Backstage - Lauren
Montgomery Interview
 Did you lobby to get on the Wonder Woman
movie?
No. I've worked with Bruce on Superman/Doomsday
and I guess he was just nice enough to ask me back to do
Wonder Woman and I was more than happy to do
that.
Did you know a lot about Wonder Woman before you
started?
I can't say I'm the foremost Wonder Woman expert, but I
know enough. I knew she was an Amazon. I know there's a
lot of people out there who are like "What, she's made
of clay?" "An island full of woman?" and they just don't
know. I did know her origin. I knew two of her villains,
but I don't know the whole mythos since there is so much
to cover. I feel like I knew a fair amount to be able to
handle her and I've learned a lot more about her through
the whole process.
Did you find any challenges in working with one of
the most popular female comic book characters in the
world?
The biggest challenge is hoping you can meet all the
fans expectations because there are so many versions of
Wonder Woman and different people all love different
versions. No matter what you do you you're probably
going the have a large fan group that's like "I hate it!
That’s not the one I like!" So we just tried to make her
a strong, loveable, appealable character to as many
people as we can get to love her. I guess that was the
biggest hurdle to get over. Making sure we do everything
we can to make this a good story, to make the fans like
her in her first, full-length animated feature.
What do you think the biggest thing is that fans
should be looking forward to about this film?
I think what a lot of the comic book fans will like is
that we really didn't pull any punches. She's out there
kicking as much butt, if not more than Superman and
Batman have done. Of the big three of Superman, Batman
and Wonder Woman, she's the only one not afraid to kill.
She's an Amazon warrior, she's been trained to kill, she
won't do it unnecessarily, but if there's a bad guy out
there and she has to do him in, she'll do it. You'll see
some of that in this movie. You won't see her taking
prisoners because the higher powers tell her not to kill
this guy. If she's going to stop him, she's going to
stop him.
What is the difference between your work on
Superman/Doomsday and this?
They're two completely different things as far as the
drama and the relationships are concerned. You really
want to get into the mindset of the character and see
who they are, and how they act in certain situations.
What are their personal quirks? What makes them who they
are? As far as action is concerned, you don't have to
worry about that too much. You definitely want to make
sure their fighting style belongs to them. You don't
want her punching some guy through the head and the next
guy be like "Oh I'll let you live." She's taking no
prisoners. As action I'd say, they're two completely
different beats, both action and acting. All you can
really do is study and look at the good action and good
acting thats been done before and you try like hell to
make everything in your movie good. And that's what I've
done.
 Are
we going to see some of the Wonder Woman basics? The
tiara, the lasso, the invisible plane? On the island
will she be riding a kangaroo?
(Laughs) well, we haven't put any kangaroos on the
island, sorry to say that. Her arsenal is there. She has
her bulletproof bracelets, she'll be deflecting bullets.
She has her tiara, which she makes use of and she has
her lasso and invisible jet. I think the one thing we've
done without is the spinning in place transformation.
Awwww!
I'm sorry for anyone who loves that. We've given her a
slightly more practical transformation. Everything else
is there...except the kangaroo. (Laughs)
What will be in this film for the female fans? As
much as an icon she is, her book doesn't sell more to
the female market that buys manga.
We do have relationship aspects between her and Steve
and her and the other Amazons. A strong female presence
may be more applicable to the female audiences, but of
course there's a lot of violence which kind of comes
with the territory of being a superhero. I'm a girl and
I like it, but I can't say every girl likes it. I know
there's a fair share out there who are like "Oh there's
blood and it's upsetting" so I don't know if every girl
will like it, but I hope they'll appreciate that we've
taken her as a strong female character and we've created
her that way and we've given her own formidable
opponents to go against and really prove what she's
worth instead of having her second fiddle to Superman or
Batman and being backup.
Will we be seeing the Diana Prince alter ego in this
movie, or will it strictly be Wonder Woman/Diana,
Princess?
Her alter ego will make an appearance, but it's going to
be very short. This movie is mostly Wonder Woman. I mean
it's mostly Diana on the island and then Diana as Wonder
Woman. We don't spend a lot of time with her getting
into shenanigans in the US afterwards. She comes here
and does what she does, but we'll see here, she's there.
Gail Simone, the current writer of Wonder Wonder
thinks she's for everybody, not just men to look at. As
the director of this film, how do you feel about that?
Is she for everybody?
I think she can be for everybody, but not everything is
for everyone. No matter what, there's going to be some
people out there who don't even care for superheroes.
She's a strong female character. She's strong, that can
apply to everyone. She’s female, which I guess that can
apply to everyone (laughs). We haven't created her
specifically as a pinup or a feminist. We've treated her
as a real character, which I think anyone can grasp on
to. And I hope that this movie would apply to a lot of
people, but you can never know. I guess we'll just have
to wait and see.
Are these movies being set up as a franchise? Will we
be seeing a Wonder Woman 2?
As far as I'm concerned, I have absolutely no control
over what they do next. I guess that's more of a
question for Paul Levitz or Bruce (Timm). They're the
ones coming up with the storyline and what will come
next. With Superman and Batman, we've seen their origin
stories and they've had their series. Wonder Woman never
had her own series. She had Justice League where
she had a starring role, but of course she wasn't the
star. Nobody in that series really was the star. So this
is her first time being front and center so might as
well start it off right and just give them where she
came from and who she is. I don't know if they will spin
it off into more Wonder Woman movies. I can assume maybe
if it does well. They probably like to keep the main
three occurring in video. I doubt we've seen the last
Batman animated movie (laughs). So why not another
Wonder Woman down the line?
 Is
the movie set in modern times or an earlier setting?
We've set this one in more contemporary times. She's not
coming into World War 2 with the Nazis. She's coming
into the United States with more modern weapons, more
modern everything. I guess it's just a new, more fresh
version of Wonder Woman where even little kids can get
into it. Whereas kids might be "I don't know what a Nazi
is. I don't know what all this stuff is." This way we
hope everyone can enjoy it. We hope we don't make any of
the hardcore fans angry that it's not exact, but it's
definitely inspired from the comics and I think our
origin story remains true.
What sort of animation were you into growing up or
what got you into animation? What influenced you on this
project?
Growing up I watched a copious amounts of Disney movies.
That’s what I loved. I was watching Sleeping Beauty
and Little Mermaid and all those girly movies. I
didn't really start liking action unlike Batman: The
Animated Series came out and that was my first view
of action and I loved it, I watched it every day. I'd
say both of those have a strong influence on my
directing style now. I've also watched a fair amount of
anime, which has a lot of really good action in it,
which is helpful when you're doing big superhero
battles. I didn't read a whole lot of comics though I
knew the main characters. I knew Superman, Batman and
Wonder Woman and who they were. I've learned a lot more
about them from working with superheroes so often. But
I'd say you know, Disney movies, Batman, like all the
superhero cartoons as well as other anime influences are
probably the biggest influences I've had as far as my
storytelling.
Any particular anime?
Cowboy Bebop I love and I watch all the time
(laughs) and I just adore the directing style that they
use. So I try and draw a lot from that when I'm
directing.
Will we be seeing Diana in the role of emissary to
the world of man. The person showing the way of peace to
man. Or perhaps a Wonder Woman who has been banished
from the island?
We're not going to get that far into either of them yet.
What we're going to see is Wonder Woman coming off the
island in the role of emissary. She's going to go off
the island specifically with her mission in mind. She
leaves to accomplish a certain mission. After that when
she decides to stay, it's as emissary, she's an
ambassador. So we're not really going to banish her
(laughs) in this movie. We've opinioned more for a happy
ending.
Will we be seeing any of her Earth-based rogues?
Cheetah or anyone?
We might have a little cameo here or there, but her main
focus is going to be her one villain, who is Ares.
Outside of that, little cameos might be in store towards
the end.
 What
has been your favorite part of working on this project?
I think it was watching the animatic, when it was all
assembled and we had the voices and we saw the first
glimpse of what it would be. The amazing voice acting
really adds so much to all of it. The most beautiful
drawings in the world can't do anything if your acting
is horrible. I guess just seeing it in its raw form, not
yet animated but everything is there, the drawings are
there, the voices are there. It was so nice to see what
the hard work had finally accomplished.
I heard you'd be interested in doing Black Canary.
What would be your take on it?
I have no idea (laughs). I'd probably have to look more
into it. I mean I'm just more interested in bringing
more female characters out to the forefront since
there's so few of them. I'm not even 100% sure what
Black Canary's origin story is. I just know she looks
cool and I like her (laughs)
Would you like to see an animated Bird of Prey then?
I wouldn't mind it. As long as it was done right. I
wasn't too fond of the show. I didn't watch it a whole
lot. As long as the characters were well done and doing
what they did right, I wouldn't mind seeing it. I would
be kind of cool to see a girl team.
The World's Finest would like to thank Lauren
Montgomery for her participation in this interview.
Interview conducted by Matt Hazuda @ SDCC '08.
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