Savannah Welch plays Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl current Gotham City police commissioner, in Titans season 3, but she’s also a hero and inspiration in real life. Welch lost her leg in a freak accident in 2016, but she has never let the accident control her life or her ability to tackle a role.
In new behind-the-scenes footage from the episode “Lady Vic”, we can see Welch practicing moves for various fight sequences. It took a team of stunt women to bring the fights to life, but Welch was in the thick of it:
In some of this footage, Welch is fighting with her prosthesis, and sometimes she’s fighting from her wheelchair. Regardless, she’s kicking some major butt.
Savannah Welch celebrates Barbara Gordon’s fight scenes in Titans season 3
The Titans account also posted the footage with a caption that celebrates Welch and the talented cast and crew that brought the scenes to life:
"behind barbara’s badass fight: pls enjoy @savannahwelch’s personal bts footage training for the epic babs vs lady vic confrontation. huge shouts to our amazing stunt team led by larnell stovall and brian ho along with our choreographers brendon huor and emmanuel manzanares, our riggers martin st-antoine and stephane julien and doubles tressa young (barbara) and orphee ladouceur-nguyen (lady vic). the team wouldn’t be complete without mustafa bulut, dylan rampulla, thomas lorber, and penande estime for helping to train the women when they’d come in to practice"
“Lady Vic” takes viewers back to the early days before Barbara Gordon was Batgirl. She encounters Dick Grayson’s Robin one night when she’s in the middle of burglarizing a museum to give her father, Commissioner James Gordon, something to do. Before he realizes who the burglar is, Dick engages with the would-be bandit only to discover that she can match him move-for-move.
Later, Barbara fights Lady Vic in an alley, and though she’s in a wheelchair, she’s every bit as effective as she was in her pre-Batgirl days.
It’s truly inspiring to see Welch bring these fight scenes to life. There is so much planning, practice and coordination that goes into any fight scene, but Welch and her team make it look effortless.
Welch has been a welcome addition to the Titans cast in the third season, working with Dick Grayson and the Titans now that Batman has left Gotham City. Though Barbara and Dick’s relationship was strained for a number of years, their bond has been rekindling in recent episodes and there’s no doubt they still have strong feelings for each other. It’s also nice knowing that Gotham’s police commissioner can still kick butt.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels