In the latest DC Universe movie, Justice Society: World War II, Stana Katic stars as Wonder Woman alongside Matt Bomer as a time-travelling Flash. The movie sees a group of metahumans battling the Nazi menace, and Katic chatted with Paul Simpson about the role…

How did you get involved in this? Did you get a script sent to you or something that you wanted to do more of?

Butch Lukic, Wes Gleason and [publicist] Gary Miereanu were the people who reached out and said ‘Hey, do you want to do this?’ I know Gary from other projects and Butch, I’m a huge fan of his work since Batman The Animated Series. Wes is obviously a gem, truly a gem to work with. So knowing that was the group that was behind it, knowing it was a character as cool as Wonder Woman and after having read the script, which has this amazing element of this 1940s setting, it was really a no brainer.

What did you think of the character as she’s portrayed here? Obviously there’s so many different versions of Wonder Woman in the comics, let alone on screen.

I love that she is part of a leadership of the Justice Society, that she’s unflinchingly brave. I thought that they did a really great job of balancing this love story that the character has with Steve Trevor and her dedication to destroying Nazi power.

Then there’s this element of the guys just paying homage to the history of so many of these characters and in particular to Wonder Woman. All of these little Easter eggs of honouring the background of the character, the origins of the character felt really fun and exciting to be a part of and help participate in creating.

I doubt there’s anybody on the planet who’s unaware of who Wonder Woman is, nowadays but did you do any research into the actual character before you played her or did you go with what they gave you in the script?

It’s difficult, as you said, to be conscious on this planet and living in the northern hemisphere and not to have been exposed to Wonder Woman. So for me, it feels like it’s just been a part of my growing up. It feels like it’s just been a part of the aether and world consciousness forever, for me.

I remember watching the reruns of the old TV show, I’ve seen the comic books, I’ve seen her character drawn into the animated element on television series and obviously in the films. So it wasn’t like I went and researched; it was just already part of the background of my awareness.

The thing that I did do was, I’ve loved the history of the Amazons, I’ve come across a lot of literature on what the origins of that mythology might be based in and mostly is based on.

There’s a book by Jeannine Davis-Kimball who was one of the archaeologists who was digging into the kurgans [tombs in Southern Russia] that revealed that indeed there was an element of female warriors that existed in the region that Greek historians and eventually Roman historians were referring to. It’s based in reality, so being able to dig into that, I think was something that was more of a draw, for me, in trying to create this character and in developing what eventually became more of an accent.

Did you draw the accent from a particular region or is it an amalgamation?

It is an amalgamation. Butch and Wes were clear on wanting to honour her mythology by her having an accent and they gave me a general region within which to draw from and then it was on me to go from there. For me, it was interesting to imagine what one of these Scythian, Balearian, Grecian-like women might sound like today.

At the time we did the first recording I was working in Bulgaria, which of course was part of the origins of the Grecian Empire and near the Black Sea, and Themyscira is believed to have been on the Black Sea. So that was neat, to be able to draw from that a bit.

And then also for me, just as a private note, I wanted to add just a touch of my grandmother who survived World War II, who to me, was definitely a wonder woman.

What was the biggest challenge in playing her for you?

The challenge is always, I think, that you are in an isolated space, attempting to create chemistry and believable responses and interact with other characters. Being in a separate space from other actors, .it can be a bit more of a challenge than let’s say, if we were all doing it live if we were on a stage or on a film set.

But, that being said, I had a great partner in Wes Gleason who is just a gift for actors doing voice work. He was able to play with me and develop the scenes and create believable interactions between the characters. He’s so keyed in to what everyone was bringing to the character that he was able to play ‘as if’ and offer you a believable partner to bounce off of.

I have to give credit to the other actors, they did some really lovely work and I think built the chemistry. For instance my character’s love interest is Steve Trevor who’s played by Chris Diamantopoulos, and he just did a really great job of creating this roguish charming character in Steve. I think a lot of the chemistry there is to his credit.

Same thing with Matt Bomer who plays The Flash. He’s such a fish out of water and he’s a big question mark for Wonder Woman for part of the movie and I think that the reason that interaction plays is in great part to his work.

Is there any opportunity when you’re working solo like that with the director to improvise or are you more constrained to sticking to the script?

There’s a bit of improvisation; it’s playful in the room. Even though we were recording some of this during the pandemic, you’re still able to let loose and get silly and sometimes it works for the guys and sometimes they’ll use it. But our primary focus is to deliver everything from the script and then beyond that if something strikes them as useful, that’s a bonus.

And presumably there’s a certain amount of wild tracking as well, for the grunts and everything like that as she’s going through her routines of Nazi killing.

Yes, she’s a badass. There’s some great fight scenes and that was such a hoot to film. You definitely want to come in in sweats when you’re recording (laughs).

Would you like to return?

Honestly I’m just game to play in this world, period. I would do anything especially with this team. It’s so much fun to play and explore and be in this sandbox that if they would ask me again for anything, it’s an automatic yes.

 

Justice Society: World War II is out now on digital and available on Blu-ray and DVD from 10 May