James Cameron Doubles Down On ‘Wonder Woman’ Comments

James Cameron is not backing down from his criticism of Wonder Woman.

The Hollywood Reporter brought up Cameron’sprevious statement, where he called Wonder Woman an “objectified icon,” and Cameron was quick to double down on those comments.

“Yes, I’ll stand by that,” Cameron said. “I mean, she was Miss Israel, and she was wearing a kind of bustier costume that was very form-fitting. She’s absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. To me, that’s not breaking ground. They had Raquel Welch doing stuff like that in the ’60s. It was all in a context of talking about why Sarah Connor — what Linda created in 1991 — was, if not ahead of its time, at least a breakthrough in its time. I don’t think it was really ahead of its time because we’re still not [giving women these types of roles].”

Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins previously responded to Cameron’s comments by saying that female characters do not have to look “hard, troubled and tough to be strong.” Cameron responded to that as well.

“Linda looked great,” he said. “She just wasn’t treated as a sex object. There was nothing sexual about her character. It was about angst, it was about will, it was about determination. She was crazy, she was complicated. … She wasn’t there to be liked or ogled, but she was central, and the audience loved her by the end of the film.”

“So as much as I applaud Patty directing the film and Hollywood, uh, ‘letting’ a woman direct a major action franchise, I didn’t think there was anything groundbreaking in Wonder Woman,” Cameron added. “I thought it was a good film. Period. I was certainly shocked that [my comment] was a controversial statement. It was pretty obvious in my mind. I just think Hollywood doesn’t get it about women in commercial franchises.”

But that wasn’t all he had to say.

“Drama, they’ve got that cracked, but the second they start to make a big commercial action film, they think they have to appeal to 18-year-old males or 14-year-old males, whatever it is,” Cameron noted. “Look, it was probably a little bit of a simplistic remark on my part, and I’m not walking it back, but I will add a little detail to it, which is: I like the fact that, sexually, she had the upper hand with the male character, which I thought was fun.”

The Internet did not take kindly to Cameron’s comments either, but it seems the director still sees Wonder Woman as not living up to the standards he set with Sarah Conner in Terminator.