Milly Alcock, who will be playing the titular Supergirl in the upcoming film, agrees that her character is a queer icon.
Alcock revealed her thoughts on fans embracing her character as a queer icon during a Rio de Janeiro press event for the DC Studios movie.
“I’ve played a few characters that might have a potential queer through line. I have many queer friends. So honestly, I’m kind of honored,” Alcock said.
“I’m honored that that’s happening, but I think because she doesn’t live inside the binary of what we think a woman should be, that is what makes it so special and so exciting and so new,” she added.
Alcock felt the fandom corresponded with her interpretation of the character.
“And yeah, I kind of thought that as well. I was like, she wouldn’t. She’d do what she’d want to do in that regard anyway,” she said.
As noted by Cosmic News, the character “has long carried significance for women, queer fans, and gender-diverse readers who see in Kara’s story a narrative about self-definition and carving out an identity separate from Superman.”
“This version, adapted from Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, leans hard into Kara as a messy, independent character who does things her own way,” it added.
Alcock engendered fan backlash earlier this year when she told Vanity Fair that she can be criticized for “simply existing as a woman.”
“It definitely made me aware that simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on,” Alcock said. “We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies. I can’t really stop them. I can only be myself.”