The actress who has her leg amputated following an accident in 2016 is honored to play the female superhero in the upcoming third season of the DC comic book series.
- Aug 18, 2021
AceShowbiz - Disabled actress Savannah Welch considers it an honour to play Batgirl on TV series "Titans".
Welch, who had her leg amputated after an accident in 2016, drew from her own experience and collaborated with writers to portray the beloved comic book character, also known as Barbara Gordon, in the third season of the series on U.S. streaming site HBO Max.
Batgirl was kidnapped and paralysed by the Joker in the 1988 graphic novel "Batman: The Killing Joke".
"It's an honour. I guess there's a bit of intimidation with the responsibility to get it right," Savannah told W Magazine. "There are so many people who... love this character and have looked up to her, and she's been a symbol for the disability community in media, and one of the very few."
"So it was really important to me to honour what existed out there already with the history of this character and all of the evolutions and incarnations that she's had in the DC Universe. We also had freedom to embellish that or fill it in with our own storylines and create a real person who has thoughts and feelings and needs."
The actress teamed with the series' writers and showrunners "to show this character in a position of power as (police) commissioner of Gotham, and how she took over that role after her father passed away."
Welch, whose other credits include the Terrence Malick films "The Tree of Life" and "Song to Song", is also proud to be one of the few disabled actors to be cast as a character with a physical handicap.
"It was really important to Warner Bros. to find somebody for the role who is in the disability community," she continued.
"I had done a little bit of research, it is something like 90 percent or 95 percent of characters who have disabilities are played by able-bodied actors."
"I'm not (using a wheelchair), so that was a part of this character that I really wanted to portray as accurately and honestly as I possibly could. I drew from my own experience of having limitations, having to rely on other people for help here and there, but also being very independent and deciding this is not going to limit my ability to do the things that I want to do in my life."
And clearly Savannah as plenty in common with her small screen alter ego.
"Barbara Gordon certainly hasn't let it slow her down," she quipped in conclusion.
