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Singer Leslie Grace was ready to burst into Hollywood by bringing Barbara Gordo’s vision of Batgirl to life. For seven months the 28-year-old and a large cast moved to Scotland to shoot the film. The film was almost finished when suddenly, Warner Bro’s canceled everything. At the time, the studios spoke out about the cancellation, and now the Bronx-born actress is telling her story.
Grace revealed that she found out about the cancellation just like everyone else, on the news. “All of us (the cast) found out that this was happening through articles on the Internet. After the news came out, the phone started ringing, and that’s when I heard it from the company, producers, directors, and my team,” she said in an interview with Raúl de Molina for El Gordo y la Flaca.
Although it was a major blow to her career, Leslie wanted to make sure the people in her life knew she would be okay. “My dad, I think was more worried than I was. The hardest part was explaining to the people who love me that I was fine and that I understood that this wasn’t something I could control,” she said
She didn’t consider it a failure and was still appreciative of the experience. “I felt blessed to have the opportunity to be a superheroine like Batgirl. Other than that, having the opportunity to learn and be in the same environment with Michael Keaton, Brendan Fraser, JK Simmons... an amazing cast,” the singer said.
What happened to ‘Batgirl’?
In mid-August, it was confirmed that Batgirl was canceled, and would halt filming. Rumors were swirling as to why it got canceled, like costumes, and Grace’s performance, but the studio said the decision, “reflects our leadership’s strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO MAX. “Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor, and this decision is not a reflection of her performance,” they added.
Grace shared her views in the interview, “The film was not complete. But the information that I have and that we were given was that the result of the focus group was that it was on par with films like Black Adam.”
An estimated $100 million was invested in the film that was left unfinished. “At the end of the day, new executives make different decisions. Many of the people who were running this film are no longer with the company. And they (the new people) have another plan for DC Comics and the films that are coming out,” explained the three-time Latin Grammy-nominated artist.
“They want all the movies to go to theaters, and our movie, unfortunately, was not created for theaters. It was supposed to come out on HBO Max as a streaming movie,” she said. Grace has moved on without holding on to grudges, crediting her parent’s lessons. But she sent a general message to production companies: “It would be great, those of us who work on this would feel much calmer if they valued a little more the time dedicated to these projects before making decisions like this.”