Let’s talk about Alicia Silverstone playing Batgirl one more time
By Josh Hill
Batgirl is getting her own stand alone movie, and the only actress to have played the character on the big screen wants back in.
It was 20 years ago this summer that Clueless actress Alicia Silverstone cashed in on her rising success in Hollywood to join rank with Batman. At the time, superhero movies weren’t what they are today, but the actress starring in a big budget blockbuster film was a big deal, regardless of franchise.
As it turned out, Batman and Robin has gone down as one of the worst movies in the history of cinema — a summer box office bomb that lit the fuse on the hard reset needed to give us the superhero golden era we have today.
Two decades after she briefly wore the Batgirl suit, Silverstone is open to putting it on again.
“I feel like I could do a much better Batgirl now than I did then. It would be fun to tackle it again,” Silverstone told USA TODAY. “Because I’m older and my acting is better. I know I would bring so much more to it.”
It’s a fascinating idea to think of Silverstone returning to a role that, under different circumstances, the actress could have nailed. The problems with Batman and Robin are too plentiful to pin on one performance or one scene, as Silverstone was stifled by poor production, a bad script and just a horrible idea of a film. She did the best she could with absolutely trash and ended up being one of the most memorable things about an otherwise cringeworthy film.
Returning to Batgirl and crafting a deep and complex character with layers to and years on her would be a fascinating concept. That’s the direction the DCEU has been heading anyways, with an older Batman and a veteran Superman — among others. An aged Batgirl, one we can peel back the layers on and really dig into psychologically as well has champion as a survivor of her profession, fits the universe and the direction Warner Bros wants to go with the franchise.
It won’t happen, but we can dream of the Alicia Silverstone Batgirl revival we’ll never see but would kill to witness.