Superhero redux

SHE may be 54 and the mother of two teenagers, but Lynda Carter doesn’t look much different than she did nearly 30 years ago on the TV series “Wonder Woman.” She’s tall, svelte and curvy and can still probably get into the scanty superhero outfit she wore on the series from 1976 to 1979.

Though she was considered a sex symbol at the time, Carter admits, “I never thought of Wonder Woman as a sexual being, but you can ask a lot of 15-year-old boys back then.”

Between then and now, she’s appeared in TV movies, produced five musical variety specials and been the face of Maybelline cosmetics.

Carter resurfaces in semi-action-figure mode in “Sky High,” the summer’s surprise hit comedy, playing Principal Powers, head of a high school for budding superheroes where kids are divided into hero or sidekick classes depending on their powers. Her own talent? She can transform herself into a blazing comet. In more mundane realms, she plays Willie Nelson’s love interest in “The Dukes of Hazzard,” and will guest this year on two episodes of NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU.”

So were you a hero or sidekick in high school in Phoenix?

I was a sidekick. I had a couple of friends that were in the cool group, but I wasn’t part of the cool group.

It is hard to believe “Wonder Woman” was ever considered uncool.

I was 5 feet 10, round-faced. I was already singing in bands. I was different. And that part I didn’t mind. I wanted to do what I was doing. I lived in this rich neighborhood where there were a lot of really nice homes, but [I lived] in an old section with those little cracker-box homes -- three bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. My parents were divorced and Mom worked at Motorola.

Did your parents support your career ambitions?

My girlfriend and I were talking about this last night -- every kid needs a person. If they don’t have one at home, which many kids don’t, then a teacher, a minister, an uncle or grandparents. I sometimes go to these Girls Inc. [a service organization for young girls] things giving scholarship money to groups across the country and in every case, these girls, when they accepted the award, said, “I knew that no matter what, my mom and dad would be sitting there cheering me on.” My mom was a big cheerleader for me; my dad was more concerned that I had something to fall back on [besides performing]. I didn’t want to have anything to fall back on, and I didn’t. I would do whatever I needed to do in terms of work or whatever, but I did not want a net.

Is it true that originally Principal Powers was envisioned as a dowdy character?

They originally had her in low heels, a bun and glasses, and I went to the costume designer -- I love the collaborative process anyway -- and I said we should go the exact opposite with stiletto heels.

After all, she’s a comet.

The whole bone of my character is that she is a comet, an entity. It is so funny at this time in my life, and the age I am -- post-menopausal -- to have an opportunity to create a character like this. Just because you are an older woman, it doesn’t make you less powerful, it doesn’t make you passe.

You make a joke at the end of “Sky High” that you are not Wonder Woman. A lot of performers who’ve played iconic characters in films and television try to break away from the image and even refuse to discuss the role. But that doesn’t seem to be the case with you.

The truth is -- and I am not trying to be falsely modest -- I have lived with her a long time. I always loved her. People are always surprised that I am not trying to get away from her. She is so cool. From the very beginning, people would say you would never work after you do this. People will label you. And I was like, “I am not going to let myself be put in a box.” That is not to say I have never allowed it to happen, because I have. But I have broken out of it -- and what’s not to love about her?

Interestingly enough, there was an early article about Wonder Woman by feminists that said my portrayal was anti-feminist and I should be ashamed of myself because it was exploitation. I said, “Are they nuts? I am a woman, hear me roar -- hello.” Then down the line it was embraced. It’s a brand all of its own. I got to play this part that in many ways will always define the way I am seen by people outside my family and friends.

You put your career on the back burner for several years to raise your children. Was there a defining moment when you decided to concentrate on your family?

I tried to do this series, “Hawkeye” [in 1994]. We started filming in the summer and the kids were with me, and the kids went to school. We tried to go back and forth [between Vancouver and home] but I was five months [mostly] without them. I told my husband I wouldn’t do [another series] until they didn’t need me at home anymore -- I am not going to consider moving out of town or uprooting the kids, and I am not giving up a thing. I have lots of film on the shelf.

Anyway it’s all cyclical. I got the call for “Sky High” and then I got the call for “Dukes,” and then I got the call for “Law & Order: SVU” and I am doing another episode. I play a grifter.

-- Susan King