--- title: Patty Jenkins: 12 Questions With Director of Wonder Woman description: The director of the blockbusting Wonder Woman film tells TIME that she's still waiting for her first big paycheck. canonical: https://time.com/4819569/patty-jenkins-wonder-woman-director-interview/ author: Belinda Luscombe article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-15T10:51:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:07:36.306Z article:section: Ideas og:title: 12 Questions With Patty Jenkins, Director of Wonder Woman og:description: She talks about her military dad, fantasy superpower and the big paycheck og:url: https://time.com/4819569/patty-jenkins-wonder-woman-director-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0210ae404bc0734d/6988d1c22dce017d369edeca/patty-jenkins-wonder-woman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: patty-jenkins-wonder-woman og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 12 Questions With Patty Jenkins, Director of Wonder Woman twitter:description: She talks about her military dad, fantasy superpower and the big paycheck twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0210ae404bc0734d/6988d1c22dce017d369edeca/patty-jenkins-wonder-woman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 12 Questions With Patty Jenkins, Director of _Wonder Woman_ > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=8cf2396d-e0b4-4d14-a8e8-42a7f54ab6a9&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 10 Questions With Wonder Woman Director Patty Jenkins [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions With Wonder Woman Director Patty Jenkins](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bGDAH1S0.m3u8) (3:00)  _Published 2017-06-15. TIME's Belinda Luscombe interviews Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins for the 10 Questions series._  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Jun 15, 2017 10:51 AM UTC  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Jun 15, 2017 10:51 AM UTC _The director of the blockbusting_ [Wonder Woman](http://motto.time.com/4824101/gretchen-carlson-uber-wonder-woman-bill-cosby/) _talks about her military dad, fantasy superpowers and how she’s still waiting for her first big payday_ **_Wonder Woman_** **became the first film directed by a woman to make more than** [**$100 million**](http://time.com/4821381/wonder-woman-sword-dress/) **in its opening weekend. Are you surprised?** I’m stunned by the success of the film. But I’m also surprised how rare it’s been. **How long until we can stop pointing out women’s achievements because they’re not surprising anymore?** I can’t wait till enough women filmmakers have had a chance to make movies of this size and scale and those movies have been successful. There will still be conversation about smaller issues. But it will be nice that they can just be filmmakers making films. **It’s not like we haven’t seen female action heroes before in** **_Divergent_** **or** **_The Hunger Games_** **or** **_Tomb Raider_** **or** **_Underworld_** **. Why** **_Wonder Woman_** **?** There was a very difficult time when a female hero was a man in a woman’s body. _Hunger Games_ really changed that: a woman leading a non-woman’s film in the action genre. I think _Wonder Woman_ does that on a very big scale. **_Wonder Woman_** **has always been a proxy for America: scarily powerful, but a force for good. Did you make love her superpower with current affairs in mind?** She always has stood for truth and love. Her genesis was based on [Artemis](http://time.com/4496048/ken-burns-defying-nazis-interview/). However, I do think that it’s very important right now to celebrate exactly that quality. **Why?** Our fantasy of a hero is that he’s the good guy who is going to shut down the bad guy. That has got to change if we want to deal with the crisis that we’re in. There is no bad guy. We are all to blame. New kinds of heroics need to be celebrated, like love, thoughtfulness, forgiveness, diplomacy, or we’re not going to get there. No one is coming to save us. **Your dad was an Air Force F-4 fighter pilot who was awarded a Silver Star in Vietnam. Did his experience of war color your thoughts?** Yeah. My father wanted to be a hero. He went to the Air Force Academy, was valedictorian, and then he found himself strafing villagers in Vietnam in a war he didn’t want to be in and didn’t understand. He was extremely conflicted about the line where he went from being the good guy to possibly being the bad guy. **What did you do with your first big paycheck?** I’ve yet to have one. One day. I’ll tell you when that day comes. **Your last film was** **_Monster_** **, about a female serial killer. Is there a through line here?** I’m as interested in exceptional characters as men are. It’s very easy for me to be curious about what it’s like to be \[killer\] Aileen Wuornos, just as I am about what it’s like to be _Wonder Woman_. And in both cases, I think it’s about what you do with power. **You have a reputation for being very exacting. How do you get the best out of people?** I want greatness. To me, aiming for greatness in a day might mean you work 20% harder, but you make that day worth it 10 times over. **Why have you banned the word cheesy?** When artists, who are supposed to speak freely, are afraid to be earnest and do beauty and sincerity, you’ve got a serious problem on your hands. Cheesy makes people afraid to be emotional. And I won’t have it. **Your husband \[Sam Sheridan\] is a martial arts fighter?** He fought as his way in, but then from there he’s really become known as a writer about fighting. **If you had to settle a duel, what style would you choose?** Boxing or mixed martial arts, probably. I’d rather not do it, but at least I understand those. ## Transcript Stay here I'll go ahead. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] What is to be a badass? Yeah I think it's just perseverance and incredible drive. To deal with whatever comes in one's path and not fall apart, and never be tempted into someone you don't want to be. Get past them, and then boom, get down. Am I badass? I would never say that. I leave at any judgment up to the Gods. I do my best. [ MUSIC ] I think that there was a very difficult time having a female character that was a universal character that was not a man in a woman's body. That's what I think a lot of the female characters were like before, and I think that Hunger Games really changed. changed that, and was a woman leading a non- woman's film, but there was a real belief system that only young men drove the box office of these kinds of films. So, as long as that was true, there was a lot of fear about having a female led superhero film. << Never let your guard down! You expect the battle to be fair, a battle will never be fair. [ SOUND ] I'm honored but yet I'm deeply surprised at every one of these little milestones. Ones that we had. I'm sort of makes me reflect. Wow, that's so crazy. I'm stunned by the success of the film myself but I'm also surprised how rare its been. I can't wait till enough women filmmakers have had a chance to make movies of this size and scale and those movies have. been able to be successful. I think when that happens, there will still be conversation about smaller issues, but it will be nice that they can just be filmmakers making the films. << I used to want to save the world. This beautiful place [ SOUND ] But the closer you get, the more you see the great darkness within. Everything I see happening on the World for the last little while is the collision of nations coming on top of each other, and the collision of their histories. And so I think what's really important right now is that our fantasy of what a hero has been, that there's a bad guy, and that here comes the good guy, and they're gonna shut down the bad guy. That has got to change if we want to deal with the current crisis that we're in, because there is no bad guy and there is no good guy. We are all to blame. So if we want to move forward in this world, new kinds of heroics need to be celebrated. Like love, like thoughtfulness, like forgiveness, or we're not going to get there. No one's coming to save us. It is our sacred duty to defend the world. And it's what I'm going to do. 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