Melissa Benoist addresses ‘Supergirl’ critics, fans haven’t seen ‘Kara kicking butt’
Supergirl star Melissa Benoist went on the offensive to address the early criticisms levelled at the new show, including comparisons to that Saturday Night Live Black Widow sketch.
Some critics drew unfavorable comparisons between the first trailer for Benoist’s new superhero series and a SNL skit which saw Scarlett Johansson’s heroine struggle with a broken heart and broken heels.
“Obviously you see Kara in her work atmosphere [and] it resembles the Black Widow parody, but what you don’t see [in the trailer] is Kara kicking butt,” Benoist told Entertainment Weekly.
“There’s so much more in the pilot that I think people are really going to be surprised by…[The SNL spoof] came out and all of us thought it was so hilarious [but] I don’t think any of us expected people to compare them or put them side-by-side,” the former Glee star added.
Benoist has repeated that she feels “a huge sense of responsibility” after being cast as the superheroine, since there’s “a lot of pressure” to get it right.
“I want to do right,” she said. “Of course, this is a broad statement, but I want to do right by women. I want to portray someone they can relate to and look up to that’s not a trite or a shallow depiction…I want her to be complicated and flawed. I don’t want it to be campy. I want it to be grounded and human.”
Benoist is the series lead, playing Kara / Supergirl, and is joined by Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen, Laura Benanti as Alura Zor-El, Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant, Chyler Leigh as Alexandra “Alex” Danvers, Jeremy Jordan as Winslow “Winn” Schott, David Harewood as Hank Henshaw, and Dean Cain and Helen Slater.
Supergirl will premiere on October 26 on CBS.
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