waiting for gadot
Would the real Wonder Woman please stand up?
Actress Gal Gadot could give Wonder Woman a run for her money.
Ididn’t take any of it personally. At the end of the day, we came with a really good intention,” says Gal Gadot, the star of this month’s blockbuster Wonder Woman, on the controversial election of her character as a UN Honorary Ambassador last October. The campaign was to champion “women and girls everywhere, who are wonder women in their own right, and the men and boys who support their struggle for gender equality”. But instead of elation, the announcement was condemned – nearly 45,000 people signed a petition complaining that the superhero was an inappropriate symbol of female empowerment. (It’s worth noting that an Angry Bird has held an honorary ambassadorship as well.) Two months later, the campaign was dropped. “Wonder Woman stands for so many of the great values the world can be inspired by... but it just didn’t work out.” A diplomatic response for someone whose character is the very embodiment of peacekeeping, despite having to put up with a lot of, well, shit.
A military-trained fighter, beauty queen and mother of two young girls, 32-year-old Gadot is, in essence, a real-life Wonder Woman. “I think [this role] was in my DNA,” she says without hesitation. “There was something in me that wanted to show we don’t have to be the damsel in distress all the time, and I wanted to portray that – the real side of women.”
Born in Israel, at 20 she enlisted as a soldier in the Israel Defence Forces, spending two years in the army (and a gruelling three months in combat training) – a foundation she now credits as her Hollywood education. She was Miss Israel 2004 and competed in that year’s Miss Universe pageant, and spent a brief stint in law school after her military service ended. She was eventually cast as Gisele in Fast & Furious and, a string of big-budget hits later, here we are.
Leading the comic-book icon into battle is director Patty Jenkins, of the acclaimed 2003 film Monster. Jenkins is the first woman to direct a studio superhero film, and Gadot calls the experience “Unbelievable. Amazing. Extraordinary.” The female influence shows, from the way the costumes lean towards practicality instead of overt sexuality (nearly all of the fight scenes see Wonder Woman in flat shoes), to how empathy plays an equal role to power when it comes to her superhero qualities. “She has the strength of a goddess, but the heart of a human – she’s so compassionate,” says Gadot. Last year, DC Comics writer Greg Rucka confirmed the character was bisexual, but when asked, the actress is cryptic: “It wasn’t a theme explored in this movie, but she’s a people person so maybe she can fall in love with a woman... it just hasn’t happened yet.”
Both Gadot and Jenkins have been forced to defend their film against the mudslingers and petition-signers. Those with a more progressive view on feminism will be gathering their girl gang to go see it – if only to let the Hollywood execs know that they want more women in leading roles both in front and behind the camera. But Gadot sees this as an opportunity to take the conversation a step even further, towards gender neutrality. “What’s so refreshing about Wonder Woman is that she comes from Paradise Island [inhabited only by women], where everyone is equal. When she arrives in the Man’s World, she finds it really strange that gender is a ‘thing’. If we can neutralise, somehow, the way people perceive gender, then it’s a win.”
“I WANTED TO SHOW WE DON’T HAVE TO BE THE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS ALL THE TIME”
Wonder Woman is out June 1 GAL POWER The actress with director Patty Jenkins (top left) and co-star Chris Pine