Leslie Grace said that when she found out her Batgirl movie was being shelved by Warner Bros. Discovery last summer, it felt like “deflating a balloon.” She learned about the decision like the rest of the world – through press reports.
“I found out like the rest of you,” Grace told Variety. “And then my phone just started blowing up.” She added: “I thought I was getting punked, but it checked out. Then came hysterical laughter like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me?’”
Initially, the entire picture wasn’t clear about why the nearly completed film was being killed. Later, reports indicated that the film had received negative feedback from audiences during test screenings. Ultimately, Warner Bros. Discovery decided that they would cut their losses (approximately $90 million at that point) and take a tax write-off instead.
A couple of weeks ago, new DC Studios executive Peter Safran commented that the reason Batgirl was canceled was because it was “not releasable.” He added that Discovery CEO David Zaslav “made a bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC and those people involved.” Grace revealed to Variety that she was able to see “the film as far as it got to” before the production shut down.
“The film that I got to see – the scenes that were there – was incredible,” she said. “There was definitely potential for a good film, in my opinion.”
Grace also had a message for Latinas who were excited to see her play the first Afro-Latina Batgirl. “Your journey is not a mistake,” she said. “Everything in your journey can be learned from, can be transformative, can be inspirational and aspirational for someone that you might not even know. Just keep going no matter what the obstacle is.”