It's not easy to be a hero. You do it because of what you believe, not because of what other people deserve.
Patty Jenkins
I have a real pet peeve for women who play damaged characters but don't look damaged.
When I made 'Monster,' I didn't think about it being about a woman. I didn't think about that she was a lesbian. I was telling a story about a specific person who was tragic and looking for love in the world, and the more I could make her you, the more of a victory.
I love a great myth. I love a superhero origin story.
If a film is based on a true story and you don't use anyone's name, you can do what you like.
What I never want to do is start phoning it in and making things just to show that I can keep my foot in the door and do big movies.
Hollywood can't stand heroes who aren't sympathetic.
De Niro didn't gain all that weight to play Jake La Motta just to prove he could get fat - every single one of those transformative things is grounded in the character.
As soon as I went to painting school in New York, I took an experimental film course, and everything clicked and came together. I realized my love of music and drama and the visual arts all came together.
I never want to set a belief that a woman has to direct a woman's film, meaning she can't direct a man's film. If only films can be directed by people who are exactly the same as that, it's only gonna limit all of the women more.
There's Batman, there's Superman, there's Wonder Woman. She's the full-blown real deal.
I know that I'm carrying a bit of a weight on my shoulders of what I do represents more than just myself as a director. I wish that wasn't true, but it is. It makes me think about doing work that I believe in and that I believe I can do well, probably even a hair more than I would otherwise.
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.
I'd spent summers growing up in Mississippi, so I had an idea of what the South is like.
It's not about superheroes. This is the method of universal storytelling that all people have... To me, they're the same as the Greek myths or the Roman myths or religious figures of every religion. These are common characters that we use to express stories about being a better person or what you would do when faced with various things.
I'm excited to see her power really soar and us have a great time having a great Wonder Woman in our world.
I grew up very inspired by 'Superman One' and by kind of the promise of the genre of what a superhero origin story can do.
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.
I have more information than anybody's ever had about this case. I have 7,000 letters from Aileen Wuornos and all the letters between her and her girlfriend.
I always say that 'Star Wars' had a huge effect on me, too, but what 'Star Wars' did for some people, 'Superman' did for me.
When I'm on a movie, I'm unavailable every day for a year and a half. You can't do that with a little baby. Somebody might be able to do it, but not me.
New kinds of heroics need to be celebrated - like love, thoughtfulness, forgiveness, diplomacy - or we're not going to get there.
Every villain has their belief system that makes perfect sense to them.
Hollywood is driven by beautiful faces. Always has been.
At the end of the day, making 'Monster' was unbelievably hard, as making any movie is. And the only thing that made it worth it is not those awards and all those kind of things that I can barely remember because I was so overwhelmed. It was really that night in the editing room, that day on set. It was those things.
Just look at Gal Gadot when she smiles or when she meets somebody and shakes their hand. That is the embodiment of Wonder Woman. She is so beautiful and powerful, but kind and generous and thoughtful. She's just an amazing person.
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.
It was harder, I think, to get attention for the films that I wanted to do than I expected it to be.
My father was a fighter pilot, so I moved around the world when I was young. Then I ended up in Kansas. I'd just sort of gravitated toward the arts, and I had always loved music and really loved theater even though I didn't want to act.
It's rare that a character film is easy to fund.
I think that, for whatever reason, we've gotten to a place where, particularly in Hollywood, things have to be very pat. Like 'I'm a good guy. I'm a bad guy.'
My fantasy is that I could wake up looking amazing, that I could be strong and stop the bully, but that everybody would love me, too. I think that's intrinsic to fantasy - fantasy is fantasy.
I had to adapt to other worlds, and that helped to educate me that we are all basically the same.
I can't stand characters with contradictory information.
Strangely, I have a huge aversion to movies that try to teach healthy people an abusive lesson about the darkness in the world.
To me, superhero movies are like Greek myth.
I have a long love of superhero films, and I'd been saying over and over again to my agents at CAA that I'd like to do one.
I have an aggressive streak of my own.
As soon as I went to painting school in New York, I took an experimental film course, and everything clicked and came together. I realized my love of music and drama and the visual arts all came together. This happened in 1989. Since then, it's been a long road of educating myself in every possible way.
I think making a film that you think is good and you believe in is going to be difficult forever.
Movies always had a captive audience, so they were able to do deeper, more complex things. Television was always about, 'Look at me now! Look at me now! Now go away!' That's starting to change.
I was a closet Journey fan when I was growing up.
I try not to buy into that whole, crazy 'you are what you drive' mentality here, but I wouldn't want to be seen in a Ford Fiesta - you know what I mean?
There are a lot of pretty actresses in Hollywood who try to act tough, and the audience laughs.
It's been my experience with damaged people: they don't wake up every day and wallow in the bad things that have happened to them.
Frankly, I like DVDs having lots of things on it, but I have issues with it as well, too.
The need to look behind the curtain is great for a filmmaker. But whether you want to deconstruct what you like as a viewer, what you like and don't like, I wish we could let films stand on their own a little bit.
I know that a man's version of a tough woman is very different from a woman's version.
When people are crass or loudmouthed, it's not because they don't give a damn. It's from fear and insecurity.
That was devastating to me: how a bright, energetic kid could turn doomed and desperate.
