Wonder Woman’s surprising back story has a film of its own
The director Angela Robinson has devoted her career to stories with strong female protagonists. Her 2005 debut D.E.B.S. was an action-adventure film dominated by women. Her next feature, Herbie Fully Loaded, put Lindsay Lohan in the driver’s seat of that Disney franchise. Now her focus is on one of the strongest female characters in pop culture, Wonder Woman.
Robinson’s biopic Professor Marston And The Wonder Women, opening at House RCA in Bangkok today, reveals the surprising back story of the superhero and summer box-office star.
As the film explains, psychologist William Moulton Marston (played by Luke Evans) had a hand in the invention of the lie detector test before going on to create Wonder Woman. In his private life, he maintained a three-way relationship with his wife (Rebecca Hall) and a former research assistant (Bella Heathcote), and some of his psychological theories drew him and his partners into the world of bondage and sadomasochism.
Details from their practices (rope work, spanking) made it into early Wonder Woman comics.
During a recent interview in New York, Robinson spoke about what drew her to the Marston story, how she overcame Hollywood barriers and how Friends got her into the business. Here are edited excerpts from that conversation.
How did you first become interested in Wonder Woman?
I just remember loving Wonder Woman since I was a kid because she was the only girl. I wanted to be a superhero, and she was the only choice, in a way. I collected Wonder Woman paraphernalia. I think I had the lunchbox. And after I directed my first feature, an actor friend gave me a wrap gift, which was this history of Wonder Woman. There was a chapter on the Marstons, and it was just one chapter in her very long history, but I was like, wait, what?
What did you most connect with in the Marston story?
There was this incredible love story at the origin of what Wonder Woman would come to be. The Marstons were psychologists, and they really thought that if you could change hearts and minds, you could change the world. Marston called Wonder Woman ‘psychological propaganda’ to try to get young boys and men to respect powerful women and find their power attractive. And he had this notion that if women ran the world, the world would be a better place.
The Wonder Woman aspect of the story seems an easy sell. But the kink and the three-way relationship less so. Did you think you would have trouble getting this made?
I spent many a night arguing with myself, being like, ‘Why are you even bothering to work on this because it will never see the light of day’. But I became obsessed with telling it, whether or not it would come to fruition, because I became enchanted with the characters and the process of writing it. I really wanted to tell a very organic love story without any editorialising or winking. I didn’t want to otherise the experience of what they were doing. I made the decision, very overtly, to tell the story using the conventions of a classic prestige biopic. I thought the content in and of itself was so potentially controversial that I wanted to just treat their lives the way you would treat anybody else’s life. I feel that kink is often portrayed in the movies as scandalous and dark or transgressive. But in their case, I didn’t think it was. In the film, it’s linked to this notion of fantasy versus reality. In this fantastical world, which ultimately leads to Wonder Woman, they can be their truest version of themselves.
Professor Marston And The Wonder Women is your first feature since Herbie in 2005, although you frequently work in television. Did you find it hard to get another movie off the ground?
It was less like I feel like I can’t get my movie made. It was more the stories I wanted to tell. After Herbie, I tried to set up a bunch of projects, and they always had strong female protagonists. I would sell them to studios, but I realised they were never going to make them. I think the actual executives wanted to, but the machinery of the industry was like, these kinds of movies with female leads flop.
But I had worked as a writer of the first season of The L Word and the series creator Ilene Chaiken said, ‘Why don’t you come and direct a few episodes?’. It was just fantastic because there were all these strong female roles in cable.
It was just when the wind really started hitting the sails of this kind of cable television revolution. And I feel like I was, if not on the ground floor, on the second floor of that. What made you make movies?
I wanted to be a theatre director. I was marching in the gay pride parade in Manhattan. Around then the Friends episode with the lesbian mums had aired. I remember thinking how many people am I reaching walking down Fifth Avenue? Thirty million people saw a positive portrayal of lesbian moms through Ross. And how much does that move the dial? I became interested in how pop culture can move forward political progress. © 2017 THE NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE