The original Supergirl’s advice to Australia’s Milly Alcock
It’s not easy being Supergirl. Milly Alcock, the last actress to don the cape, skirt and boots, was recently trolled by keyboard warriors and even former TV Superman Dean Cain. Trolls, of all things, made fun of the Australian actress’s appearance, belittling them with pithy red carpet comments about Supergirl’s sexuality (“It would probably go either way”) and who is stronger, Supergirl or her cousin Superman (Supergirl is “objectively” stronger, Alcock said).
Alcock’s reaction is news for the actress, who played Supergirl in the original 1984 film. “I hope he ignores this,” says Helen Slater. Slater, now 62, is looking forward to seeing Alcock portray the character, which will be rebooted as a drunken party girl in 2026. He sees Supergirl as mythical, saying “myths can have these different variations. It’s so fun to see.”
Being Supergirl in 1984 wasn’t easy either. And not just for the painstaking wire work required to convince you that a girl can fly (“I remember hitting a tree… I was fine, no damage”), but also for the sheer weight of the film it carries. super girl It was Slater’s feature film debut and was a spin-off from the genre-defining genre. Superman series and a $35 million blockbuster in its own right. He was only 19 years old at the time super girl landed. “I felt the weight of it because of the ad campaign,” says Slater, who emerged from obscurity and into the spotlight. “I felt the full weight of that experience because I was from New York but living in London. I was by myself. There was a heaviness.”
Milly Alcock – 2022 Acclaimed for her role as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen on HBO game of Thrones front section Dragon House — has at least gotten a super seal of approval from the Man of Steel himself, with the incumbent Superman (David Corenswet) making a cameo in the new movie, which was met with mixed reviews.
But Slater’s Supergirl had to fly solo. Christopher Reeve, the only real Superman, was offered to star in this movie. super girl To help launch the series, which is planned as a three-film series. But he was discouraged by Reeve’s playful manipulation. Superman III (1983), directed by Jeannot Szwarc, was backed out before shooting began. super girl.
Slater thinks it was just a work conflict that prevented Reeve from taking the part, but it’s true that he told reporters at the time that he would never wear the cape again. Instead, Slater will star alongside a frankly inexplicable cast: Mia Farrow as Supergirl’s mother; Faye Dunaway as Selena, the attractive witch who dreams of world domination; Peter O’Toole as Zaltar, a space wizard with attractive Kryptonian knitwear; and Peter Cook as a wizard/maths teacher named Nigel.
super girl it flopped at the box office and received a strong Peter O’Toole Golden Raspberry award nomination. Slater takes his failure in stride. “It didn’t hurt my career,” he says. “I continued making films right after. But of course, no one wants a film not to do well.”
Producer Ilya Salkind ranked in the top three Superman movies and super girl He said he watched the film again a few years ago with his father, Alexander, and gave him an honest assessment of why it failed. “I have to admit, it’s not a good movie,” he says.
‘I think we’d be in trouble if we tried to portray Superman in just a skirt.’
Supergirl (1984) directed by Jeannot Szwarc
Salkind had originally planned to introduce Supergirl. Superman IIIbut Warner Bros nixed the idea. Superman III instead it became a Richard Pryor comedy with Superman in it. However, Salkind felt that Superman may have run his creative route and was plotting a plan. super girl spin off. Both the film and Helen Slater’s casting were previously announced. Superman III started shooting.
Slater, a Long Island native and graduate of the High School for the Performing Arts, won the role after auditioning with a homemade Supergirl costume. “My mother made me a cape and a skirt,” says Slater. “I don’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, but I remember that audition. I was the only person there wearing a costume. He was either like, ‘Uh-oh, this is either an epic fail,’ or, ‘Look how brave I am.'”
Salkind confirmed that Slater beat out competition from Demi Moore and star of the moment Brooke Shields to win the role. “I had never heard of this until recently!” says Slater. They were all part of what she described as a “group of ’80s actresses” who often took on the same roles.
“Nobody told me why I got this role,” says Slater, who admits that “much prettier, fuller, sweeter-looking girls” also attended the auditions. But he concedes that there’s an earnestness to his Supergirl that matches Reeve’s overgrown scout. “They really doubled down on the sweetness,” Slater says of his Supergirl. “It’s very different from what we’ll see on Milly.”
Supergirl introduced for the first time inside Superman Comics in 1959 as an effort to appeal to female readers. Real name Kara Zor-El, she hails from Argo City, which survived the destruction of Krypton. He was sent to Earth, aided his cousin Superman in various adventures, and later earned a stand-alone comic book title. While Milly Alcock had Krypto the Super Dog, the comic book version had Streaky the Super Cat and Comet the Super Horse.
1984’s much-derided screenplay super girlIt follows the Supergirl story by David Odell relatively faithfully. It’s also entertainingly ridiculous. Kara travels to Earth in search of the Omegahedron, a very powerful cannon object that keeps the lights of Argo City on. But the Omegahedron naturally falls into the possession of Selena, a witch who embodies the gleeful evil of Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor. Superman. Meanwhile, Kara encounters her alter ego, Linda Lee, at a posh boarding school (in fact, one of Kara’s powers is transforming her into a brunette schoolgirl), and Selena administers a love potion to handsome gardener Ethan (Hart Bochner). But the spell backfires and Ethan, who is definitely too old for schoolgirls, falls in love with Linda/Kara/Supergirl.
Although there is a scene where he saves Ethan from an illegal digger. super girlA sequence of Superman-like heroics; director Jeannot Szwarc did not want the film to be about superhuman strength. For Szwarc, 1984’s super girl it was about elegance and elegance. “Something more lyrical,” he later said. “I think we’d be in trouble if we tried to portray Superman in just a skirt.”
The first flight scene, where Kara arrives and discovers her powers, was designed as a “ballet”. Slater describes the wire working mechanisms as “very medieval”. It was lifted up by a winch, two men were winching the drum to move it left and right, and another man was pulling a rope to move it up and down. “Very very panto,” Slater jokes. “There’s nothing elegant about this.” Interviewed at the time, Slater explained that he overcame his fear of cable work when he told himself: “The worst thing that can happen is you might die.”
He gained seven kilos of muscle for the role, thanks to four months of training by British stuntman Alf Joint, who trained Christopher Reeve. Although Reeve’s cameo was scrapped (Supes was to fly Kara around Earth and show her how to do the superhero), Slater and Reeve became friends after meeting at Pinewood Studios. Superman III And super girl It was filmed.
He remembers once sitting in Central Park West when a small army of fire trucks squawked past in the early hours. Reeve, who died in 2004, joked that they had the night off. “Here’s Superman and Supergirl and there’s nothing we can do,” he said.
Slater also has fond memories of Peter O’Toole’s portrayal of Kara’s Kryptonian mentor, essentially the Marlon Brando role from the original Reeve movie (as Superman’s father Jor-El). It’s interesting to think about what O’Toole – Lawrence of Arabia himself, remember – makes of all this, having to fend off space nonsense (“Gravity radiation!”) and wave the wizard’s wand before being banished to the Phantom Zone. It’s fair to say he wasn’t exactly savvy at the time, with some right-handed roles in: Steve Guttenberg’s supernatural comedy High Spirits (1988) and King Ralph (1991). “Sometimes you have bills to pay,” says Slater.
His favorite memory of O’Toole was when he read some of the stuff. Romeo and Juliet for him. “There’s a lot of downtime when you’re making a movie,” Slater recalls. “One day, I did Juliet, one of the monologues I had memorized for her. She gave me direction. It was great direction. She said, ‘I want you to imagine holding a dandelion between your thumb and forefinger, and now I want you to do this conversation again.’ It was an incredible fit. The poem has just arrived.”
Slater recalls not spending much time with Peter Cook, whose cast as Nigel was rather grumpy – almost as grumpy as the olive drab leather casual suit he wore. Cook pulled no punches, called super girl “wretched”. She’s the comedic foil for Faye Dunaway’s dialed-to-11 villain, whose dark magic was primarily used to create Trillian. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy turn it upside down and cover Cook’s face with warts. “HE—-!” He says it was a really funny moment.
The director’s cut version mostly extends to a bit more dialogue, with the witch Selena using her evil gimmick to cook chicken. When I tell Slater that I watched the director’s cut in preparation for this article, he says: “Oh my God, you poor thing.” Even more exciting for superfans are screen test shots of Slater in an abandoned prototype costume complete with a 1980s-era headband. Looks like she’ll be releasing a Jane Fonda-style workout video.
super girl It was released in November 1984, a collaboration between the Salkinds and original distributor Warner Bros. The planned summer release was postponed due to the disagreement between. Reviews were box office kryptonite. “Rent Superman instead of sitting super girlThe headline of Gene Siskel’s review said. super girl It made only $14 million out of a $35 million budget.
Slater was in Texas is shooting his next movie The Legend of Billie Jean (1985), when super girl failed. “I wasn’t depending on how well he did or didn’t,” he says. “I must have heard it at some point. Things don’t work out the same when you’re 20. It didn’t seem personal to me. There was a theory for Chris that if things didn’t go well, he wouldn’t be burdened with that superhero thing.” [Reeve] It was really hard to get away. “I still wish it would continue.”
planned super girl The sequels were canceled and the Salkinds sold the film rights to B-movie dealers Cannon Films, who then dragged Reeve back to the cape for the notoriously terrible and cheap film. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
super girl He may have fallen at the time, but there are fans who remember it from TV reruns and Slater’s super girl When the CGI image appeared alongside Reeve, he was given the multiverse homage treatment that’s now standard for forgotten versions of rebooted heroes. Flash (2023).
Slater discovered super girl‘s cult comic has been gaining attention by attending fan conventions, but he himself admits with a laugh: “That doesn’t make it a good movie!”
This is an edited summary of a story first published in The Telegraph (UK).
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