Earlier this year, Australian actress Ruby Rose left her leading role of Kate Kane in The CW series “Batwoman” – an unexpectedly sudden departure.
At the time reports were conflicting about why she stepped away, though from all parties it sounded like a mutually agreed upon decision. Now, speaking with EW, Rose has elaborated on her decision to exit.
As expected, Rose badly injured two discs in her back doing stunts for the film early into her tenure and underwent surgery. She now reveals she went back to work only a little over a week after said surgery was done, and that led to complications:
“Being the lead of a superhero show is tough. [Laughs] Being the lead in anything is tough. 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. Most people take about a month or three off before they return to work, so it was definitely made more difficult by that.
…I love my experience in [Batwoman]. I’m so grateful that we got to achieve everything that we did and I’m proud of everyone that worked on it. I’m proud of myself for working under sort of interesting circumstances, you know, with the recovery and all. I would definitely do [TV] again. I just think that it was also time for me to take a break to fully heal and then return.”
She also wants to make clear her decision wasn’t solely due to the injury:
“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. 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.”
She says she has no advice for her replacement, Javicia Leslie who will play a new version of Batwoman named Ryan Wilder. Rose says she “definitely knows what she’s doing and she seems fantastic”. She also adds she’s definitely going to watch the next season to see how it all comes together.
