Earlier this month, we got our first look at In the Heights’ Leslie Grace as the costumed Barbara Gordon for Batgirl. It marks the superheroine’s return to the live-action film scene after more than two decades, when Clueless star Alicia Silverstone played a tweaked version of the character named Barbara Wilson for 1997’s Batman & Robin. Now Silverstone has shared her thoughts about Grace’s Batgirl suit.
While promoting her new movie Last Survivors with costars Stephen Moyer and Drew Van Acker, Alicia Silverstone was asked by ComicBookMovie what she thinks about Leslie Grace’s upcoming take on Batgirl for the DC Extended Universe. She responded:
I think she’s going to be wonderful. Her costume looks amazing and I’m happy for her. She must be very excited. Her costume looks way more comfortable than mine was [Laughs]. And a lot less vulnerable! Mine was like, ‘Bing!’ It’s just weird.
While superhero movie costumes still take a lot of time and effort to put together, the art of such wardrobe creation has certainly advanced since the 1990s. Comparing the two Batgirl costumes above, I agree with Alicia Silverstone’s assessment that Leslie Grace’s suit looks more comfortable, whereas Silverstone’s suit was… well, like George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell’s Batman and Robin suits, it was just bizarre, especially in the chest area. In any case, Silverstone sounds supportive of Grace taking over as the new live-action Batgirl, and hopefully she’ll share her thoughts about the movie after it comes out.
Alicia Silverstone has talked before about how working on Batman & Robin wasn’t a pleasant experience for her, and the Batgirl costume being uncomfortable factored into that. Even after she was done shooting the fifth of the Batman movies, the actress was labeled “Fatgirl” in the media, although even at that younger age, Silverstone knew it was wrong to make fun of someone’s body shape. Last October, Silverstone shared a reaction on TikTok to a video someone put on the platform declaring how the media needs to apologize to the actress for how it treated her back in the late ‘90s.
The Joel Schumacher-directed Batman & Robin ended up being a critical and commercial dud, resulting in Warner Bros. and DC rebooting the Batman film series with Batman Begins in 2005. Fast-forward to now, the superhero movie genre is in a much better place compared to 1997, and the time has come for Batgirl to shine in her own movie. Leslie Grace’s costars include J.K. Simmons as Commissioner James Gordon, Michael Keaton as Batman, Brendan Fraser as Firefly and Ivory Aquino as Alysia Yeoh, the latter of whom is the first transgender character to be depicted in a live-action DC Comics movie. Bad Boys for Life duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are directing off a script written by Birds of Prey’s Christina Hodson.
Batgirl doesn’t have a set release date yet, but it will be released exclusively on HBO Max rather than play in theaters. It is one of many DC movies slated for the coming years, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for updates about them.
