Telling the Wonder woman story
FEISTY: Gal Gadot draws praise for her performance as DC Cinematic Universe continues to expand
LOS ANGELES — Gal Gadot, the breakout Israeli actress who will play Wonder Women in the rapidly expanding DC Cinematic Universe, has a preschool daughter she wants to impress with her performance as the fabulous femme superhero.
“She adores princesses,” the 30-year-old Gadot tells a Los Angeles news conference for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Godot is referring to four-year-old Alma, her child with husband Yaron Varsano, a Tel Aviv real estate developer.
“At the same time,” Gadot says, “she would tell me: ‘The princess, she is so weak: She falls asleep, the prince will come and save her and kiss her and he’s the hero!’ ”
Gadot’s Wonder Women in Dawn of Justice — and presumably in the stand-alone Wonder Woman movie she just wrapped up in London with director Patty Jenkins — is feisty, independent, strong and fearless. She is, in short, a dynamic role model who needs no Prince Charming. Instead, Wonder Woman is the one who is heroic.
“I’m so happy to be the one who is going to tell the Wonder Woman story,” Gadot says. “It is such an important story to tell and I’m grateful for it. I also think it is so important for girls and boys to have a female (who is) a strong superhero to look up to. The more the merrier and there is plenty of room for many more women to come!”
Like with most of the casting Zack Snyder did for his new Batman v Superman epic, fans went ballistic over the choice of Gadot, a former fashion model best known on screen as Gisele in three Fast & Furious instalments (for which she did most of her own stunts because of her dexterity with weaponry and physical combat).
Gadot served two years in the Israeli Army as a combat instructor. In answer to one fan who tweeted me this week that Gadot is too much “a waif” to play Wonder Woman, I pointed out that “she is no waif, no weakling, no wuss.” Gadot reportedly packed on 17 pounds of muscle for the role and, when I saw her in person at the Warner Bros. Studio lot for the press conference, the 5-foot-10 actress was as physically striking and she was gracious.
So much so that her co-star Henry Cavill — who reprises his role as Superman — was impressed. Maybe even smitten.
“Gal cuts a fine figure as Wonder Woman,” Cavill says. “She brings something particular, something statuesque, something otherworldly to the character. It’s remarkable to see.”
Count Ben Affleck — the new Bruce Wayne/Batman — as a Gadot fan, too. “It was a tremendous treat,” he says with a grin, with Gadot sitting beside him. “She’s the best. It sounds like bull because she’s right here, but Gal did such a great, amazing job and made all the scenes that I was in with her better. It made me better! She’s my favourite part of the movie when she shows up. She’s a terrific actress and I think Wonder Woman (the new movie for 2017) is going to be very good.”
Getting Wonder Women into Dawn of Justice was one of filmmaker Snyder’s main goals. He calls that character part of a DC Comics holy trinity with Batman and Superman. Now, just as he was with the controversial casting of Affleck as Batman, Snyder is pleased with the impact Gadot will have when fans actually start seeing her as Wonder Woman when Batman v Superman opens Friday.
“Gal,” Snyder says in a one-on-one interview, “she has that ability to be earnest and incredibly dedicated. Yet, at the same time, hold that little smile. (As the 5,000-year-old character) she’s seen things you wouldn’t believe. She is immortal and you feel it.”
Ga dot herself has proven to be adept at shrugging off the backlash. “You can’t please them all,” she says. “For me, being an actress, my responsibility is not to pay too much attention to all the noise around me, but to pay attention to the script, to the director Zack, and to protect the character and to try to tell her story the best I can. And I can only do my best.”