Original '80s “Supergirl” star weighs in on Milly Alcock's version of the DC character
Original '80s “Supergirl” star weighs in on Milly Alcock's version of the DC character
Wesley StenzelWed, July 1, 2026 at 9:20 PM UTC
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Helen Slater in 'Supergirl'; Milly Alcock in 'Supergirl'Credit: Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty; Courtesy of Warner Bros. PicturesKey points -
Helen Slater, who played Supergirl in 1984's Supergirl, shared her opinion on the new Supergirl movie starring Milly Alcock.
Slater said she thinks that superhero "myths should be changing": "We want reinterpretations."
The actress also recalled filming a cameo for 2023's The Flash.
Helen Slater is sharing her two cents on the latest version of Supergirl.
The actress, who made her film debut as Kara Zor-El in 1984's Supergirl, discussed Craig Gillespie's new movie about the DC hero starring Milly Alcock.
"I loved the new Supergirl film," Slater toldTHR. "I thought Milly Alcock was astonishing — fierce, strong and great comic timing!"
Milly Alcock in 'Supergirl'Credit: Warner Bros.
Slater had no qualms about the character being reimagined for the new movie. "My understanding is that these myths should be changing," she said. "We want reinterpretations. That keeps it alive and keeps it going. It echoes what's happening in the culture right now. It's fun that it evolves and keeps developing."
Slater's Supergirl movie served as a spinoff of the '70s and '80s Superman series starring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. Though Reeve himself didn't appear in the film, Marc McClure did reprise his role as Jimmy Olsen from the Superman movies — and Slater still connected with Reeve off-screen.
Helen Slater in Los Angeles on Dec. 9, 2023Credit: Araya Doheny/Getty
"I became friends with him, and he was just the loveliest person on the planet," the actress said of the Somewhere in Time actor, who died in 2004. "There was no ill will or strangeness — just sweet, very protective, mentor-y kind of person for me."
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Reeve and Slater eventually shared the screen — kind of — in 2023's The Flash, which featured a number of cameos from previous superhero actors as multiple DC universes begin to collide. Though many assumed that Slater's appearance was CGI, the actress said that she actually filmed new material for the cameo.
"I was in this very wild machine with 600 eyes around it," she said. "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."
Slater also said that she "loved" The Flash and that she had a positive experience with its star, Ezra Miller. "Ezra was so lovely and knew about my graduate work in mythology and wanted to talk about that," she recalled.
The Flash wasn't Slater's first return to the DC multiverse. The actress previously voiced Talia al Ghul on four episodes of Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s, and later returned to her Kryptonian roots when she portrayed Lara-El, the biological mother of Superman, on three episodes of Smallville between 2007 and 2010.
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Slater also played Eliza Danvers, the foster mother of Melissa Benoist's Supergirl, on the CBS/CW series Supergirl from 2015 to 2021. During that same period, she voiced Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman, in the animated TV movie DC Super Hero Girls: Super Hero High in 2016.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
