Lynda Carter discusses the lasting legacy of the "Wonder Woman" television series. Then, she speaks out about becoming a victim of sexual assault and harassment while working on the show.
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00:00 Wonder Woman was a symbol of female empowerment.
00:03 Yes.
00:04 Long before it was invoked.
00:05 [applause]
00:06 Way before its time.
00:09 And it's still resonating today.
00:11 Why?
00:13 You know, I think that I finally figured it out.
00:17 And it is because she was smart.
00:22 She was kind.
00:23 She was beautiful.
00:25 But she could protect herself and other women.
00:30 So I want to go back in time to when you weren't a superstar.
00:35 And you were starting to make Wonder Woman.
00:37 And I didn't even know much about these early days
00:40 because they were foreign to me.
00:42 I wasn't really following what was happening immediately
00:44 when I was in middle school and high school
00:46 and trying to just get my own life in order.
00:49 But I learned that there was actually a peeping Tom
00:52 on your set when you started filming Wonder Woman.
00:56 I mean, how ironic that you're a symbol of power
00:59 and yet you're being preyed upon in your own dressing room.
01:03 What's the story there?
01:05 I was called into the head of Warner Brothers office.
01:12 And they said, we have something that we
01:14 need to talk to you about.
01:16 I'm going, oh, what did I do?
01:18 And did I hang from a helicopter?
01:20 I almost got fired for that.
01:23 But they said, we have discovered
01:26 that the cameraman has drilled a hole in the back
01:33 of your dressing room.
01:34 And someone caught him going back there and reported it.
01:38 And Warner Brothers stepped up to the plate
01:41 and caught him and fired him and drummed him out
01:45 of the business.
01:47 Good for them.
01:48 Good for them.
01:50 How did it affect you to know that a man had
01:54 been watching you in your most intimate moments
01:57 naked in your dressing room?
01:59 You know, I felt--
02:00 well, I hadn't really thought about it
02:08 in many years until this Me Too movement came about.
02:13 It's one of those things that you put in your rear view
02:15 mirror.
02:17 So it's only recently that it's been unearthed in my psyche,
02:23 I guess you would say, again.
02:25 And it's a good question because I think I felt embarrassed.
02:32 Back then, what do you do?
02:34 They did what they did, and I'm grateful to them.
02:37 But we didn't have any recourse back then.
02:41 We told our girlfriends, when things happen,
02:45 you sort of feel embarrassed.
02:46 What did I do?
02:49 If you had somebody that said something to you
02:53 or you just went to have a drink with your girlfriends
02:55 and you're having fun and you're dancing
02:57 and then someone says something to you or a group of guys,
03:02 and then you all of a sudden feel embarrassed
03:04 and you think, what did I do?
03:06 I was just having fun.
03:08 And am I right?
03:10 Am I getting to what you're--
03:13 right?
03:14 I see these women and they're saying, was it--
03:18 you know, I'm just a--
03:20 I'm a woman.
03:20 I'm an entire woman.
03:22 I'm having fun.
03:23 I'm just being who I am.
03:25 And that is not an invitation.
03:28 Hello.
03:29 [applause]
03:31 Get it through your head.
03:35 Well, what kinds of sexual harassment did you face?
03:38 Here you are.
03:39 I faced some.
03:41 And I will mention one person publicly.
03:45 He's no longer around to defend himself.
03:49 The reason I bring it up is it's not so much to pry into him
03:52 but to understand you.
03:54 So this gentleman, whoever it is,
03:56 Letras, known to others besides you.
03:58 Oh, and Letras in a way that is just, you know, hey, come on in.
04:04 You want to read a few lines?
04:06 And you know, into the trailer, he's got a series and a bunch--
04:10 oh, yeah, you know, would you take your top off?
04:13 No.
04:15 You know, just this-- it's like, you know,
04:17 all the guys are--
04:19 all of his friends--
04:20 just stupid things like that.
04:22 But I am curious if this Letras gentleman, for example,
04:26 had asked you to do something and you'd
04:27 fought too hard with him, would you have
04:29 been blacklisted in Hollywood?
04:33 Well, I used humor, I guess, to get out of those situations.
04:37 It's like, seriously?
04:41 Are you kidding me?
04:44 Yeah, I mean, with that, in that particular situation,
04:49 which was real--
04:50 he was a bald guy and had a cop show--
04:52 you know, so if you kind of confront them,
04:55 then-- so you use a way that they have a deniability
05:00 about what they're doing.
05:01 No, I was just kidding.
05:02 And that was the way you sort of got out of it.
05:04 Am I right?
05:06 It's one of our ways that we can try to, you know,
05:12 try to weasel--
05:13 get our ways out of it, unless they really
05:15 are rapists and assaulters and they are trying to grab you.
05:21 And, you know, then it gets more serious.
05:25 But in your case, there was actually
05:26 a deeper double standard.
05:27 Because you're dressed as a superhero.
05:30 It's a costume.
05:31 Yes.
05:32 And people--
05:33 it was more than what they were wearing to the beach.
05:39 I was wearing more than what they were wearing to the beach.
05:45 But also the male superheroes, they were just--
05:47 Wore a sock in their pocket.
05:50 Yeah.
05:51 Yeah.
05:52 Sock in their pants.
05:55 Thank you for watching.
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