Leslie Grace is taking to social media to share footage from her scrapped film Batgirl. Last month Warner Bros. announced that it would not release the superhero flick, in which Grace starred as the title character alongside co-stars including Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser.
The In the Heights star, 27, shared a video montage on her TikTok account set to Omar Apollo’s song “Evergreen.” The 15-second video showed Grace preparing for the action role, from rehearsing a fight scene, to plunging off a ledge while attached to wires, to sitting in the makeup chair. The were also scenes of her wearing her Batgirl costume, riding a rocking horse while smiling brightly.
“I couldn’t resist,” Grace captioned the video.
In the comments, Grace received support from fans and friends that her work on the film won’t see the light of day.
“My heart is broken — you are amazing, and your hard work deserves to be seen!” one commenter wrote.
“Manifesting that you get your shot again. I was so sad to hear the news,” another shared.
Back in August, Grace spoke out about the decision from Warner Bros. to scrap the film before it was completed, Yahoo Entertainment previously reported.
“On the heels of the recent news, about our movie Batgirl, I am proud of the love, hard work and intention all of our incredible cast and tireless crew put into this film over seven months in Scotland,” she wrote. “I feel blessed to have worked among absolute greats and forged relationships for a lifetime in the process!”
The Dominican-American star concluded by vowing to take the advice of her character, also known as Barbara Gordon.
“To every Batgirl fan — THANK YOU for the love and belief, allowing me to take on the cape and become, as Babs said best, ‘my own damn hero!'” wrote Grace. “#Batgirl for life!”
Grace wasn’t the only star of the film to speak out. Ivory Aquino, who was cast as Gordon’s best friend, transgender Singaporean bartender Alysia Yeoh, wrote an open letter to Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav on Twitter to share her “grief” over the film’s cancellation.
Following the news in early August that Warner Bros. wouldn’t release the film, the Belgian directing team of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who were helming the project revealed that they no longer have access any footage from the film.
“No, we have nothing,” the duo told SKRIPT, with Fallah mentioning that his co-director suggested he belatedly try to record footage from the film on his smartphone. “Adil called me and said, ‘Go ahead shoot some things on your mobile.’ I went on the server and everything was blocked.”
The film had a $75 million budget that grew to $90 million after COVID delays. While it was originally intended to premiere on HBO Max, the studio decided against completing the film after it received low scores at an early test screening and a strategic shift away from producing substantially budgeted original movies for the streaming service, Yahoo Entertainment previously reported.
It was also reported by Variety that shelving Batgirl allowed Warner Bros. to take a tax write-down on the production.
