Leslie Grace had a crazy summer. First, her breakout movie launched in the form of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical In the Heights in early July, and less than two weeks later, she landed herself a highly coveted gig as the DCEU’s newest heroine. Grace is set to play the title role in Warner Bros.’s Batgirl solo film, which is headed to HBO Max. Other than that, it’s to be directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life) and written by Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey), though we don’t know much else about the project at this point.
But that’s okay because neither does its star. While speaking with ET Online, Grace revealed that she hasn’t been told anything about the movie. The actress admitted that she hasn’t even got a glimpse of Batgirl’s super-suit yet, though she expects a long costuming process ahead of her.
“I’m dying! They haven’t told me anything, I honestly cannot leak anything, even if I knew,” Grace said. “But I have no idea! I think probably until I head off, I won’t know much, but I’m dying to know what that outfit looks like. I know that I’m going to be [doing], like, 35 different fittings for this costume. [Laughs]”
Grace knows the importance of making sure Barbara Gordon’s costume looks the part in the movie.
“It’s a big deal, so we want to get it right,” Grace continued. “I’m excited to see what that process is going to be like. My mom’s dying to know.”
As for how she landed the role, Grace revealed the full story to ET, explaining that the team surprised her by inviting her for what was apparently a final test read over Zoom, before dropping the Batgirl bombshell on her.
“It was a crazy shock. I mean, obviously, I had been auditioning. It was a whole process, you know? But it was just, like, mind-bending,” Grace said about the audition process. “It’s still mind-bending to think about it, and we’re about to embark on this insane journey. But I found out via Zoom, because COVID world. The directors and the studio were on, and they kind of try to make it a surprise. They tried to make it like I was doing a final test, and then they sent me an email saying, ‘I’m Batgirl’ and had me read it. And I was just like, ‘I’m not reading that! I don’t know what’s happening right now!’ [Laughs]”
The star concluded that she can’t wait to do a deep dive into the heroine’s comic book history, not to mention that she’s excited to “get rough and tough” and portray Babs’ action-heroine qualities.
“I thought that I was doing a follow-up test. I had self-taped and I had read, did a chemistry read and I thought we were doing another read, like an in-the-moment read, and then they just had me read that line,” Grace said. “It was insane. It was beautiful. It’s a blessing. I’m so excited about the character. I’m excited to nerd out with all of the comics. I’ve already been doing so much research on it and I’m excited to learn how to kick some butt, too, because your girl, she’s going to have to get rough and tough to be Miss Barbara Gordon. So, I cannot wait.”
So far, the only other cast member linked to the project is J.K. Simmons, who is in talks to reprise Commissioner Jim Gordon, Barbara’s father, from Justice League. This means we can expect it to be set in the SnyderVerse and not the rebooted continuity of The Batman movies, which we might’ve expected. Batgirl is just one of three streaming-exclusive DC movies that have been announced this summer, alongside Jurnee Smollett’s Black Canary and Blue Beetle, starring Cobra Kai‘s Xolo Mariduena. A release date has yet to be assigned.
