If there’s one thing we’ll walk away with at the end of summer 2017, it’s thatWonder Womanwas the season’s most beloved movie on many different levels. But most hail it as a triumph for female filmmakers and actresses. We say most, because there is one person in particular who doesn’t believe the film is worthy of all the praise that has been heaped upon it. And that person is James Cameron.
TheAvatar directorrecently gave a pretty thick interview, spanning his entire career. He touches on the feminist aspects of his work, and how important Sarah Connor is to theTerminatorfranchise. He believes she’s a stronger hero, and a better female icon thanWonder Womanfor many reasons. He recently converted his classicTerminator 2: Judgment Dayinto 4K 3D, with a rerelease happening in theaters. Looking back on the movie, he used it as an example of whyPatty Jenkins' Wonder Womanisn’t worthy of all the high-fives it’s been given. In fact, he calls it a step backward for female filmmakers. He goes onto say this to theGuardian.
“All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood’s been doing overWonder Womanhas been so misguided. She’s an objectified icon, and it’s just male Hollywood doing the same old thing! I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie but, to me, it’s a step backwards. Sarah Connor was not a beauty icon. She was strong, she was troubled, she was a terrible mother, and she earned the respect of the audience through pure grit. And to me, [the benefit of characters like Sarah] is so obvious. I mean, half the audience is female!”
James Cameron went onto talk about the fact that he not only married Linda Hamilton, the actress who played Sarah Connor, but also director Kathryn Bigelow andTerminatorproducerGale Ann Hurd. He is attracted to strong woman, but these are just three of the five woman he has been married to over the years. He had this to say about his attraction to some of the strongest women in Hollywood.
“Being attracted to strong independent women has the downside that they’re strong independent women, they inherently don’t need you! Fortunately, I’m married now to a strong independent woman who does believe she needs me.”
He was asked if he dated Linda Hamilton while shootingTerminator 2, and wanted to clarify that he did not. He says this.
“Oh no, obviously not. We got involved right after, but, you know, [dating an actor during filming] is a rule I will never break, well, I’m happily married now and it’s going to be for the rest of my life. But that’s a rule you may’t break as a director. As a matter of fact, Suzy and I, we were very attracted to each other when we first met [on Titanic], but we, we …I think about 10 seconds after we were done filming, well, you know…”
James Cameronobviously feels pretty strongly about some of the praise being handed out inWonder Woman’s general direction. He is planning to come back for a newTerminatorreboot, which he confirmed will starArnold Schwarzeneggeras the human who gave a face to the T-800 killer cyborg. Other than that, no plot details have been revealed. And it isn’t known if the new movie will have a strong female hero at its core as the first two movies did.
