Milly Alcock’s Supergirl Is A Delightful Disaster. The Movie Doesn’t Always Deserve Her

When you first meet Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl in DC’s latest blockbuster, Supergirl, she’s drunk. She’s a mess of a woman — dishevelled, dissociating from her trauma, and self-medicating with alcohol, isolation, and her dog, Krypto. Milly Alcock’s stumbling, reckless, and sloppy Supergirl is a fascinating character and the edgiest female superhero I have ever seen onscreen. Alcock is exceptional in the role. It’s too bad the movie, in theaters Friday, never quite meets her magic. Kara is a character who lost her family way too young, was sent to a planet with her overachieving cousin, and whose only friend is a dog with superpowers. Her empathy is heroic and of course, when she’s not fleeing to planets without yellow suns so she can get wasted, she’s got all the strength of a superhero too. 

But Kara isn’t your typical heroine, and she’s nothing like her cousin, Clark. She is a character who could have delivered one of the most original and thrilling films in the DC universe because Alcock is giving a performance worthy of a great and unique story. Instead, the movie focuses more on Ruthye (Eve Ridley), a girl on a mission of revenge after her family is murdered, and gives her the bigger arc and opportunity for character growth. It’s disappointing that the movie wastes so much time on Ruthye (and straight up wastes Jason Momoa’s Lobo) because Alcock’s Kara is so captivating, all you want is to root for her and watch her battle her demons while battling some bad guys. The latter is there — lots of fighting, explosions, and typical over-the-top CGI action sequences — but the movie never really meaningfully digs into Kara’s complexities and why she’s been so self destructive. It’s a shame because Alcock is bursting off the screen, begging for material worthy of her performance. 

That said, I still think Supergirl is worth your time. Alcock puts the film on her back and saves it from itself. Her take on Kara alone makes it worth it, but there are also some entertaining moments where glimpses of a gritty, messy young girl tasked with caring too much when she’s desperately attempting to be careless shine through. When I talk to Alcock and screenwriter Ana Nogueira, they explain why this character is so special: she’s exactly who they would have wanted to see onscreen in their youth. I agree. I just wish she was given a better story. Below, Alcock and Nogueira talk about bringing this character to life, the impact on young girls watching, and Alcock’s affinity towards Kara’s “smelly” trenchcoat. 

Refinery29: We don’t often see alcoholic disheveled women onscreen, period, but especially not in the superhero genre. Milly, talk about how important it was for you to play this drunken mess of a young woman.

Milly Alcock: I think that is exactly what excited me to play the role, because she’s so unconventional. I think that she’s such an exciting character, and she brings such a different perspective to the superhero universe entirely. I was just really thrilled.

I think the fact that she is messy and doesn’t have her shit together is something that I really connected to. Anna, you said that you were very intentional about making Supergirl rougher and grittier and edgier and funnier than people have seen onscreen before. So, talk about taking that approach.

Ana Nogueira: In a lot of ways it was inspired by Tom King’s comic run, and he kind of gave me permission by putting it in canon that this is how she is. To me, it just made sense with her backstory. If I had been through what she had been through, and then I showed up on this planet, and the first person I met is my relative [Superman], who is the ultimate lovely boy scout. It’s all a little, let’s say, destabilizing. It just made sense to me. It wasn’t grit for grit’s sake. It just felt true to the character.

There’s so much talk about this being woman-led. Supergirl is such an iconic woman in this DC universe. How much did both of you think of the impact this movie would have on young women and young girls watching?

MA: In terms of impact, it was a film that, if I was a young girl, I would have really loved to see, and I think that that is what makes this film so exciting, and it made it so much fun to play and to be on set. The impact is tremendous.

AN: Totally. When I first saw the costume design of the trench and the blondie, I said, if I had seen this when I was 16 years old, I would have lost my mind. I would have just wanted to be this girl. There are a lot of female superheroes, but they’re all… I just wanted this one to feel different. You can feel like you want to be like Wonder Woman, you can feel like you want to be like Black Widow, you relate to these characters, and I just think that there’s a whole swath of young women who are going to be like that is the one that reminds me of me, that is the one that feels aspirational and cool.

Milly’s performance is everything you would want when it comes to relatability. You mentioned the trenchcoat and I said the word “disheveled” earlier. Milly, what was your favorite part of the look she’s in for most of the movie since the Supergirl costume doesn’t come until later? 

MA: I adored her look, and it’s probably the only piece of clothing that she owns. It’s the look that she has, because it’s not a priority for her at the time. It was such a comfortable costume, and as soon as I put on her civilian look, it felt like I understood who she was, and the way that she wanted to be seen and not be seen by the world, by it being so disheveled and so worn, and probably a bit smelly. 

AN: Totally smelly. Totally. You see what her ship looks like? That trench doesn’t smell good [laughs]. 

Supergirl is in theaters Friday, June 26, 2026. 

This interview has been edited for clarity.

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