Lynda Carter attacks 'thuggish' James Cameron over Wonder Woman jibes

Lynda Carter, who portrayed Wonder Woman in the 70s TV series, has condemned James Cameron as “thuggish” for his continued criticism of Patty Jenkins’ big-screen adaptation of the comic-book character.

Cameron first took aim at the film in an interview with the Guardian last month, describing it as a “step backwards” for portrayals of strong female characters. The Avatar director’s comments elicited a strongly worded rebuttal from Jenkins, who suggested that he didn’t “understand what Wonder Woman is, or stands for”.

Undeterred by Jenkins’s response, Cameron repeated his criticism of the film this week during a Q&A with the Hollywood Reporter. “She was Miss Israel, and she was wearing a kind of bustier costume that was very form-fitting,” Cameron said, referring to the film’s star Gal Gadot. “She’s absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. To me, that’s not breaking ground. They had Raquel Welch doing stuff like that in the 60s.”

Carter responded to Cameron’s latest comments in a Facebook post, in which she called on the director to stop “dissing” the film. “Perhaps you do not understand the character. I most certainly do,” she wrote. “Your thuggish jabs at a brilliant director, Patty Jenkins, are ill advised. This movie was spot on. Gal Gadot was great. I know, Mr Cameron – because I have embodied this character for more than 40 years.”

Cameron’s latest Wonder Woman comments were made during an interview to promote both his four forthcoming sequels to Avatar, the first of which began production this week, and an upcoming Terminator sequel. The sixth instalment in the Terminator franchise, the film will see Linda Hamilton return to play the film’s original heroine Sarah Connor, who Cameron has compared favourably to Gadot’s portrayal of Wonder Woman. “She was crazy, she was complicated,” he said. “She wasn’t there to be liked or ogled, but she was central, and the audience loved her by the end of the film.”