I already wasn't going to watch your lame girlboss movie; you didn't need to sell it to me!
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New ‘Supergirl' star Milly Alcock pushed back against online critics ahead of the film's release, saying many of the people criticizing her past comments are anonymous "burner accounts" and profiles identifying themselves as "Dad of four, Christian" accounts.
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In a new interview with Variety, Alcock discussed the backlash surrounding her rise to the lead role in DC Studios' upcoming "Supergirl" movie and said she has learned to tune out online outrage as scrutiny around blockbuster franchises intensifies.
Here was her full quote from Variety:
I guess women know that this is just how it's always been, unfortunately ... and it's from a lot of people whose profiles have no photo, who are burner accounts. Or someone's name and then ‘Dad of four, Christian,' which is hilarious to me. But I mean, whose opinion do you really care about? If you're pissing the right kind of people off, you're doing OK.
Those have been the famous last words of many a franchise in recent years!
See, superhero comics are overwhelmingly - and I mean OVERWHELMINGLY - a guy thing. Men, particularly men who grew up in the golden era of comics in '80s to '00s, are the ones who care about those particular fictional characters.
Some of them are trolls. The bitter, angry kind that just like to be mean for the sake of being mean. But Alcock doesn't separate those "burner accounts" from legitimate criticisms or Christian dads of four (it's hilarious to her!).
These dads grew up loving comic books and now have money to buy lots of tickets so the movie can be profitable.
In other words, Alcock accidentally discovered her core audience and then told her core audience that she doesn't like them and thinks they are sexist bigots.
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Here's what the co-CEO of DC Studios, Peter Safran, told Alcock about the backlash:
I called her and just said, ‘You're doing great! You're handling it beautifully. You're never going to make everybody happy. Just be true to yourself. And I really do think she's handling it well. I would also recommend, don't wallow in it. It never makes you feel good.
So, instead of, "Hey, the fans are watching our work carefully, so if you don't want to prove the trolls right, let's zero in on making a 100% faithful adaptation of the character and source material," he told her "be true to yourself."
I've seen this play out before, and I know how it ends, my friends!
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As one commenter on YouTube put it:
We get it, Hollywood. You hate us. We see now every movie you've made for us in the last 10 years has had one message: 'We hate you'
Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel - and now DC - have spent the last decade telling their white, male fanbase to shove off while changing their brands into commentary on female self-actualization with generic sci-fi slop CGI-ed into the background.
But as it turns out, despite all the "Force is Female" vibes, women still don't show up to the box office for these films. They keep flopping!
Instead of reversing course and telling fans, "Hey, come see our fun movie," they keep doing interviews where they politicize everything and call the fans bigots.
'Of course I'm scared,' Alcock said in March. 'Of course, I want people to like me and the movie. But, ultimately, it's out of my control.'
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