Australian actress Ruby Rose shocked fans in May when she announced she would be exiting the role of Kate Kane in The CW series Batwoman.
Now, the 34-year-old has revealed in a conversation with EW that it was the result of a period of reflection amid the global COVID pandemic, along with a lack of recovery period post-surgery and a “taxing” workload that lead to the difficult decision.
“Being the lead of a superhero show is tough. Being the lead in anything is tough,” Rose said. “But I think, in that particular instance, it was a lot more difficult because I was still recovering from my surgery. I had my surgery and then 10 days later I went to work, which maybe wasn’t the best idea.”
The Orange Is the New Black star was forced to have emergency surgery in 2019 after she “herniated two discs doing stunts” and was “close to severing” her spinal cord. Rose added, however, that her post-surgery recovery wasn’t the entire reason behind her exit.
“It wasn’t so much [the injury], especially because after we wrapped up we didn’t get to finish the real finale because of COVID,” she continued.
“You know, you have time in quarantine and sort of isolation to just think about a lot of different things and what you want to achieve in life and what you want to do. I think for both [me and the producers], it was a great opportunity to have a dialogue about a lot of things. I respect them so much and they’ve been so respectful to me.”
Rose added that is was “actually a beautiful way to do something, especially since that was the first time it’s ever been done — the first time Batwoman has ever been played in live-action and that she was LGBTQ.”
“I’m very honoured to have been able to play her.”
Following the news that Ruby Rose had been cast for the sought-after role back in 2018, social media gave kudos to the series for contributing to the conversation about the importance of LGBTQ representation on TV.
As for who is set to take on the lead role going forward, rather than recasting the role of Kate Kane, a new character by the name of Ryan Wilder – played by Javicia Leslie – will be introduced as the next Batwoman.
Batwoman Season 2 is expected to premiere in January 2021.
