Leslie Grace, who played the titular heroine in Warner's unreleased Batgirl film, wants her work to be seen, even in the form of clips on the internet.
Grace, while enthused to Collider about the action scene she shot with her comeback-riding co-star Brendan Fraser, implied her desire for the film to find an audience -- by any means necessary. "I would've loved people to see those moments," she said. "But you know what? You have the experience, and you keep on rolling, and I feel so blessed, all in all, that I have those memories and hopefully maybe in some future, some clips will arise and people will get to enjoy a little bit of it. But for now, we'll just have to keep it going as it going in comic folklore, I guess, with all of our memories and our stories while we can."
Brendan Fraser's Lost Batgirl Performance
Whether the moment ever actually arrives in which fans can see the film, Grace maintained she is content with hanging on to her memories from the shoot: "I truly had one of [the best] experiences with Batgirl." She especially mentioned working with Fraser, who played the villain Firefly, expressing her joy over the recent renaissance of his acting career after his critically hailed comeback role in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, which won him an Academy Award nomination and numerous other accolades. "He's amazing," said Grace. "He's one of the kindest people in the world, and I felt so blessed to have him as my sparring partner." Likewise, Fraser has provided praised for his co-star earlier, calling Grace "a dynamo."
While Fraser's career in general has been rejuvenated, he doesn't seem to have much luck with comic properties. The DC series Doom Patrol, in which he plays Cliff Steele a.k.a. Robot Man, has just been canceled by HBO Max. Of course, the fate of Batgirl represented a much bigger misfortune for his co-star Grace, who was poised to break out as the film's headliner. Thus far, Grace has won three Latin Grammy Awards as a singer. She had a movie breakout role with the 2021 musical adaptation In the Heights. While that film underperformed at the box office when it was released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max, it would become widely praised, with many critics singling out her performance.
Batgirl made headlines in 2022 when it was taken off the release schedule indefinitely by Warner Bros. despite having allegedly spent $90 million on the almost-completed production. While the move reportedly served as a tax write-off for the company during a time of necessary cutbacks, a growing number of accounts claim the film was shelved over its low quality. This notion was just affirmed by DC Studios co-head Peter Safran, who backed the controversial cancellation, which was made by CEO David Zaslav. "On the Batgirl front... I saw the movie, and there are a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera on that film," he said. "But that film was not releasable, and it happens sometimes. That film was not releasable."
The film also featured Michael Keaton, who reprised his role as Batman / Bruce Wayne for the first time since 1992's Batman Returns. However, Keaton's Caped Crusader is still expected to appear in the upcoming film The Flash, which was meant to mark his initial reappearance. Interestingly, the returning Dark Knight recently called Batgirl's cancellation "a business decision," adding: "I'm going to assume it was a good one. I really don't know." On the other hand, Fraser criticized the decision.
The Flash hits theaters on Jun. 16.
Source: Collider