Isla Fisher has denied that she was in any danger while filming the underwater tank scene in her 2013 film Now You See Me.

In the heist film, the Australian actress played escapologist Henley Reeves, who performed a Houdini-style stunt in which she had to escape from handcuffs and chains in a water-filled tank within 60 seconds before being eaten alive by piranhas.

As the clock counts down, Henley struggles to free herself from her chains and bangs on the glass and calls for help, but it is all part of her elaborate stunt. However, it has been widely reported online that Fisher was trapped for real and almost drowned because the crew thought she was just acting.

The story was recently shared again on Instagram, with one pop culture account writing alongside a clip, “The fact Isla Fisher was ACTUALLY drowning and asked for help but everyone thought it was just a fabulous acting… (sic)”

The star reshared the post on her Instagram Stories on Sunday and denied the claim, writing, “Ummmm… not actually a ‘fact’… I was safe the whole time.”

While the 49-year-old insisted she was safe, she told a different story while promoting the film 12 years ago. In one junket interview shared on social media, Fisher told an outlet that she had “a near-death experience” and was “trapped” and “very scared”.

“(The crew) thought I was being Meryl Streep in the tank (and) actually I was drowning,” she said at the time.

Fisher did not return for the second film, 2016’s Now You See Me 2, due to her pregnancy, and Lizzy Caplan was cast as a new member of The Four Horsemen magic team.

Fisher returns as Henley alongside her original co-stars Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco in the upcoming third film, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, which hits cinemas in November.

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