An acclaimed Australian film and television director known for his sharp, offbeat comedy and ability to balance dark humour with heartfelt drama, Craig Gillespie’s recent films have covered the spectrum of depicting a variety of women. In I, Tonya, his 2017 biopic of Tonya Harding, he presented a fierce and gritty individual (played by Margot Robbie, which earned the actor an Academy Award nomination for the role) who defied the traditional expectations of a figure skater. That was followed by Cruella in 2021, which served as a backstory for the legendary Disney antagonist Cruella de Vil, played with devilish delish by Emma Stone.
Come June 26, and Gillespie has the huge responsibility of bringing the story of DC Comics superhero Supergirl to the big screen worldwide. The second film in the DC Universe (DCU), the big-budget film stars Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El/ Supergirl, alongside Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Corenswet (who reprises his role of Superman), and Jason Momoa (as alien mercenary and bounty hunter, Lobo). In the film, Supergirl travels across the galaxy on a murderous quest for revenge.
STRIKING A BALANCE
Supergirl’s initial official title was ‘Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow’, indicating that the film would adapt the eponymously named 2022 comic. Gillespie’s directorial, however, relies heavily on a script written by debutant feature film screenwriter Ana Nogueira, a fact that the filmmaker is gung-ho about, especially because it makes Supergirl both a soaring superhero and a vulnerable human.
Supergirl’s superhuman qualities come hand-in-hand with vulnerability, spontaneity and being unapologetic, all of which ground her. How was that balance achieved in the story, is how t2 started its recent video conversation with Craig Gillespie.
The filmmaker was visibly excited about lending equal weightage to both sides of Supergirl/ Kara Zor-El’s personality. “I was so excited about that aspect of this. It was in the script that Ana (Nogueira) wrote, which is an amazing script. The complexity, the vulnerability and the emotional journey that she goes on is so much more relatable to me,” Gillespie told t2.
He added that he went into Supergirl with the uncompromising idea that he didn’t want her to be just another assembly-line-produced superhero. “What I find many times in the superhero universe, particularly with females, is that they are perfect, they are made to have no flaws. I find that so hard to relate to,” said the director.
Director Craig Gillespie (left) with Milly Alcock on the sets of Supergirl
When we first meet Supergirl, she is in a space where she is running away from her responsibilities. “That was such an interesting place to start from and I was so excited they wanted to lean into that,” Gillespie told t2.
He added: “The other thing that I asked for right at the beginning was that she hold off wearing her Supergirl outfit for as long as possible in the film because I wanted to tie into her emotional journey. I felt she was not ready for it (the costume) and so it happens late in the film. To work with that and have that as part of our story was amazing.”
So what qualities of Kara did Craig himself identify with, something that worked to his advantage when it came to guiding Milly on screen? “Probably a lot of them,” smiled the man. Gillespie feels that Milly Alcock brought a special something to the role, which he felt “fortunate enough” to watch unfolding as he directed her on set. “What is interesting, and perhaps even funny, is she (Kara) didn’t ask for this role (of a superhero), it was put on her. And so, for a large section of the film, she is running away from it, she avoids it.”
BECOMING A SUPERHERO
Kara’s metamorphosis into Supergirl is not for herself, but with an eye on Rutheye Marye Knoll (pronounced “Ruthie”), a core protagonist alongside herself in the DC storyline Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Ruthie is an honest and honourable, revenge-driven young alien who enlists Supergirl’s help to track down Krem of the Yellow Hills, the mercenary who murdered her father.
“As she is trying to help Ruthie with her trauma, she goes through this process of realising what she is doing and why she needs to step up and take this responsibility,” Gillespie told t2.
Kara has an innate goodness that Gillespie believes is “her North Star”. “Her mother (Alura, played by Emily Beecham) says to her: “You don’t have to be kind, but you need to be good. I see the sensibility and I relate to that. I try to be good,” he chuckled.
So what does Milly Alcock — who gained worldwide recognition as the young Rhaenyra Targaryen in the fantasy series House of the Dragon — bring to such a challenging part that makes it uniquely hers? “I couldn’t have been more excited that Milly is in this film... she was attached to the project before me but I was familiar with her early work. She is such a brilliant actor,” said Gillespie.
DOING THE DANCE
Gillespie, as discussed earlier, is an expert in melding different genres in the same film, and Supergirl carries that forward. “I have a tone that I always like to do... and that is the dance between comedy and drama. I find it very hard to find actors who can achieve that. For an actor, that has to be there in their DNA... you can’t really teach someone that. But with Milly, I could see that it was in her previous work,” he said.
He went on to elucidate what it meant doing that “dance” with Milly, with him directing her from behind the camera. “To be able to do a scene where she has so much pathos, drama and accessibility in her face... you can’t not watch her. But then, within the same sentence, she can get some humour in there. That dance is amazing!”
Alcock, 26, whose other notable work includes the TV series Upright and who had an uncredited appearance as Supergirl in the 2025 film Superman, starring David Corenswet as the caped superhero, is an actor who likes to improvise, a quality that found immense favour with Gillespie. “I would be close to the camera and we would be throwing out lines or she would try something else... she is so brilliant with her craft,” said Gillespie.
He rounded off by talking about a particular scene, among many others, that he believes will create an impact on the viewer. “Being on Krypton (the fictional home planet of Superman) meant that she had to learn another language. I just mentioned to her that she had to learn this language and we never really talked about it again. But she worked with the linguist and she came in that day and did this scene with her father (Zor-El, played by David Krumholtz) that was four pages long! And you would have thought she had been speaking this language since birth. It was so beautifully done and so emotional that I literally got my hair standing on my arm. I was blown away. It meant I could step in and give her notes on this language that didn’t exist, and she could simply adjust. It was an amazing performance to watch.”
Priyanka Roy
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