Supergirl and star Milly Alcock are getting support from someone who knows all about the pressure of playing the titular superhero on the big screen.
Helen Slater was just 18 when her successful audition led to her acting debut as Kara Zor-El, cousin of Superman, for the original 1984 movie Supergirl. Director Craig Gillespie’s new Warner Bros. film of the same name has been the subject of debate after launching to $37 million domestically over the weekend, leading DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran to admit that the opening sum did not meet expectations.
“I loved the new Supergirl film,” Slater tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I thought Milly Alcock was astonishing — fierce, strong and great comic timing!”
After landing the role in the 1980s, Slater underwent a rigorous training regimen that spanned roughly four months and led her to gain 15 pounds of muscle through trampolining, fencing, horseback riding and other exercises. “I was very scrawny when I got the part,” she recalls. “The trampolining was wild. I learned to do backflips on the trampoline, and then there’s an aerial ballet in the Supergirl film, which we practiced quite a lot.”
The initial Supergirl centered on the title superhero seeking an all-powerful orb and was set after the events in Superman III, the Christopher Reeve-led film that hit theaters the year prior. Although a discussed cameo in Supergirl from Reeve never ended up happening, Slater got to know the actor throughout production. “I became friends with him, and he was just the loveliest person on the planet,” Slater recalls. “There was no ill will or strangeness — just sweet, very protective, mentor-y kind of person for me.”
When she initially landed the part, Slater had signed a deal for three films. But this would be her only movie as Supergirl, as the feature that also starred Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow and Peter O’Toole made just $14 million domestically in its theatrical run after Tri-Star released it in November 1984.
“I know it didn’t do well because we didn’t make the second and third film,” says Slater, who points out that she stayed busy with other projects. “As long as I was working, that seemed like the good news.” She adds that fame was not something she necessarily embraced: “I felt shy about it. It wasn’t like, ‘Hooray, people recognize me. Isn’t this wonderful?’ It just feels so strange and unusual.”
Slater’s other credits have included features like The Legend of Billie Jean and City Slickers, along with recurring as Clark Kent’s mother on Smallville and as the adoptive mother of Melissa Benoist’s title character in the series Supergirl. She also went back to school to earn a doctorate in mythological studies and depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, which was a topic she chatted about with The Flash star Ezra Miller when Slater visited the 2023’s film London set for a de-aged cameo that showed her alongside the late Reeve.
“I loved that movie The Flash,” Slater says. “Ezra was so lovely and knew about my graduate work in mythology and wanted to talk about that.” While there was speculation at the time of The Flash’s release that Slater’s appearance as Supergirl was CGI-generated, the actress clarifies that she actually filmed the part: “I was in this very wild machine with 600 eyes around it. But they could have just put a Barbie doll in because I’m de-aged so much. They were so kind to fly me out to London, but I don’t know that they needed to.”
Through her studies in mythology, Slater has come to appreciate retellings and evolutions for characters that are core to our cultural experience, and she hopes filmmakers continue taking risks with such projects. “My understanding is that these myths should be changing,” she reasons. “We want reinterpretations. That keeps it alive and keeps it going. It echoes what’s happening in the culture right now. It’s fun that it evolves and keeps developing.”
