MAGS AND BOOKS
Date and Issue: Volume 1, Number 10, July 1977.
Pages: 2 and a half pages.
Pictures: 5 black and white pictures.
Article: 2-and-a-half-page interview with Lynda Carter. The second part of the interview featured on the June issue of the Preview Magazine.
Author: Susan Moss.
Country: USA.
"My social life is Ron now. Before, I didn't care.""He's dignified," Lynda says of fiance Ron Samuels, Lindsay Wagner's manager. "He's old-fashioned in a lot of ways. Real values as human being."Both Lynda and Henry Winkler paid a tribute to the late Freddie Prinze at the recent Golden Globes when Harry won the award in Freddie's category.Tv's "Wonder Woman" doesn't think of herself as particularly athletically inclined (although she "played tennis all day long and into the night" on one of her first dates with Ron Samuels). Richard Hatch and Mark Spitz disagree."I was raised with very definitive ideas in terms of morals," Lynda says. "We didn't drink or smoke!" In the June edition of Preview, Associate Editor Susan Moss began her exclusive interview with the sultry star of TV's "Wonder Woman." In the concluding portion, Lynda talks about her upcoming marriage to Ron Samuels!
Q. What is it about yourself that got you the part of Wonder Woman?
A. I look like her. I look like the part. I had done a screen test for Larry Gordon for a film that he was doing, and when Larry heard that they were casting for Wonder Woman, he said: "I've got the girl for you. This girl is good and she really looks like what you need." So he sent my screen test over to them. I tested for the part and about two-and-a-half weeks later, I got a phone call from my agent saying. "Hello, Wonder Woman." That's the first and not the last time that's been said to me.
Q. Do you find that you're recognized a lot more now?
A. Oh, yes. It's really incredible. It's very strange, too. I went on a personal appearance last weekend and it was very difficult to relate to that. There were people, adults and children, mashing each other to get to me, to sign an autograph before I left. I was flanked by armed policemen. There were children, and this one kid was getting crushed, and I said: "Wait a minute. Stop the autographing, and somebody help this child!" It was frightening. It can really get nuts.
Q. What kind of schedule do you keep when you're filming?
A. It's like living in a vacuum, because you're working so many hours. You have to get up at 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning. Then you don't get to bed until nine or ten at night...and that's if you're lucky. And living in a vacuum like this, it's hard to relate to your own success. You're not aware of the tremendous influence of television. Someone can be in a film and it can be a hit film. Yet, not as many people are going to see that one time when you're on prime time television. And that's what's so incredible.
Q. A schedule like that doesn't leave much time for a social life, does it?
A. Well, my social life is Ron (Samuels), now. Before, I didn't care. It didn't make any difference to me about my social life. If it was there or it wasn't; I didn't care. It didn't make any difference because all my energies were going toward my work. I was involved in working and it's all that I really cared about...except for my family or my close friends. But in terms of social life or parties, I never have liked them. I don't like being part of any group. It feels bad, it hangs heavy on my soul. And now with Ron, he walks in the door and I want to run and give him a hug. It's the first time in my life that I've ever really loved anyone. I've loved people before but I've never been in love...not like this! It's like everything you've ever dreamed of. Everything that you've ever heard about. The poetry, the lyrics to the songs...it's all so real for me now! He's so terrific and he works so hard. So in between what I'm doing and what he's doing, we just try to catch every moment that we can. It's beautiful...
Q. Some columnist have you and Ron marching down the aisle. Is it true?
A. Yes, it's true.
Q. Well, congratulations..or is it best wishes?
A. Thank you and it is a "congratulations" because I feel: "How can this possibly happen?" I mean, I never thought it would happen. Not that kind of feeling with the fireworks and all that stuff!
Q. How'd you meet him?
A. I met Ron a long time ago. But that was all, we just met. Then we were at an ABC affiliates gif or a press party or something and I remembered him. And at this time, his success with Lindsay (Samuels is Lindsay Wagner's agent) had already been in all the papers. I remembered that he was a really nice person. He didn't seem phony when I met him and said: "Hi, I'm Lynda Carter," and he said: "Yes, I know." He had forgotten that we met before and I said: "We met a long time ago, but you probably don't remember that. I just wanted to congratulate you on your success with Lindsay." I just felt happy for him, and decided to tell him so. Then I forgot all about it. But evidently, it impressed him because a little more than two months ago, he stopped by my set to talk to the director about doing one of Lindsay's shows and then he came over to me. He said: "I was going to tell you that I Thought it was super, your saying 'Congratulations.' So few people do that. I think it was neat and I just anted to tell you that." Later, he knocked on my dressing room door, and he said: "How would you like to come and have dinner with me?" And I said, "I would like to," but I couldn't because I had previous plans. So we went to lunch instead. It turned out to be a four-hour lunch! The next day we played tennis all day long and into the night. And after that weekend, I just never left him. I couldn't. We've already started looking at houses.
Q. What qualities about him first attracted you to him?
A. He's dignified. He's old-fashioned in a lot of ways. He has values as a human being. He believes in himself and in the people he represents. He does what he believes in. He's high-powered and aggressive. He's got a great sense of humor. He's warn, he's sensitive, he's child-like, he's everything I've ever wanted in a man. He's good-looking, but as you know, good looks can wear off very fast in any relationship. Someone can be gorgeous, but there's got to be more or the relationship goes pfft! Out in storage. It's nice to be with someone you feel proud of and I can feel proud of him. We take good care of each other. Ron said something really neat: "We're better together than apart. We're good apart and we were before we met, but it's so much nicer together." I don't know when we're going to get married. It'll probably be this summer.
Q. Wow, that's wonderful...
A. He's just really terrific and I've got my work and it's very important to me, and his work is very important to him. No one can replace what you do creatively. No other human being can give you that.
Q. Do you remember the first time you felt successful?
A. I've been wanting ton answer that. The first time I felt like a success was when I did The Battle of the Network Stars and the next week there was a full page picture of me in a bathing suit in a magazine. It freaked me out because there were so many people who showed up at the Battle and then I saw the show -which freaked me out even more- because I really appreciated all those people. That's the first time I felt a welling -and this might sound corny- of humility. I felt very small...
Q. What do you attribute your success to?
A. I think the success of any individual is not solely because of that individual. I think the individual must have something special, though...that special something that everyone talks about and nobody knows what it is until they see it. But there are a lot of people who have helped me and I'm very grateful and very thankful to them.
Q. You mentioned that you liked the old-fashioned quality about Ron, but do you consider yourself and "Old-fashioned girl"?
A. Oh. yeah. I was raised in Phoenix, Arizona and I was raised with very definitive ideas in terms of morals. None of my family smoked or drank. It was a tumultuous up-bringing, but we raised with very definitive ideas in terms of values and judgments about ourselves and how we felt about ourselves. We were raised to believe in maintaining our own dignity and seeking what we want for ourselves. There's no one in my family who is doing the same thing. No one is doing what I'm doing, or my sister, or my brother, or my mother or my father. I mean, we all have separates careers... and separate ideas. And that's what my parents taught us. They taught us to believe in ourselves and to feel good about ourselves.
Q. To follow through...
A. Exactly, to follow through. Because you can talk and talk, but it's the follow-through that means anything. The execution of your dreams. The dreams that dreams are made of!
© 1977 by The Laufer Publishing Company.
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