman as Alex Dall in the novice. Image source: IFC Films
You may know Isabelle Fuhrman best as the Sharp Tongue (and Razor Teeth) Clove of The hunger Games or the haunting Esther in Orphan. But I know her better as a racing teammate and formidable athlete. And it’s these qualities that help her shine in her new Independent Spirit Awards nominated role in the novice. (The nod was one of five the film racked up, alongside Best Feature and Best Director.)
In the film, Fuhrman plays Alex Dall, an obsessive freshman whose drive to land a spot on the varsity rowing team pushes her – and almost everyone around her – to a breaking point. Directed in dark tones and anxious cuts by Lauren Hadaway, it’s the kind of movie that makes your heart beat and your palms sweat just watching it. It’s also the kind of movie that many athletes will see themselves in, for better or for worse.
Fuhrman and I first met in 2018 when we lined up alongside about 20 other women to run our first 26.2 miles in the Chicago Marathon. After achieving that goal and hungry for more, she and I signed up with six other women to run our first ultramarathon: The Speed ​​Project. The wild and unauthorized relay race has teams running from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, across the desert – nonstop. As you can imagine, it is difficult. Really, really hard. But Fuhrman was not deterred, even though she broke her wrist just before the race and thrust herself into a cast. I also came out of the race skinned, in a medical boot. But while the 50+ hours of running through the wilderness (literally) broke us in some ways, it also helped us form a lifelong brotherhood and prove to ourselves that we can withstand almost anything. And it turns out that it also helped convince Hadaway that Fuhrman, now 24, was the right fit for the lead role in the novice. Read on to learn more about my conversation with the actor-slash-athlete, and catch the novice in theaters and digitally on Friday, December 17.
POPSUGAR: I said to my colleagues, “Look, I know Isabelle well and I know how badly she broke her ass training for this movie. I’ve seen you run through the desert for days on end with a cast on your wrist – come on! How does that compare in terms of training, how exhausting it was?
Isabelle Fuhrmann: I have a long relationship with running. There are times I hate it, but times I love it. And then sometimes I do it all the time, and sometimes I take a little break. And this movie was like having an obsessive, crazy love affair with sports. It was six hours of training per day for six weeks. I was driving to Marina Del Ray at 4.30am in total darkness, going out on the water in this boat. And then literally pause to take a nap for 15 minutes and eat, then I got back on the water for three more hours. And then I would train with it [trainer] Bec Wilcock for an hour and do weights after. I was watching Olympic rowing videos. I even got so sucked in that I was on the Rowers Reddit boards, laughing at the memes people post because I [understood] what it was like to have your hands literally torn from the blisters. And it was a whole different muscle group. While running, you feel pain in parts of your body, legs and sometimes everywhere. But with rowing, it was like, my glutes, my quads, my butt, my abs, my traps. I felt so broken but also, at the same time, the strongest I have ever felt in my life.
PS: Rowing is a fairly niche sport. Honestly, you probably could have dialed it and most people watching wouldn’t necessarily notice it. Why was it so essential for you to get it right and make it seem like you really knew what you were doing?
IF: Mainly because of Lauren, our manager. Lauren rowed in college; this film is loosely based on his own experience. And she told me from the first time we met that there was no [body] double. The camera was going to be in the boat with me. And I had to be able to row, not only because of the camera, but also because it’s a team sport. I felt really intimidated when we showed up in Peterborough and met the coaches and the girls who were going to be in the boats with us, who were rowers at Trent University. But they were so welcoming and encouraging – just like the running community – trying to help and making sure I like to feel good about what I was doing, giving me all the jargon and jokes and helping me get along. form.
PS I know you also wrote a letter to Lauren Hadaway and used The Speed ​​Project as an argument saying, “Hey, I can get going. I have been there with you, crying, in pain, but also having a lot of fun. I am dying to know what anecdotes or experiences of this race you have told him.
IF: Basically I said to him, “I loved your script, but I’m not going to write you a letter about acting, because you can see my audition, and you can watch the movies that I do. I did. I’m going to write you a letter explaining why you have to hire me because I’m the only one who can physically do it. And handle it emotionally. It was like, I know what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night or in the morning and pushing myself when I don’t feel like it anymore. And I know what it’s like to have a team of people who rely on you. And I know what it is. is literally wanting to cry all the time because you are so exhausted and getting away with it. In fact, I have attached pictures. Of me in the van with ice cream on my leg, crying. I think the one Lauren probably felt most related to was the picture of us in Vegas. And I was drunk after three sips of champagne, holding the Moët Chandon, the plaster on the wrist, crying in front of the Vegas sign, and Hannah [Minardi, our teammate] behind me, just terrified. I circled Hannah’s face and thought to myself, “See how terrified my friend is because I was so emotional?” I think she saw that and was like, “Wow, that girl is kinda crazy. And I need that in this movie.”
A photo of Fuhrman and the author’s racing team at the Speed ​​Project finish line at the Las Vegas sign in 2019. Furhman is third from right, the author is at the far right. Image Source: Courtesy Lindsay Miller
PS: This film was very physically demanding, but it also deals with mental health and self-harm. Did you have to incorporate personal care rituals while filming? How did you decompress and stay healthy enough to get to this place every day?
IF: I remember having this moment on a Sunday – I had one day off a week and slept until 4 p.m. – when I got up to grab my protein shake and hit the gym. I was like, “I think I have to maintain this level of exhaustion throughout the process.” Because it was really me in a place where I felt like an open wound. I felt really, really believed. Honestly, I think what kept me in balance was that I was so passionate about this project. I loved working there every day. And you know that in training for races, there is nothing better than waking up in the morning with a goal and a goal, and being excited about it. At the end of the day, I would come home and take the hottest bath possible with a ton of Epsom salt, just to feel like I was here and alive.
PS: Your character kills himself to succeed and to perform. I have the impression that a lot of young people can relate. Has going through the pandemic changed your own relationship to success and ambition?
IF: After this movie ended, I had the strange feeling that a chapter in my life was coming to an end. I have been that person for much of my life. If I wasn’t making a movie, I was training for a race. When it all happened in March, it was my first time to sit back and relax and not have a next. And I ended up finding such peace. I love to run, but I don’t do it all the time, every day. I have a somewhat healthier relationship with him. I don’t always bring my watch to time it. I appreciate.
PS You can tell the athletes wrote it and realized it and starred in The Novice because of the amount of food that was just in the background, all the time, on that constant hum. It, for me, was honestly so refreshing, to see a bunch of onscreen women eating like they did. Was it something you had clear conversations about?
IF: This scene where I shovel food at the table – it wasn’t necessarily, I would say, a choice. I remember this morning very well. I woke up early. I went to workout at the gym and spent an hour in the [water] Tank. And I remember settling in and being so hungry. Lauren said, “Whoa, in this scene you’re going to eat, so you shouldn’t be eating until you’ve done the scene.” They gave me a plate of egg whites with veg and I was just shoveling it in. I remember when I looked I thought, “My God, my mouth is full and everything.” And I was like, you know what? It’s like that.
PS: it’s realistic.
IF: I mean, I ate like this all the time. My boat in the movie, the single scull I used, was hilarious. Because you are attached and there is no room for anything. Under my legs were two protein shakers and a giant bag of locally sourced beef jerky – a huge amount. And I’d just be sitting between takes, eating, eating, eating, eating.
Führman in the novice. Image source: IFC Films
PS Your character in the movie has this horrible hand injury for much of the movie. For you, what was the hardest moment physically – and perhaps the hardest moment mentally or emotionally – on this film?
IF: I think mentally the biggest part was when I got on the set and had done a lot of training as a single pair. The biggest obstacle was getting on the boat with all the girls and realizing, compared to all of them, “Oh shit.”
PS You say to yourself, “Oh, I’m still short and I have 20 pounds less muscle than these women. “
IF: I am just blowing as I remove these oars. Physically the biggest obstacle was certainly the blisters on the hands. It’s a real, serious injury that a lot of girls get while rowing. You get these bulbs. They are big, they are painful. And then once the calluses are gone, for a moment, everything is fine. And then the insensitivity tears apart and it’s horrible again. I also bit my nails like crazy while making the movie. It was funny, because I remember feeling really out of my own body. I don’t even recognize myself looking in the mirror. I’ve never been built like this before. I have always been very small. To build muscle and feel bigger, it changes your posture. It changes the way you walk. It changes the way you feel. I felt very strong and very fragile at the same time.
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