Brendan Fraser, who was set to appear as the villain Firefly in Warner Bros’ cancelled Batgirl movie, has heaped praise upon its lead star Leslie Grace.
“Leslie Grace is her namesake. She’s dynamic,” Fraser said in an interview with The PopVerse. “She gave a great performance. She’s a stone cold professional. You’re going to see more from her. And I’m looking forward to it.”
Grace had been set to debut as Batgirl/Barbara Gordon – in what would have been the character’s first solo movie – on HBO Max in December 2022.
However, in August 2022 it was revealed that Warner Bros had decided to shelve Batgirl completely, despite the film being filmed and in post-production.
At the time of its cancellation, Variety reported the studio’s decision to shelve Batgirl wasn’t connected to the quality of the film, but rather Warner Bros’ desire for DC films to have a blockbuster scale.
The confirmed cast of Batgirl also included Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman and JK Simmons as Gotham City police Commissioner James Gordon.
While plot details hadn’t been fully confirmed for Batgirl, Keaton was expected to appear as Batman to potentially mentor young vigilante Barbara.
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Ahead of Batgirl’s cancellation, Grace also heaped praise upon Fraser and hinted at their dynamic in the movie.
“She definitely exceeds what I thought,” Grace told Variety. “I had to summon up some things in me that I didn’t even know were there. It was an incredible learning experience to be on set with also action veterans like Brendan Fraser, and soak up it all up.
“It was so hard because he’s our villain and I’m not supposed to like him but he’s such a huge teddy bear. He is one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met. In our fight sequences the way he would just hit marks, it came from all of his experience. You can’t improvise that kind of experience.
“There’s some crazy stuff that happens. There’s lots of fire because as everyone knows by now, he plays Firefly. There’s crazy fire. There’s crazy stunts, crazy drops. She’s a biker chick, so you’re going to see her do a bunch of badassery.”
Back in January, Grace also shared a first look at Batgirl’s superhero suit in the movie on Instagram, alongside the caption: “Batgirl: Year One.”
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