- 5 weeks ago
From her first impressions of the script to the research, preparation, and creative choices that shaped her performance, Milly Alcock breaks down how she brought the role of Supergirl to life. Hear Milly reflect on the character's motivations, key scenes, and the challenges of stepping into the role, offering an intimate look at the craft behind her performance and the journey from page to screen.
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00:00I mean, it's difficult to learn a language that isn't real,
00:03but I kind of just learned it the same way I learned
00:07High Valerian for House of the Dragon.
00:15It's a feisty little guy.
00:17Hi, I'm Millie Alcock, and this is how I became
00:21Kara Zor-El, also known as Supergirl, in Supergirl.
00:31I learned about this role through a general meeting I had
00:37with one of the executive producers, Peter Saffron.
00:41Initially, what I thought about playing a superhero,
00:44I was a bit like, what, me?
00:46Like, I don't know if I, as Millie, can do that,
00:49but what was so exciting to me and so refreshing about Kara
00:53is she's such an unexpected hero.
00:56She's got so much humility and so much depth.
01:00When I got the opportunity to read the script
01:02and to be sent the book that the film is based off,
01:06Woman of Tomorrow, that really gave me insight
01:09into how complex she is and how different this story really is
01:14from any other version that we've seen of this character.
01:18Kara, in this version of Supergirl that we see her in,
01:21it's her origin story. It's about her coming from Krypton to Earth
01:27and her kind of journey in between that.
01:30It's all set on space.
01:31She isn't, like, a sidekick to Clark in any means,
01:35and it's really a story about the trauma that she's been through.
01:38I'm worried you're not gonna find your people.
01:40Yeah, well, that's the thing, Clark.
01:44I have no people.
01:46The scene that I first read for the self-tape is in the top of the film.
01:52There's a scene with me in a pub on my birthday, very drunk.
01:57And then a couple weeks later, they basically called me and were like,
01:59can you come to Atlanta to do a screen test?
02:02And I've never done a screen test before,
02:04so that whole process was very daunting
02:07because it was on the lot that Superman was being shot at at the time.
02:10We were shooting in Lois Lane's apartment,
02:13which is kind of crazy.
02:15James Gunn was there, Chantal was there, Peter Safran was there,
02:18Anna the Rider was there, but it was a very, very dark room.
02:21So I kind of, in my anxious blood, like, shook everyone's hand
02:24and then immediately forgot what was happening.
02:26And I remember the chemistry read for the part of Ruthie.
02:31I went in with three other girls that were also auditioning for Ruthie.
02:34And as soon as everybody left, Craig was like, who, okay, who do you think it is?
02:37And I was like, well, it's the first girl.
02:38And that was Eve.
02:39So you just, you know, you just know, she's just her.
02:42I was visiting my family back home in Australia
02:45and I awoke to a WhatsApp from James Gunn
02:50and he sent me a deadline article, which was cool.
02:52But I was also like, call me, like, you know, like, okay.
02:57Now I'm just like, oh, what do I do now?
03:03The conversations that I had with Craig and James about Kara,
03:08I think that they really trusted me in a way that I, at that point,
03:13hadn't learned to trust myself.
03:15We didn't really have a big rehearsal process.
03:18We didn't do a table read.
03:19We didn't stay entirely 100% faithful for the narrative of the comic book.
03:26There were elements that were heightened, but in terms of the heart of the story
03:30and the heart of who these characters are,
03:32that is completely rooted into the film and into the script.
03:36Kara's headspace in the film, we meet her at a very low point in her life.
03:41And the film kind of explores her ability and her journey to become a hero.
03:47She's lost everybody she's ever known.
03:50Any place that she's ever been to as a child, any person she's ever spoken to,
03:54you know, any smell that she's ever smelt, any sounds, is gone.
04:00And she's put on a different planet.
04:02She's put on earth and she doesn't speak the language.
04:05And she's trying to adjust to this new environment and this new ecosystem.
04:09And she's gifted powers in this sense as well.
04:12So she's feeling very alien.
04:14Let's make it green, yeah.
04:16She can't really save herself.
04:17She needs Ruthie to save herself.
04:19Ruthie is one of the leads in the film and she's played by Eve Ridley.
04:24And I mean, Ruthie, going on a journey together across space.
04:29The relationship between Kara and Ruthie is,
04:32initially Kara kind of doesn't want Ruthie to tag along.
04:36She's very resistant to forming a bond with Ruthie because of what is at stake,
04:43which is her dog.
04:44Her dog is not in a good way and she's getting in the way of that.
04:48But ultimately, they kind of form this really beautiful kinship and bond together.
04:55And they realize that they both really need each other.
04:57So they become very, very close.
04:59I made playlists for Kara and I sent them to Chantal and Craig when we were in post-production.
05:06There was a lot of Am on the Sniffers, a lot of Fontaine's DC, Radiohead, Geese.
05:13It was kind of just like this big collage of the film.
05:17And then the further that I got along in the making of the film,
05:20I would just like remake a playlist, but use kind of the same songs, but in like a different order.
05:24Music was really helpful as a tool in that way.
05:27I personally think that, you know, in her private life off camera,
05:30she would be a massive music fan and would have a bunch of different playlists.
05:34So how many comic book languages I had to learn?
05:36So I was very lucky that I only had to learn one.
05:39But with the magic of cinema, they kind of like artificially like,
05:43because it had to sound like an alien, you know?
05:45Learning Kryptonian, um, it was okay.
05:48Like it wasn't, it wasn't particularly...
05:49I mean, it's difficult to learn a language that isn't real,
05:53but I kind of just learned it the same way I learned High Valerian for House of the Dragon.
06:07You just know the scene front to back in English.
06:10So you understand what you're saying and what is being said to you.
06:13And then you go into learning it in a different language.
06:15Because if you just learn it in the context of the language,
06:17you can't associate what is being said in English.
06:20And also they changed the grammar for these languages,
06:24which is so fun for me.
06:27I got, um, sent voice memos for, from the linguist,
06:30who like makes all of these fake, mystical, magical languages.
06:35It's the same guy who does all these languages as the same man.
06:38I think he works with all of kind of in that sci-fi space with fake languages.
06:43It's, I mean, what a job, right?
06:45Interview him, you know what I mean?
06:47There's a lot of fight scenes in this movie.
06:48I started physically prepping, I think about two months to six weeks
06:53out from going to camera and I did, would do two hours of stunt training a day,
06:59which was really fun.
07:00It sounds worse than it was.
07:01And that could consist of anything from just general learning how to throw a punch.
07:06The stunt team was so magnificent in that they really had a system
07:10of how to introduce anybody who had never done a stunt before into,
07:14how do you throw a punch with your right hand, with your left hand?
07:17How do you step kick now?
07:18How do you fall correctly?
07:20And then it would be like, okay, now let's put two together.
07:23Now let's put three together.
07:24Okay, now let's do a sequence.
07:26Now let's bring somebody else for you to act opposite, which instantly changes.
07:30You know, if you're pretending to throw a punch and like take a punch,
07:33it's very different when there's like a six foot four stuntman
07:37going at full speed, you're suddenly like, oh my God,
07:40but it became, it became a dance and that got really, really fun.
07:42We see Kara fight with different stakes and different influences.
07:48So we see her fight and she's intoxicated and she has no powers.
07:52And then we see that slowly progress to her to be very, very angry,
07:58very, very angry and having all of her powers completely back.
08:03There's a lot of like martial art influences that you won't really be able to see
08:07unless I think you do martial arts.
08:09It isn't like suddenly I like do karate, you know, I'm not saying that,
08:12but you can, you can kind of see it and spot it.
08:15That at times I would get very frustrated with myself because you feel,
08:19you feel embarrassed, you know, you feel like, oh no, they're better than me.
08:24But then, you know,
08:25they build your confidence up and they see that grow and they see you grow.
08:29I think that for me,
08:31the most complex were the days when I would get to work and I would be taught it on the
08:36spot.
08:36They would give me 20 minutes, like 20 minutes, 10, 15 minutes.
08:39They would teach you a sequence like on the spot.
08:41We're very fortunate that we shot pretty chronologically.
08:44So all of the stunts at the start of the film,
08:46I had rehearsed in stunt training for, you know, a couple of weeks.
08:50So I felt very confident with those.
08:51But then as time went on, they didn't, I didn't have time.
08:54They didn't have time to teach me these, these big sequences.
08:57So I would get to work and have to learn everything like 10, 15 minutes before we would roll.
09:03So that was very stressful, but very fun.
09:07I don't want to give any spoilers away, but at the end of the film,
09:10there's a big sequence of me fighting in my glorious suit.
09:14And pretty much everything that I do in that suit, I was taught on the day.
09:19All the fight was on the day.
09:20It was a lot.
09:22Could I throw a punch off if I needed to?
09:23I mean, if the stakes were high enough, yes, it would hurt.
09:27It might be very flaccid, but you know.
09:34Drawing inspiration from the comic book, we wanted her to look like she didn't care.
09:39Because she doesn't really, she doesn't really wear makeup in the film.
09:43You know, she's not really concerned about that.
09:44That's not her priority.
09:45These clothes should look like she lives in them.
09:48But I remember the coat being a really, not difficult thing to learn on,
09:51but it went through so many different variations of like,
09:53does the hem go on a diagonal?
09:55Is there a hood?
09:56Is there like, what color is it?
09:57How dirty is it?
09:58Like, what is, how does it feel?
10:00How does it move?
10:00How look changes throughout the movie to reflect her character arc.
10:03We see her kind of realize it, that it's not about her at the end of the day.
10:08And she needs, she needs to save Ruthie to save herself.
10:13So the courage to put on the suit is, is really impactful to her emotional arc.
10:19The first time it felt to put on the suit, it was actually a year before I shot Supergirl,
10:23which is very interesting because of Superman, because I did the cameo and I wore the suit.
10:27At that time, I had just been cast like a month before.
10:32So it all happened so incredibly quickly.
10:33And then, and then I was in the suit and it was kind of like, okay,
10:37I'm in the fortress of solitude.
10:39This is kind of crazy.
10:40And I did a take and Chantal, one of our producers started crying.
10:46And I just went up to her and I was like, are you okay?
10:48And she was like, I've been trying to make this film for five years.
10:52And that really just made me aware about the responsibility to, to play her.
10:58But not only for, for the fans and the people who are gonna, who are already a fan of Supergirl,
11:02but for the people making it.
11:03The suit was modified and changed from its comic book look.
11:06In the suit that I wore in Superman, there was a different skirt and boots.
11:11The boots weren't the same boots that we see in Woman of Tomorrow,
11:15which is like over the knee kind of triangle.
11:19And the skirt was different and the belt was different.
11:23So that's what was modified into our film, which is true to the comic book.
11:28The suit helps embody Kara's growth.
11:31It's a symbol, you know, it's, it's a symbol for her,
11:34her desire to face the fact that she does have a responsibility to care for others,
11:39even as resistant as she wants to be within that.
11:42And you know, the S standing for hope, she isn't a very hopeful person,
11:47but I believe that she has the capacity to hope that hope is possible.
11:51And that's what drives her to put it on.
11:55A regular day on set, I would wake up at the hotel right next to the studio.
12:02I would go probably at about five in the morning, go train.
12:07I would train for 45 minutes and then I would go to my trailer at Unibase.
12:12I would shower at work and then I would go into hair and makeup for about an hour.
12:18And then if it was, depending on what we were shooting that day,
12:21if I was in civilian clothes, I would go get changed.
12:23And then I would go to set.
12:25We would read the scene together.
12:26We would then collaboratively block the scene with me and Craig into an actor's rehearsal.
12:32And then we would show that rehearsal to the crew.
12:33So we would do a crew rehearsal so they understood where we were going to be moving,
12:36if they needed to adjust lighting, props.
12:39And then the set would kind of get built in that time.
12:43And then we would start, start the day.
12:46Sometimes like a two page scene could take two days.
12:50Sometimes it could take an afternoon.
12:51We really became this very dysfunctional family.
12:55We weren't really working in really vast, expansive spaces.
12:59It really afforded the opportunity for everybody to connect and to form this bond.
13:05There wasn't a video village.
13:06And a video village is traditionally, when you work on a big film,
13:09there's a separate tent outside of the set where all of the important people go sit and watch it.
13:16But with our set, Craig was on set with a monitor.
13:18Like he was a part of it.
13:20Craig was building so many different worlds that we needed to have an environment
13:24that we could manipulate.
13:26So we kind of needed to be, to be in a soundstage, yeah.
13:29We were mostly in sets and in worlds that were physically built.
13:33So pretty much everything was physically made.
13:36Practical sets in any form is so beneficial for every department, I believe.
13:40If you're really seeing and existing in the space that you're going to see on screen,
13:44it's so much more immersive.
13:48Which scene I'm most proud of?
13:50Don't make me answer that.
13:51I don't know.
13:52I kind of think I'm at a point yet where I can be objective about my work,
13:57but I'm just really proud of everybody who was a part of making this film.
14:01Like it took like hundreds, if not thousands of people worked on this single film.
14:06And I applaud absolutely every one of them.
14:08They have done such an astonishing job.
14:10To be part of a massive franchise and play such an iconic character is a lot of responsibility.
14:18And it's also an utter privilege.
14:21It's just, it's so frightening.
14:22Because the audience already has a preconceived notion of who this character is.
14:26Like in a way they almost own her.
14:28And I'm asking for the permission to play her, you know?
14:31Because there's this very strong bond that is built of her before the movie to the comic books.
14:38So, yeah, it's daunting, exciting, amazing, and wonderful.
14:44Do you have any idea where the car's journey goes now?
14:47I do, but I'm not going to tell you that.
14:50Thank you Teen Vogue for going on this journey with me.
14:54And I hope you guys all catch Supergirl out in cinemas June 26.
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