Helen Slater Will Not Stand for Any ‘Supergirl’ Slander

Watching the negative response to Supergirl has been a big old bummer. Not only am I hoping for James Gunn’s DCU to hold strong, but watching female-led superhero films get consistently treated so poorly by audiences and studios just sucks, man. Instead of being given numerous chances to, ya know, exist, they get saddled with all these additional expectations. And it probably sounds like an annoying old hat to someone who has been there before.

Helen Slater made her feature-film debut in 1984’s Supergirl, which works more like a Popeye’s commercial than an actual movie. That said, it’s kitchy, weird, and a fun time. Impressively, it tries to do something different than the Christopher Reeve films that came before it, as well as creating a backstory that differs from the comics in some big ways. But that is also part of the problem. Regardless, there are plenty of worse movies from the 80s that performed much better.

Unlike Milly Alcock, who will be reprising her role as Supergirl in 2027’s Man of Tomorrow (and hopefully several films more), Slater only had one initial turn as the hero (though that would later change, kinda). And presumably, since she knows how unforgiving that field can be, she had nothing but praise for the new movie. “I loved the new Supergirl film,” she told THR. “I thought Milly Alcock was astonishing — fierce, strong and great comic timing!” I just thought that was lovely for her to say. She also had lovely things to say about (reads more closely) Ezra Miller?! Sure.

After explaining that she loved 2023’s The Flash, she also spoke about the controversial star. “Ezra was so lovely and knew about my graduate work in mythology and wanted to talk about that,” she noted, clarifying that she was actually brought in for her character’s cameo. “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.” Huh! I… look, sounds like she had a nice time, so that’s good.

I haven’t seen Supergirl yet (my wife was out of town when it released, and it’s just been me, two kids, and two jobs for what feels like forever), but I plan to get to it soon. I love going to the movies, so I’m always prepared to have a good time. I’d also just like to support something with a character I like that people seemingly had their knives out for before it had a chance to breathe. Maybe it’s bad! And yes, people are tired of superhero movies, but I just wanted to see something nice about it in the world, and Helen Slater gave me that. Feels apt.