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With Annapurna Pictures’ Professor Marston and the Wonder Women opening in theaters this weekend, I recently sat down with Bella Heathcote to talk about the making of the film. If you’re not familiar with the incredible story, the film is written and directed by Angela Robinson and tells the true story of William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans), a professor who entered into a polyamorous relationship with his academic wife (Rebecca Hall) and one of their students (Heathcote), both of whom served as the inspiration for him to create the Wonder Woman comic. While some directors might have used the story to focus on the sex and wild threesomes, Robinson has crafted a great film about acceptance, love and feminism and done it with a delicate brush. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is a fantastic film about challenging the norm and finding acceptance. The film also stars Connie Britton and Oliver Platt. For more on Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, you can read Adam Chitwood’s review here.

During the interview, Bella Heathcote talked about when she first heard about William Moulton Marston’s story, how they managed to make the film in only 25 days, and how she got herself prepared to film some unusual sexual situations, and more. In addition, for fans of Amazon’s great series The Man in the High Castle, she gave me a brief but cool update about what’s going on with her character in season 3. Check out what she had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about and the official synopsis.

Bella Heathcote:

• When did she first hear about the story?
• How did they manage to shoot the film in only 25 days?
• Was she nervous to film some unusual sexual situations?
• How the day she put on the Wonder Woman costume and stepped into the light is a day she’ll always remember from filming.
• Did she “borrow” anything from set?
• Did she feel like they had to always get it on the first take?
• She teases a bit on The Man in the High Castle season 3.

Below is the official synopsis for Professor Marston & The Wonder Women. If you want to know more about the unique origins of Wonder Woman, check out Jill Lepore’s book The Secret History of Wonder Woman or listen to Lepore’s interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air.

In a superhero origin tale unlike any other, the film is the incredible true story of what inspired Harvard psychologist Dr. William Moulton Marston to create the iconic Wonder Woman character in the 1940’s. While Marston’s feminist superhero was criticized by censors for her ‘sexual perversity’, he was keeping a secret that could have destroyed him. Marston’s muses for the Wonder Woman character were his wife Elizabeth Marston and their lover Olive Byrne, two empowered women who defied convention: working with Marston on human behavior research — while building a hidden life with him that rivaled the greatest of superhero disguises.