As Wonder Woman 1984 was heading to its Christmas day release date, a lot of stories emerged about how director Patty Jenkins was in a constant fight with Warner Bros. over the direction of the first film. It seemed odd that Jenkins would be so blunt about the studio considering she was promoting a sequel that they were backing but with each passing day, a new story seemed to come to light. Considering that Jenkins is on board to direct Wonder Woman 3, the director took Twitter to address the rumors and insists that the studio was very supportive of her vision for the film.
Jenkins made it a point to address aspects of the interviews that she declares simply weren't true. Jenkins says there was no war with Warner Bros. over the film and that she had ten years worth of discussions with ten different execs and in that time, ideas were tossed around until they landed on what we saw in the 2017 film. The "beard" reference points to an interview that the filmmaker gave to Marc Maron where she stated that she would often get hired for projects as the "token female" director who was only supposed to stand by and let the men working behind the scenes do all the work. Jenkins says this was not a reference to her time on the first Wonder Woman film and that it was about other projects with other studios. You can read her full quote about being a "beard" below:
"They wanted to hire me like a beard; they wanted me to walk around on set as a woman, but it was their story and their vision. And my ideas? They didn't even want to read my script. There was such mistrust of a different way of doing things and a different point of view. So that was definitely happening, even when I first joined Wonder Woman it was like, 'Uhh, yeah, ok, but let's do it this other way.' But I was like, 'Women don't want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people's heads off, that's not what- I'm a Wonder Woman fan, that's not what we're looking for. Still, I could feel that shaky nervousness [on their part] of my point of view."
I can see how some of this could be misinterpreted but another part of me feels like this is a bit of damage control on her part. She did speak on a few issues with Warner Bros. over Wonder Woman leading up to the sequel's release. She made it publicly clear that she was not in support of the CGI-infused climax of the first film that critics didn't particularly love, and that it was a studio decision she had no control over. The director also made it public that she nearly turned down the sequel over a salary dispute. Adding to this, even though she seemed publicly on board with the decision to release Wonder Woman 1984 on HBO Max and in theaters on the same day, she did side with filmmakers who weren't too pleased with the studios' decision to release their full 2021 film slate in the same fashion.
Do YOU think this was a case of misinterpretation or is Patty Jenkins doing a bit of damage control to appease the studio?