During her first major interview after it was announced that Warner Bros. Discovery had decided to cancel the Batgirl movie after the first “disappointing” test screenings, actress Leslie Grace spoke out on how she found out and gave her take on the film.
The film co-directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah was meant to be released exclusively on HBO Max but then was “promoted” to a theatrical release. Instead of releasing in theaters, the film will never be seen at all as David Zaslav canceled the project and took a $90M tax write-off.
According to Leslie, she was unaware that the movie, initially slated to be available on HBO Max, had been put on hold until it was reported by the New York Post. “I found out like the rest of you… and then my phone just started blowing up“, explained the actress.
Leslie and her co-star Brendan Fraser were caught off guard by the news. Fraser recalls his initial reaction was laughing hysterically because he was being pranked. When he became aware of the reality of the situation, Fraser’s thoughts turned towards the loss of a potential icon to a generation of children. “What I find most lamentable,” said Fraser, “is that now a whole generation of little girls are going to have to wait longer to see a Batgirl and say, ‘Hey, she looks like me.’”
Rumors have swirled that Batgirl was “unreleasable”, though according to Grace, who saw the film in its most complete form it was “incredible.”
“I got to see the film as far as it got to; the film wasn’t complete by the time that it was tested. There were a bunch of scenes that weren’t even in there. They were at the beginning of the editing process, and they were cut off because of everything going on at the company. But the film that I got to see — the scenes that were there — was incredible. There was definitely potential for a good film, in my opinion. Maybe we’ll get to see clips of it later on.”
-Leslie Grace
