‘Batgirl’ star Leslie Grace reacts to Warner Bros. axing the film: ‘Like deflating a balloon’
“Batgirl” star Leslie Grace is speaking out after Warner Bros. canceled the release of her superhero film after it already wrapped filming.
The actress, 28, told Variety in an article published Monday that she didn’t find out the news until an article published about it online.
“I found out like the rest of you,” she said. “And then my phone just started blowing up.”
In August, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav confirmed that “Batgirl,” which was mostly completed and scheduled for release on HBO Max, had been shelved.
“We’re not going to release a movie unless we believe in it. And that’s it,” Zaslav said at the time. “Particularly with DC, we think we want to pivot and elevate and focus … our job is to protect the DC brand.”
Here’s what Grace had to say about the decision.
How did Leslie Grace react to ‘Batgirl’ getting axed?
“It was like deflating a balloon,” she said. “I was very much just taking it all in, 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.’ I tend to be a very optimistic and positive person in these types of circumstances, and I just really leaned on the beauty of the idea that I got to have this experience in my life. Even though I would’ve loved to share that with the rest of the world, nothing can take that experience away from us.”
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What does Leslie Grace think of DC Studios head Peter Safran calling the film “not releasable”?
“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,” she said.
“There are a lot of things that I learned through the experience about moviemaking that as an actress you have no control over. 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. 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.”
‘Batgirl’ star Leslie Grace posts tribute to fans after Warner Bros. axes $90 million film