The woman behind Wonder Woman
Patty Jenkins knew expectations would be stratospheric for Wonder Woman, starring Gal Gadot, a former Miss Israel who served as a combat trainer in the Israeli Army. The film was the summer’s most anticipated release and also the first time the haltertop-and-hot-pants-wearing superhero, who was introduced in 1941, has had a movie all her own. But Jenkins, whose only previous feature, Monster, won Charlize Theron an Oscar in 2004, said she felt pressure most intensely from herself.
“I have a high bar for myself already; I always want to do something beautiful and meaningful,” Jenkins said. “I was aware that I was the first person of all time getting to direct a Wonder Woman film, and that was taken very seriously.”
She wasn’t the first choice: Michelle MacLaren left, with Warner Bros. citing “creative differences”; and Jenkins said she and MacLaren ran into each other as the switch was happening, and hugged. “We’re cool,” Jenkins said.
Her vision of Wonder Woman — someone strong, loving and vulnerable, who exudes sincerity, which Jenkins says is sorely lacking in films — has most critics in a swoon. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Q: I wish this movie had been around when I was a little kid.
A: I just got a little teary hearing that, because it hits me every once in a while, when I go to mommy-daughter events. I knew it was going to be PG-13, and there’s so much there for adults, but also that little girls were going to want to see it, so I tried to make it as safe as possible. If we succeeded in bringing something to people while they’re growing up, that would be something.
Q: How does the director and writer of a film Roger Ebert deemed the third best of the decade not immediately get hired to make another feature?
A: There was a movie I was trying to make right after Monster, a bigger behemoth, the Chuck Yeager story. It was a life dream, but it just didn’t line up. We just had issues with the life rights ultimately. Also, I got pregnant, and making a feature is not compatible with the first years of a child’s life. Then the bottom fell out of the indie film world, and nobody was interested in what I brought, but instead in what I could do for them. I had my own scripts, but people didn’t want to read them. They only wanted to do tent poles. So I began doing pilots.
Q: Do you think gender hurt you in terms of trying to make feature films?
A: I don’t know. Ironically, tent poles were what I was asked to do, though they weren’t ones I was into. I think (being a woman) might have had something to do with why people were not interested in my screenplays. It was, “Ah, we don’t want that point of view, we want our point of view.” If you want more diversity in the industry, you need diverse people writing scripts and developing them.
Q: When you started the project, was the casting nailed down?
A: The only casting in place was Gal. I’m so picky about casting, and when I heard that they’d cast Wonder Woman, my heart sank. But oh my God, it was one of the luckiest things that ever happened to me, because Gal Gadot is so magical and wonderful. They found the best person in the universe.
Q: Do you think Wonder Woman needed a woman to direct it?
A: I don’t think any movie has to have any specific kind of person. I wasn’t directing a woman, I was just directing a hero, and that freed me up to go broader with her personality than someone might be able to do if they were afraid to make her vulnerable and loving and warm, and not always right, which is absolutely imperative to a leading character. That’s been one of the hardest things about leading characters: Other people might not have felt safe, or worried (that) if there’s any vulnerability, what that’s saying? But main characters have to have flaws, and have a journey and be rich. I felt the same way about Monster. A woman didn’t have to direct it, and I wasn’t directing a woman’s story. I was directing a person.
Q: Did you get studio pushback on making Wonder Woman vulnerable?
A: There were a lot of conversations, definitely, and it was a constant surprise to some people that I was doing it. But you look back at the history of characters, and oftentimes any notion that the lead person doesn’t get to be anything but impeccably right, that becomes DOA. That’s been a problem with some of the female characters they’ve tried to put forth. They’re too hard or too strong. I think Hunger Games was one of the great things changing that. She’s just a girl.
Q: Monster was an indie, and this was a huge movie in terms of its production budget. Was that ever daunting?
A: Surprisingly, no. The TV projects I was doing were getting to $11 million or $12 million, shooting over an eight-to-10-day period, shutting down the Chicago River with helicopters and 1,000 people. In TV, you can end up working with a very high budget. Then, my vision was so clear for Wonder Woman. It’s the exact same math applied to more.
Q: Will there be another Wonder Woman film?
A: Yeah, I sure hope so. It seems that way.