Wonder Woman is a Thesis

Just a part of my Wonder Woman collection

It seems everyone in Los Angeles collects something as a hobby: old pinball machines, tennis shoes, even cars!

Very often, folks ask me why I collect Wonder Woman. The question always feels … strange to me. It’s like asking why someone keeps scrapbooks of old family photos, or why they save old love letters.

I don’t collect DC Comics’ “super-heroine number 1” because she’s rare or valuable or destined to appreciate on eBay.

I collect her because, like super heroes usually do, she saved me right I needed her most.

I was a queer kid growing up in a culture that treated softness as a liability and righteousness as something reserved for big men with square jaws and deep voices.

Wonder Woman arrived with a different mindset:  strength with compassion, power without unnecessary violence. And she didn’t have be “hard” to pull it off.

My collection used to be massive, and filled one small room:

Just a portion of my collection in the early 2000s

I’ve since downsized (selling most of the pieces to finance various theatrical endeavors).

Click to see a quick tour of my collection today

Every Wonder Woman object on my shelf has special meaning to me, and reflects an era of the character I particularly enjoy.

Each item is also blows up the myth that heroism must be brutal to be effective. Her lasso doesn’t kill; it compels people to speak, and see, the truth.

Her armor isn’t about intimidation; it’s about clarity.

Even her origin suggests something radical: that love is not the opposite of strength, but its source.

As an actor, I’m drawn to characters who embrace contradictions. Wonder Woman is more than a character; she’s a thesis. She says you can be glamorous and serious, tender and unyielding, political and mythic. She insists that justice can be beautiful—and that beauty can be a form of resistance.

In darker moments – of which, God knows, we’ve had no shortage lately – I sometimes catch sight of one of her figurines or old comics and feel recalibrated.

Not reassured, exactly. But reminded. Of what courage looks like when it isn’t driven by ego. Of what leadership feels like when it’s rooted in care.

So yes, I collect Wonder Woman.

Because in a world that keeps telling us empathy is weakness and that truth is negotiable, she stands there, hands on hip, staring forward, unflinching, quietly saying: Oh no. We can do better. And we must. Because we deserve better!

And boy, America could sure use her now!

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