The first time Gal Gadot visited the Hollywood Walk of Fame almost two decades ago, she had a premonition of her future in entertainment. “Between Madame Tussauds and the Hollywood stars, I remember walking there for the first time when I was 23 and seeing people dressed like superheroes,” she remembers. “And they had Wonder Woman there!”
On March 18, Gadot will be there again, and this time she’ll receive her own star. But even after donning Wonder Woman’s red, black and gold costume multiple times on film — amid delivering a dozen other movie-star turns — the Israeli-born actress seems no less gobsmacked at the prospect of being immortalized by the honor. “I think that it’s going to take me time before I even realize that it’s real,” she tells Variety. “I don’t think that ever in my life I would dream to be able to go through the journey that I’m going through, so I’m very, very humbled and grateful and excited.”
As inevitable as her ascent may now seem, Gadot says that an acting career was anything but a foregone conclusion. “I was a dancer for 12 years, but acting was never something that I did,” she says. “After I graduated, I went to study law and as a side job, I was doing some modeling. And one thing led to the other and a casting director for James Bond wanted to test me for the Bond girl [in ‘Quantum of Solace’].” She didn’t get the part, but got bitten by the acting bug during the process of auditioning.
“I discovered something that I absolutely loved doing,” Gadot says. “And one thing led to the other, and my first role in the movies was in ‘Fast & Furious.’”
While playing ex-Mossad agent Gisele Yashar over three installments, the “Fast & Furious” franchise became one of the biggest in Hollywood, boosting her visibility as she delivered memorable supporting turns in films like “Knight and Day,” “Triple 9” and “Keeping Up With the Joneses.” Although a resume full of formidable female characters undoubtedly helped her get cast as Wonder Woman in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” she’s eager to credit that film’s director for getting the role that would put movie stardom within her grasp. “Zack Snyder really had the vision for Wonder Woman,” she insists.
Gadot’s eventual collaboration with Patty Jenkins on the two solo “Wonder Woman” films only burnished her reputation — as a mesmerizing screen presence, not to mention a box office draw. Yet more important to her than career stability was the chance to create an unforgettable, multidimensional female character in Diana, crown princess of Themyscira. “To do the solo Wonder Woman movie with a partner like Patty Jenkins was life-changing,” she admits. “I think we both felt like we were just a vessel to tell a story that is much bigger than us, that the world was ready for — a complete, empowered woman who is strong and at the same time vulnerable.”
Jenkins, who will be presenting Gadot her star at the ceremony, says that the actor embodies the qualities of the character on screen and off. “My favorite moments with Gal have been when she donned the Wonder Woman costume to greet children in need. Of course it’s touching to watch kids seeing their hero come to life, but with Gal, it is not just an illusion of our trade,” Jenkins explains. “She is a great actor, but a true star as a person, inside and out.
“There are so many great actors and performers around, but a top-tier, classic movie star who can light up a screen, be your hero, your lover, your friend and your avatar on screen are few and far between,” Jenkins says. “Gal is one of them.”
Although incoming DC film heads James Gunn and Peter Safran cancelled a third Wonder Woman film from Jenkins and Gadot in order to restart the studio’s cinematic universe from scratch, Jenkins says “there is much, much more” for the two of them to do together. “We are just getting started,” Jenkins adds. In the meantime, Gadot has not slowed her output, continuing to work on high-profile, mega-budget projects like “Red Notice” and “Heart of Stone.” It’s a platform she indicates she’s embracing. “I really enjoy having the reach to the audiences around the world to actually watch what we’re doing,” says Gadot.
Despite that reach, it can generate a level of visibility that can be a double-edged sword right now for a performer from Israel, especially one who’s willing to speak publicly outside of her work about the complex political issues of her home country. “There is a challenge for people to speak on social media because there is so much hate going on and so many bots and so many angry people that are looking for a cause,” Gadot says. Although she acknowledges the frivolity with which celebrity opinions can be regarded, she says her advocacy is always rooted in speaking on behalf of the voiceless, even when her statements (and the events that inspired them) have sparked divisive reactions.
“After October 7th [2023], I don’t talk politics — because who cares about the celebrity talking about politics? I’m an artist. I want to entertain people. I want to bring hope and be a beacon of light whenever I say anything about the world,” Gadot says. “But on October 7th, when people were abducted from their homes, from their beds, men, women, children, elderly, Holocaust survivors, were going through the horrors of what happened that day, I could not be silent. I was shocked by the amount of hate, by the amount of how much people think they know when they actually have no idea, and also by how the media is not fair many times. So I had to speak up.”
She reiterates that her investment in these issues is deeply personal. “I’m not a hater. I’m a grandchild of a Holocaust survivor who came to Israel and established his family from scratch after his entire family was erased in Auschwitz. And on the other side of my family, I’m eighth generation Israeli. I’m an indigenous person of Israel.”
“I am all about humanity,” she emphasizes, “and I felt like I had to advocate for the hostages.” But even after fielding occasional criticism for some of her statements, she insists that “when your compass is clear, your conscience is clean. I know what I’m advocating for, and I know what I wish for the world.”
“I am praying for better days for all,” she continues. “I want everybody to have good life and prosperity, and the ability to raise their children in a safe environment.”
Now the mother of four daughters (“I used to joke with my agent, I either make movies or make babies”), Gadot says one of her priorities is finding acting opportunities in her native language. “Recently, we started talking about my passion to play in Hebrew,” she says. “Language is a big thing for me, and I spend so much energy and time to play in English. So to be able to play in my mother tongue would be an amazing experience because there would be no boundaries whatsoever. It will just be me.”
With a position in the public eye that’s strengthened by considerable box office muscle, she says she’s eager to take more risks in her work. Joining Marc Webb’s live-action reimagining of “Snow White” may seem like a lateral move for a performer who’s become synonymous with blockbuster filmmaking, but to do so, Gadot not only traded in her hero’s attire to play the title character’s fearsome adversary, the Evil Queen, but took on the first-time challenge of singing on screen. “It was different than anything that I’ve ever done because I was playing the villain,” she says. “She’s so theatrical and so grand and bigger than life … it was a delicious role to play.”
After her installation among the legends on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, “bigger than life” will likely continue to be the size of the canvas on which Gadot works. In addition to taking the “very physical” lead role in Kevin MacDonald’s “The Runner,” she’s also part of filmmaker Julian Schnabel’s ensemble cast for an adaptation of Nick Tosches’ 2002 novel “In the Hand of Dante.” But for her, it’s less about the size of the film than the challenges of each role.
“That’s the fun part about what we do,” Gadot says. “To dig in to create all the history for the character and to understand how they operate — what triggers them, what they love, what scares them — it’s something that takes you through a journey when you play a character. And I love it.”
