Last week was a whirlwind of the best kind! I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Supergirl press junket. Starring Milly Alcock as the titular character, alongside Eve Ridley as Ruthye and Jason Momoa as Lobo, Supergirl joins forces with an unlikely companion on an interstellar journey of vengeance and justice when an unexpected adversary strikes too close to home.
Based on the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic series, the upcoming DC Studios film is directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) and written by Ana Nogueira.
Ahead of the film’s release, I spoke with Alcock and Ridley about their time working on Supergirl, including learning to speak Kryptonian, the emotional and physical challenges they faced in their roles, creating a believable bond between their characters, and more!
Watch the full Supergirl interview with Milly Alcock and Eve Ridley below:
Kara and Ruthye are the heart of the film, so you need great, believable performances. Alcock and Ridley deliver just that as their respective characters, and the duo told me a little about what it was like building their relationship on and off-screen.
Ridley said, “I would say it was quite easy. It helped as well that we shot the movie in chronological order. So I think as the character relationship developed, we got closer.”
Alcock followed with, “I feel very protective of Eve, like personally. And I really don’t want anything bad to ever happen to you. And I think that’s, you know, that’s Kara’s relationship with Ruthye, and that kind of hopefully comes across on screen. But honestly, I was just so fortunate to get to work with Eve. I cannot imagine a more head-on her shoulders fabulous young woman to get to work alongside, like you were just such a beautiful human.”
There are various scenes throughout the film in which viewers will see Kara speak Kryptonian. I asked Alcock what it was like for her to learn the language and what the process behind it was like.
Alcock shared, “Yeah, I mean it’s kind of like learning how to sing a song in another language, except it’s your acting, so I would just learn the scene very thoroughly in English, so I understood what was happening in the scene and with the other actor, and I didn’t have to rely on hearing them say it in English to understand what was going on, and then I would learn the scenes line by line by line in Kryptonian, and then learn the end of the other actor’s line, like the last syllable in Kryptonian, so I knew my cue.”
While I am sure it was fun to portray their respective characters, I wondered what the pair enjoyed most about each other’s characters, including imperfections and persistence.
Ridley replied, “I love Kara’s imperfections. I love how she conveys a message of, you can’t be messy, you can, you know, you can go out on the night, you can just be yourself, and sometimes that’s what people are inspired by.”
Alcock said, “I would say I was Ruthye’s persistence in what she wants. I think it is such an admirable quality.”
A film like Supergirl presents both emotional and physical challenges for an actor. So, I asked the pair what it was like to tackle both and whether they had a preference between the two.
Alcock told me, “Yeah, I didn’t. I didn’t really have a preference, and I think that’s just again back to Ana, our beautiful writer. She just wrote in these action sequences that were kind of fundamentally charged by Kara’s emotional point in the film. And I think that is such a gift as an actor within this space – is having that sequence really validated and rooted in what I’m feeling, where am I, where is this anger coming from, and how is it affecting the way that I’m moving.”
Ridley added, “Yeah, I think they were equally as hard as each other, but also written, so they were easy.”