ORPHAN: FIRST KILL: Isabelle Fuhrman is Set to Play Esther Without Makeup in Prequel to 2009’s ORPHAN

Isabelle Fuhrman Slated to Play Esther Again without Visual Effects

Isabelle Fuhrman will return to the screen as Esther in a prequel to 2009’s Orphan but without the added features of makeup or visual effects.

When Isabelle Fuhrman came on the scene in 2009, she was playing a role for the record books. She portrayed a 33-year-old woman with a disorder that enabled her to pose as a child to an unsuspecting couple. This horror picture was called Orphan and made waves with some select critics and at the box-office. One of the most distinguished critics of all time, Roger Ebert, gave it an enthusiastic three and a half stars. Now, Fuhrman will be back roughly 13 years after the original film, reprising her role as the wicked Esther in the upcoming prequel Orphan: First Kill.

Even bigger news than that is the fact that Fuhrman is set to play the role without the added benefit of makeup or visual effects! Keep in mind that she is 24-years old now and is supposed to be a girl pretending to be 9-years old in the picture. While movies like Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman have aged and de-aged characters for dramatic purposes, this forthcoming film will not be using such advanced technology.

Fuhrman is more than up to the challenge of playing Esther this way. Fans of the original picture are excited to see the great Fuhrman back on screen so soon after wowing critics and audiences alike with her turn in the intense drama, The Novice, which won her a Best Actress award at the Tribecca Film Festival last year. According to Fuhrman, who was recently interviewed about her upcoming horror film role, this is a movie first. Fuhrman believes that nobody has ever re-played a role they played as a child as an adult. She may well be correct.

The original Orphan made $41 million at the domestic box-office which was a nice haul for a horror picture in 2009. The film received a “B-” CinemaScore but scoring movies like that one is very difficult because when a film relies on a twist ending, audiences are so shocked that they’ll either initially love or hate the film. Another such movie with a twist ending was Fight Club which also earned a “B-” CinemaScore grade as well despite being one of David Fincher’s most loved movies. Twist endings are a tricky proposition if the movies featuring them want to get good audience grades, but such films still have plenty of fans, nevertheless.

Orphan: First Kill will also showcase Hustlers co-star, Julia Stiles, and the upcoming film is set before the events of the first picture, as previously stated. Fuhrman has stated that she truly “understood” her character in the first Orphan movie. Fuhrman made the 2009 film when she was 12 so it will be fun to see her without makeup or effects playing the role that put her on the map. More news will be revealed as it develops.

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