Milly Alcock is learning how to handle her fears. And less than three weeks before the release of “Supergirl,” in which she stars as the titular heroine in the film adaptation of the beloved DC comic-book franchise, she had a few.
“I get one life on this planet, and of it not being anything but extraordinary … that’s a really scary thing,” she said, fiddling with her mango-and-banana smoothie on the tree-lined patio of a Beverly Hills restaurant. “But I’ve also learned to love it in this new way, and this new gift of learning to accept the fear.”
At that exact moment, a single pink flower drifted from the greenery above, landing directly in front of her. “Oh my God, so beautiful!” she exclaimed. “The flower. A gift!”
If this were a scene in a movie you wouldn’t buy it, it’s just too on-the-nose. But it’s a fitting metaphor for the Australian actress’s current state of mind: Trying to find beauty and groundedness while getting the most attention she’s ever received in her life.
Alcock, 26, is no stranger to the spotlight, after bursting onto the scene in 2022 as the heedless contrarian princess Rhaenyra Targaryen on the hugely popular “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon,” followed by her portrayal of the polished, striving 20-something assistant Simone in the soapy mini-series “Sirens” last year.
But in her first lead film role, she’s carrying the weight of the retooled DC Universe’s second movie, the follow-up to the $618 million-grossing “Superman” from 2025 and a big bet from the DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran. “Supergirl” reportedly cost $175 million not including marketing and needs to make $315 million just to break even. And unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe heyday of the 2010s, superhero movies are far from a sure thing in 2026: One hasn’t crossed the billion-dollar mark since “Deadpool & Wolverine” in 2024.
The pressure wasn’t apparent when Alcock met me for breakfast on a sunny morning in early June. Makeup-free and blond hair tousled, the star was dressed simply in a black top, loose Levi’s and no adornment other than quick peeks of the tattoos under her long sleeves when she moved. She was disarming, friendly and quick to hug, chatting as easily about her iconic alter ego as about her new fluffy black cat, Guinness. (Yes, named after the beer.) Though she’s only been back to Australia once since being cast in “House of the Dragon” five years ago, her easy Down Under charm was evident.
Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find that the Aussieness extends to a cleareyed approach to her job. In her home country, “it’s actually about your quality of life holding more weight than your career,” she said.
“My life as Milly, independent of my career, will always take precedence. Any day. Because that’s where I exist. I don’t exist in this,” she added, gesturing at our leafy surroundings.
It’s a healthy attitude, especially now that’s she’s felt a bit of heat from that spotlight glare. In March, she ruffled feathers when she spoke with Vanity Fair about her experience with toxic fandom and “House of the Dragon.” And in a Variety interview last month, she called out her online haters, making an example of “Dad of four, Christian,” setting off another backlash. She regrets the latter comments.
“Obviously it was never my intention to isolate a group of people,” she said. “I’m frustrated with myself for diverting the attention from the hundreds of thousands of people who worked on this film to something very careless that I said. I got into this industry because I wanted to be a really good actor, and now I’m at a new phase where, actually, a different part of my job is learning how to be in the media and how to navigate that space.”
Still, in the promo tour universe, where stars get really good at delivering sound (bites) and fury signifying nothing, Alcock’s honesty is refreshing. And her boss, for one, is sympathetic. “I don’t think it’s easy for anybody to go from anonymity to stardom so quickly,” Safran said. “I don’t think she craves the spotlight.” He said it was exactly her realness that made him and Gunn want to cast her as Supergirl, a.k.a. Kara Zor-El, in the first place. “It’s part of who she is,” he added, and the more press she does, “the more she’ll realize that she merits the spotlight and deserves it and probably gets more comfortable with it. But it’s a process.”
Alcock was initially hesitant to be part of another huge franchise after “House of the Dragon.”
“When you’re playing beloved fictional parts that have been seen onscreen or in text, whatever other medium, the audience has to accept you,” she said. “You’re asking them to accept you as this version of this character. And it feels quite vulnerable.”
She saw some of her self in Kara, Clark Kent’s hot mess of a cousin who drunkenly collects her dog Krypto in the final scene of “Superman,” and spends a good amount of “Supergirl” in red-sun-planet party mode. But her bluster masks a traumatized, resilient and, ultimately, kind center. “Very beautifully and very surprisingly, she was someone who was just so close to the bone and who I am fundamentally as a person,” Alcock said.
Born in Petersham, a formerly gritty, now gentrified suburb of Sydney, the actress grew up with two younger brothers, Eddy, who now works in agriculture and sustainability, and Bertie, a rugby player for the Western Force in Perth. Always more interested in acting than academics, Alcock quit high school in 2018 when she won the role of the brash teenager Meg on the Australian TV show “Upright.”
“I tried really hard” in school, “but my brain just couldn’t do it,” said the actress, who says she has A.D.H.D. “Sometimes in the educational system, if you don’t do well at school, you’re seen as a naughty kid. But I just really wanted to be good.”
Her mother, Emma, a former nanny who got a Wonder Woman tattoo long before her daughter was in the DC Universe, encouraged the leap. “She’s a legend,” Alcock said, before lifting her hair and twisting around to expose an “E” tattoo on her upper back. “Because she’s got my back,” she explained of the ink. When asked how her mom feels about her success, Alcock beamed. “She’s just so proud.” (And yes, Emma is planning on making Supergirl her next tat.) The actress is more reticent when it comes to her father: “It’s not my story to tell.” She said at another point, “We love family, but also, families are hard, you know?”
Still, she struggled with being away from hers in the time between playing Rhaenyra and Kara. “Being in your early 20s, living on the other side of the world from your entire family, navigating a space that I had no connection to growing up” was difficult, she said. And the actress, who has lived in London since moving there to shoot “House of the Dragon,” admitted that she had spiraled a bit. “I grew up not with a lot,” she said. “And I just had this belief that I didn’t deserve it, and that it was all a joke and that it was all a lie.”
She credited her work on “Supergirl” with helping her through her insecurities, specifically in her character’s dynamic with Ruthye (Eve Ridley), the young orphan Kara reluctantly takes under her wing. The film tracks their quest as they travel across the universe to save an ailing Krypto and seek justice for Ruthye’s slain family.
“In this beautiful and meta way, Kara was my Ruthye in the story. When I started the film, I was escaping my responsibility of thinking that I could be an actor,” she said. “Through playing Kara, I gained that confidence and that belief in myself to stop self-destructing when feelings got too difficult to handle.”
The physical outlet helped as well. “She had four and a half months of shooting, enormous amounts of physical and stunt work, a whole language she had to learn,” said the “Supergirl” director Craig Gillespie, who has a track record of directing strong female performances, including Margot Robbie in “I, Tonya” and Emma Stone in “Cruella.” “She’d come in every morning at 5:30 and train. She knew that was the kind of commitment she’d need.”
Alcock’s schedule hasn’t gotten any better since — she’s doing “Supergirl” press until mid-August, and shooting “Superman: Man of Tomorrow” with David Corenswet. Not to mention her upcoming projects, an untitled horror movie with Charlie XCX; “Thumb,” a comedy with Awkwafina and Kate McKinnon; and a thriller, “Hot Mother,” with Toni Collette.
In the meantime, Alcock is happy to get photo updates on Guinness from her chef boyfriend, Jo Powell (“We are both just quite normal people and we just live in this little bubble of just adoring each other”) and hopes to squeeze in an actual vacation around her mom’s birthday at the end of the year.
Sounds pretty extraordinary, actually. And Alcock wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’m such a big addict of feeling,” she said. “I want the highest high and lowest low. The in-between is really uninteresting to me.”
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