{"id":564000,"date":"2026-07-01T20:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T20:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/564000\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T20:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T20:39:10","slug":"supergirl-milly-alcock-supported-by-1984-star-amid-box-office-setback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/564000\/","title":{"rendered":"Supergirl, Milly Alcock Supported by 1984 Star Amid Box Office Setback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supergirl<\/a> and star Milly Alcock<\/a> are getting support from someone who knows all about the pressure of playing the titular superhero on the big screen. <\/p>\n

Helen Slater was just 18 when her successful audition led to her acting debut as Kara Zor-El, cousin of Superman<\/a>, for the original 1984 movie Supergirl. Director Craig Gillespie\u2019s new Warner Bros.<\/a> film of the same name has been the subject of debate after launching to $37 million domestically<\/a> over the weekend, leading DC Studios<\/a> co-CEO Peter Safran to admit that the opening sum did not meet expectations<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the new Supergirl film,\u201d Slater tells The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cI thought Milly Alcock was astonishing \u2014 fierce, strong and great comic timing!\u201d <\/p>\n

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. \u201cI was very scrawny when I got the part,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThe trampolining was wild. I learned to do backflips on the trampoline, and then there\u2019s an aerial ballet in the Supergirl film, which we practiced quite a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HelenHelen Slater in the 1984 movie Supergirl.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>-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. \u201cI became friends with him, and he was just the loveliest person on the planet,\u201d Slater recalls. \u201cThere was no ill will or strangeness \u2014 just sweet, very protective, mentor-y kind of person for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019Toole made just $14 million domestically in its theatrical run after Tri-Star released it in November 1984.<\/p>\n

\"MillyMilly Alcock in Supergirl.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it didn\u2019t do well because we didn\u2019t make the second and third film,\u201d says Slater, who points out that she stayed busy with other projects. \u201cAs long as I was working, that seemed like the good news.\u201d She adds that fame was not something she necessarily embraced: \u201cI felt shy about it. It wasn\u2019t like, \u2018Hooray, people recognize me. Isn\u2019t this wonderful?\u2019 It just feels so strange and unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slater\u2019s other credits have included features like The Legend of Billie Jean and City Slickers, along with recurring as Clark Kent\u2019s mother on Smallville and as the adoptive mother of Melissa Benoist\u2019s 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<\/a> star Ezra Miller<\/a> when Slater visited the 2023\u2019s film London set for a de-aged cameo that showed her alongside the late Reeve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved that movie The Flash,\u201d Slater says. \u201cEzra was so lovely and knew about my graduate work in mythology and wanted to talk about that.\u201d While there was speculation at the time of The Flash\u2019s release that Slater\u2019s appearance as Supergirl was CGI-generated, the actress clarifies that she actually filmed the part: \u201cI was in this very wild machine with 600 eyes around it. But they could have just put a Barbie doll in because I\u2019m de-aged so much. They were so kind to fly me out to London, but I don\u2019t know that they needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. \u201cMy understanding is that these myths should be changing,\u201d she reasons. \u201cWe want reinterpretations. That keeps it alive and keeps it going. It echoes what\u2019s happening in the culture right now. It\u2019s fun that it evolves and keeps developing.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supergirl and star Milly Alcock are getting support from someone who knows all about the pressure of playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[130658,1981,18,117,240839,19,17,96907,327,111301,928,144354,25131],"class_list":["post-564000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-christopher-reeve","tag-dc-studios","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ezra-miller","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-milly-alcock","tag-movies","tag-supergirl","tag-superman","tag-the-flash","tag-warner-bros"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116846655830706281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}