TV’s ‘Wonder Woman’ Lynda Carter Details Harassment On Set Of ’70s Superhero Show
Lynda Carter has revealed that she was sexually harassed four decades ago when she was the star of the ABC superhero drama, Wonder Woman. Carter, who played the iconic feminist superhero also known as Diana Prince from 1975 to 1979, told the Daily Beast that she was subjected to harassment early in her career and that one of her alleged abusers is already “done in.”
Lynda Carter, 66, revealed that when she was working on Wonder Woman, a Peeping Tom cameraman was caught looking in on her dressing room.
“There was a cameraman who drilled a hole in my dressing room wall on the Warner Brothers lot. They caught him, fired him, and drummed him out of the business.”
Carter also confirmed that she was approached by other men while working in the TV industry.
“I fended off my share,” Carter said. “And I’ve been afraid. If a man tried something, I would say, ‘Are you kidding me?'”
Lynda Carter revealed that she and fellow female stars looked out for one another by warning each other about potential creeps in the business.
“That’s how you protected yourself: through the grapevine,” Carter said. “We were women’s lib, burn the bra. We weren’t going to take any s**t from people.”
Lynda Carter reveals she was sexually harassed, and says her abuser is "already being done in" https://t.co/iGCaQQZTxJ pic.twitter.com/sDDLei9WCE
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Lynda said she didn’t report any of the abuse at the time because she knew no one would listen. So she confided in her female peers instead.
“You’d say or hear, ‘Stay away from that guy.’ ‘Watch out for this casting director,” Carter explained. “And so you would hear it from other people, other people would hear it from other people. ‘Watch out for so and so.'”
Lynda Carter refused to name names, but she told the Daily Beast that at one point she considered pursuing legal action against one particularly prolific man who sexually harassed her. But after looking into it, Carter ultimately felt that feel she could add anything to a legal case because her abuser had violated “a lot of people” and was already facing repercussions.
“I can’t add anything to it. I wish I could. But there’s nothing legally I could add to it, because I looked into it. I’m just another face in the crowd. I wish I could, and if I could I would.”
Lynda Carter also said she believes “every woman in the Bill Cosby case.” Carter and her publicist would not confirm if Bill Cosby was one of her alleged abusers.
In the interview, Lynda Carter also defended her Wonder Woman character’s signature red, white, and blue spandex costume, which was considered sexy at the time. But Carter reiterated that she never tried to play Diana Prince as a sexpot and she didn’t find the outfit to be objectifying.
“I did not play her as sexy,” Carter said.
“It was never a come-hither look…They don’t worry about objectifying men. Because she looks like a woman, is that objectifying? It’s the ’70s and she’s wearing more than the bikini-clad girls at the time. I would not say it was objectifying.”
Lynda Carter previously told Entertainment Weekly she gets tired of hearing that Wonder Woman’s costume was “exploitive.” Carter even joked that her character’s costume was no more “exploitive” than the sock in Superman’s pants.
Wonder Woman was one of the first TV dramas with a female lead, but Carter had to fight for some things that male stars took for granted. For Wonder Woman, Lynda initially had a male stunt double for the dangerous action scenes. But according to PBS, when Lynda saw her stunt actor’s hairy chest she insisted on doing the stunt work herself. After Lynda Carter successfully completed a risky stunt involving a helicopter, studio executives finally hired a female stunt double.
