Milly Alcock, who will soon hit theaters across the world in the lead role of the new Supergirl movie, is already pointing the finger at sexist superhero film fans in what amounts to a pre-emptive strike should the project turn out to be a colossal failure at the box office. Honestly, the movie looks decent, so I would be shocked if it fails.
However, if it does, I hate to break it to Ms. Alcock, but sexism won’t cause it. Hollywood will have once again forsaken good storytelling for the sake of a political agenda. Fans have made it abundantly clear with the success of Project Hail Mary that they want good stories with likable characters that don't try to shove an agenda down their throats.
Alcock made her comments during an interview with Vanity Fair, and, as Breitbart News entertainment writer John Nolte put it, nothing else really explains what she said except a passing of the buck should the film underperform when it opens in June. She is bracing herself for attacks that likely won't come and comparing what she expects to her experience starring in the HBO Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon.
“It definitely made me aware that simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on,” Alcock said about House of the Dragon. “We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies. I can’t really stop them. I can only be myself.”
In his piece on Alcock, Nolte noted that when he searched for negative criticism of her performance in the series, he found nothing. At least nothing pertaining to her being a woman. This makes one wonder if the same folks who manage Snow White actress Rachel Zegler are also managing the Supergirl actress. If so, her career is going to be very short-lived.
"Alcock is acting like she’s the Rosa Parks of the Game of Thrones universe when the original Game of Thrones was a monster success for eight seasons and featured as many leading female characters as male characters, many of whom became iconic," Nolte wrote. "And then there’s this ludicrous notion that she’s storming the male barricades by 'existing as a woman in that space' when she’s playing Supergirl… Did you catch that? Super. Girl. Girl, as in girl, as in female."
I'm old enough to remember the days when movie stars relied on public relations people to help them navigate the minefield of media, but now, thanks to social media, these folks have direct access to their fans. That's cool, don't get me wrong, but it also means they have a greater chance of saying or doing something stupid. Like Alcock. Or Zegler.
Back then, as Nolte points out, advisers told stars not to alienate their customers. Movies are a business, and for a business to succeed it needs customers to buy the product. If you constantly degrade your audience as sexist or racist or any other "ist," you push them away from buying tickets or copies of the film. That means movies and the theaters that show them lose money.
For whatever reason, many in the industry still haven’t learned this lesson, despite the receipts sitting right in front of them. Studios seem equally stumped. There has to be at least one person of normal intelligence in the industry who sees this, right?
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