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Lynda Carter Is Not Here For James Cameron's 'Wonder Woman' BS
American actor Lynda Carter in a still from the television series "Wonder Woman." (Photo by Warner Brothers/Getty Images)
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James Cameron sparked outrage from Wonder Woman fans and director Patty Jenkins herself last month when he called Jenkin’s superhero movie “a step backwards” for women. But that backlash apparently wasn’t enough for Cameron: He doubled down on his criticism of the summer blockbuster in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter this week, and now, he’s facing the wrath of O.G. Wonder Woman actress Lynda Carter.
“You poor soul. Perhaps you do not understand the character. I most certainly do. Like all women—we are more than the sum of our parts,” Carter wrote in a public Facebook post that was directed at Cameron. “Your thuggish jabs at a brilliant director, Patty Jenkins, are ill advised. The movie was spot on. Gal Gadot was great. I know, Mr. Cameron—because I have embodied this character for more than 40 years.”
Wonder Woman, which raked in more than $400 million domestically since hitting theaters in June, is thetop-grossing movie of the summer and the second-highest-grossing movie of the year only after Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. But it also marks a major milestone for reasons that have nothing to do with box office numbers: It’s the first female-led superhero movie in more than a decade and the first ever studio-released superhero movie directed by a woman.
But Cameron isn’t impressed. The Avatar director was too distracted by Wonder Woman’s form-fitting bustier to notice her her ass-kicking—both on screen and at the box office. “I mean, she was Miss Israel, and she was wearing a kind of bustier costume that was very form fitting,” he said of lead actress Gal Gadot in a Hollywood Reporter interview published Wednesday. “She’s absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. To me, that’s not breaking ground.”
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Of course, Cameron — who reportedly bullied Kate Winslet by nicknaming her “Kate Weighs-a-Lot” during the filming of Titanic — considers himself an expert on breaking ground for women. In the Hollywood Reporter interview, he again took the opportunity to champion his own film, The Terminator, calling its Sarah Connor character “if not ahead of its time, at least a breakthrough in its time.” He said some version of the same thing at a press conference earlier this month in which he announced another installment of The Terminator franchise. “As meaningful as she was to gender and action stars everywhere back then, it’s going to make a huge statement to have that seasoned warrior that she’s become return,” he said.
So, in conclusion: Sarah Connor, good. Wonder Woman, bad. Here’s a thought: Can’t more than one female action figure be groundbreaking—or is that too much to ask?
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