Leslie Grace Martínez dropped her Hispanic surname to give herself a better chance of making it in Hollywood.
The Bronx-born Dominican actress was overjoyed when she landed the biggest role of her career – as Batgirl in a film that never made it to theaters.
Batgirl was already completed — with a $90 million budget — when Warner Bros. cancelled the movie’s launch.
According to Hollywood insiders, Warner Bros. Discovery executives shelved Batgirl after numerous test audiences panned the film with a Latina in the lead.
In a quarter 2 earnings call, CEO David Zaslav said Thursday that the studio will not release a movie it does not believe in.
“We’re not going to launch a movie to make a quarter and we’re not going to put a movie out unless we believe in it,” Zaslav said.
Warner Bros. was also nervous after the West Side Story remake with an all-Hispanic cast flopped at the box office last year.
Leslie Grace was reportedly “devastated” by the news. But Warner Bros. Discovery execs are entertaining the possibility of letting Grace play Batgirl in a future DC spin-off film, Variety reported.
