THE WONDER YEARS

PATTY JENKINS IS in a cracking mood. You sense she’s always in a cracking mood, but especially, particularly today. Empire meets her in the bowels of Abbey Road Studios in north London, where she’s scoring Wonder Woman 1984 . As she greets us, she jabs a finger in, well, wonderment towards the glass, on the other side of which stands Actual Hans Zimmer.

You sense she still can’t believe it. We can’t believe that she can’t believe it. But it makes a little more sense when the director confesses, within seconds of sitting down, that, “I never thought directing could be like this. I love being here and I love doing this and I love my job.” She pauses. “I would have never said I loved my job in the past. It was always something I was addicted to that was incredibly unpleasant and challenging. This is the first time I’m like, ‘Oh wow, I love it!’”

It’s the start of a fascinating, full-throated, career-crawling conversation with a filmmaker who, after just two films, has made it onto Empire’s list of the most influential filmmakers of our lifetime. But — as she reminds us — it wasn’t so long ago that she was living on credit cards and struggling to get her R-rated movie about a dog made…

When you say you were addicted to something “unpleasant and challenging”, is there a part of you that feels directing should be painful?

There was. Particularly starting my career with Monster , the two things very much went hand-in-hand. That it would take absolutely everything and be challenging to the core in this very soul-shaking way. [But] getting to make something like this, where it’s huge and challenging, but delightful in every way, as well. And you laugh and you’re with your friends!

So have you found joy in it?

A lot of joy.