Isla Fisher liked somebody. Then his dog ran away, he went after it, and the way he chased the animal apparently ended the attraction before the dog was even back.
The 50-year-old actress told the story while sitting with her Spa Weekend costars Leslie Mann, Anna Faris and Michelle Buteau on Overheard Happy Hour. Fisher said the man ran low to the ground with his hands stretched in front of him “like a cartoon,” according to Entertainment Weekly.
She watched the pursuit continue and felt increasingly less interested. “The ick was growing and growing,” Fisher recalled, before delivering a considerably less printable verdict about what the man had lost by the time he finally caught his dog.
Fisher did not identify the man, call him a boyfriend or establish how serious their connection had been. The anecdote is instead one of her more specific public glimpses into dating since the end of her marriage to Sacha Baron Cohen.
The Dog Chase Ended the Attraction
Fisher’s problem was not that the man went after his runaway dog. It was the form. She remembered him pursuing the animal while staying low, with his arms stretched out in front of him, and said her reaction became progressively worse the longer she watched.
Anna Faris immediately decided the group needed a demonstration. She left the table before returning hunched forward with her arms extended, recreating Fisher’s description of the chase. Her performance earned a very different reaction from Fisher, who joked, “Why am I in love?”
Fisher Already Had Strong Opinions About How Men Run
The dog story arrived shortly after Fisher had made another unusually specific observation about men’s running form. During an August appearance on Australia’s The Smallzy Show, she was discussing how quickly a male romantic lead can give an audience “the ick” when she singled out awkward onscreen running.
“When a man runs on film and it’s just like, it looks like a sprinkler moving, it’s just wrong,” Fisher said. She also named Tom Cruise as the opposite example, saying he had “really nailed the sexy run.”
Her other turnoffs from that conversation were even more specific. Fisher objected to a backpack with its front buckle fastened and said one of her biggest “icks” involved a man wearing deck shoes with the heels pushed down so that his bare heel was exposed, which she called “repulsive.” E! News revisited those comments after the new dog story surfaced.
The Story Came During a ‘Spa Weekend’ Cast Conversation
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Fisher shared the dog story beside Mann, Faris and Buteau while the four actresses were promoting Spa Weekend. Written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the comedy follows four longtime friends whose attempt at a restorative luxury getaway turns into something considerably less relaxing.
The movie opened in U.S. theaters on Aug. 21 and stars Fisher as Mel alongside Mann, Faris and Buteau. The promotional run has repeatedly brought the four women together for candid conversations about friendship, relationships and the differences between their characters and their real lives.
Female Friendships Helped Fisher After Her Divorce
That emphasis on friendship overlaps with something Fisher has discussed more seriously since her marriage ended. She recently said female friendships had been “instrumental” in helping her discover or recover her own strength after the divorce.
Fisher and Cohen announced in June 2025 that their divorce had been finalized. The former couple, who share three children, said they remained friends and would continue to approach co-parenting with mutual respect and a shared commitment to their family, a timeline also noted in Page Six.