‘Batgirl’ star Leslie Grace discusses project’s cancellation
Former DC star Leslie Grace has discussed Batgirl’s cancellation for the first time. The actor was set to appear in the title role of Barbara Gordan in the DC comic adaptation that was canned despite a completed production after reported poor test screenings.
Grace told Variety about finding out the studios were cancelling the project for ‘tax purposes’. “I found out like the rest of you. And then my phone just started blowing up,” she recalled.
“It was like deflating a balloon. On that day, I was very much just taking it all in,” the actor added. “But also so sure of the magic that happened — in my experience and what I saw in my cast, in our team — that I was like, ‘This must be some crazy thing that we have no control over’.”
Grace revealed her outlook on the upsetting news, recruiting it as an opportunity to learn about herself and her career. “I tend to be a very optimistic and positive person in these types of circumstances,” she said. “I just really leaned on the beauty of the idea that I got to have this experience in my life.”
The actor added: “Even though I would’ve loved to share that with the rest of the world, nothing can take that experience away from us.”
Peter Safran, the new DC studios co-CEO, revealed that Batgirl was “not releasable” and was a risk to DC.
Responding to this, Grace stated, “I had my own meetings with Warner Bros. Film Group CEOs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, and they explained to me, on a granular level, what they felt about the project, things that were out of their hands, plans and budgets that were set in place before they were even part of the team.”
Batgirl was also set to star J.K. Simmons, Jacob Scipio, Brendan Fraser and Michael Keaton. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah were on board as directors, working from a screenplay by Christina Hodson. The movie’s development began in March 2017, with Joss Whedon overseeing the process until he left a year later.
“There are a lot of things that I learned through the experience about moviemaking, that as an actress you have no control over,” Grace said. “They weren’t really specific on anything creative in terms of what they felt about the film and how it would’ve hurt DC creatively.”
The actor added: “But I’m a human being, and people have perceptions and people read things. And when words are expressed very lightly about work that people really dedicated a lot of time to — not just myself but the whole crew — I can understand how it could be frustrating.”
When asked if she believed anything was suggesting the film wouldn’t be successful while filming, Grace replied: “In every film, there are obstacles, and our film was nothing short of that”.
She added that what she did get to see of the film was “incredible” and “definitely [had] potential for a good film”.
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