Batgirl Star Pushes Back On Claims The Movie Was Unreleasable

The shelved Batgirl movie star Leslie Grace comments against the recent claim that the movie was unreleasable alongside other DCU titles.

After the recent disclosure of the new DCU slate from all sites as well as James Gunn’s social media accounts, co-CEO Peter Safran made the remark that the movie was unreleasable. He further stated that the movie could have damaged the DC brand moving forward.

Grace has her newest project How to Win Friends and Disappear People. It is a comedy-thriller podcast series from QCode. The actress portrays the role of a vampire neighbour of a computer scientist in New York City.

In the interview, Grace got to share her thoughts about Safran’s claim.

Grace Leslie Does Not Believe Batgirl Was Unreleasable

Coming from the impression that the movie was supposed to be having much potential for more developing stories before the August David Zaslav announcement, Grace was equally surprised with the cancellation as anyone.

She got to meet with the corporate heads of Warner Bros. Film Group CEOs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca and got their own explanation. She told Variety:

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.

From this perspective, Grace understood the reasons behind the decision. She goes on to say:

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.

Despite the news being totally disappointing, she still saw it in different perspectives. In her words:

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.

The frustration roots in the point of being hopeful for the future of their movie. Somehow, she then got the chance to bring a character to life for a generation of fans. Looking back, she recalls the times when the production had its own set of challenges.

I’m not going to lie to you. In every film, there are obstacles, and our film was nothing short of that. Half of the shoot was night shoots in Scotland, where it never stops raining. So there were obstacles, but at the end of the day, because of the incredible crew, nothing that ever got in the way of us delivering what we knew we wanted to deliver for this film. At least from what I was able to see.

She did admit that the film was imperfect but the whole production cast and crew pulled through. Finishing the shoot, they were filled with expectations. Sometime into postproduction, she was able to see a cut of the film. Apparently, it is the one thing she asked for. She said:

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.

New DC Studios Co-CEOs Haven’t Reached Out To Leslie Grace

Batgirl Movie Was Unreleasable Claims DC Studios Boss

Credit: Adil El Arbi

While the cast and crew got to see the movie before it went to the ‘DC Vault’, some rumours surfaced that the company would be reaching out to the team for new projects down the line. As for the new co-CEOs however, they have not reached out to Grace. She said:

No, I haven’t heard from them. But I wish them the best on all the plans that they’ve got rolling out. They’ve got a lot of projects to handle, and it’s not an easy job.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that it is the last breath of Leslie Grace as Batgirl. The star shares that they are actually in initial talks though nothing definite yet. When asked if she could consider being Robert Pattinson’s Batman’s Batgirl, she answered:

We’ve definitely had conversations about Batgirl’s future and how Batgirl can make a resurgence. I think fans are looking forward to seeing that. We’ll just see where that takes us; I can’t say one way or the other if that is a reality at this point. I can’t speak too much about a future for Bat- girl or guarantee anything. The last thing that I would want to do is give folks any kind of inkling of something that I have not much control over — as we’ve learned.

Do you think the news about Batgirl being unreleasable only added to the curiosity of the fans for the movie itself? Could there really be a chance to see Leslie Grace as Batgirl finally up on the silver screen? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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