Translated interview via SHH:
Gal Gadot is sitting in front of me eating a muffin. Slowly, softly, with un-apologizing enjoyment and in a way that makes me want to stop counting calories forever. I look at her chewing and for a moment life seems a lot less complicated then what we make them out to be.
I want to hate her for being so beautiful, successful, funny, natural and without the regular mannerism that seems to infect the usual Israeli celebs the moment their face is shown somewhere, but I can't. Gadot is too good (nice) to inflict her with our inferiority complex. She is too pretty and bright for us to look anywhere else. Stares are been drawn from everyone around. One girl askes for a selfie, a couple watch her admiringly, a young man keeps asks for a lighter so many times it seems he will soon need a lung transplant. Everyone wants a piece and Gadot lets everyone take a bite.
It's not for show or a star that tries to maintain sanity in a sane-less year. I know Gadot for a few years now, and though she has reason to look down on others, the success hasn't gone to her head. She is son grounded it seems like she stapled herself to the floor. She doesn’t let herself get carried away to anything that isn't part of her original plan: go home to her husband and child. Gadot says "frighteningly boring" in a tone that suggests she knows her life is anything but, and orders another muffin.
So yeah, you can't not fall in love with Gal Gadot. As a country that recognized her potential first, we called dibs. Now the whole world joins in. Now she is no longer a model whose luck struck out, she is a talented actress building a surprising international cinematic career. Even her mother stopped nagging her to find a real job (profession).
We are so used to light-weight actors that we have to take note of Gadot's great success. Part after part, achievement follows achievement, contract after contract. Next year she will be in three big movies: "Batman Vs. Superman" (maybe even a solo movie after that), "Triple nine" and "Criminal".
Interviewer:" Do you even understand what happened this year? How big your achievement is?"
Gal: "No."
Interviewer: "DO you want me to explain it to you?"
Gal: "I get it but I don't really get it. I don't think it's possible to understand it while it's happening to you. I only understand I was a beauty queen a year after it happened. I have a delay on my life. Really. I only understand what I'm doing after I'm done doing it and I think it really helps me. I look at it from a very rational point of view: I have a job, I have a project, I need to bust my ass and giv it my whole and that’s it. After the movie will come out I will sit at the screening and shake like a chicken. "
Interviewer: "So you want me to talk to you in a year from now to see whether you understood how you're supposed to feel now?"
Gal: "Yes. In a year I'll tell you whether I understood or not.
The Secret Audition
During the last two and a half years since her last movie (F&F), until she got the WW role, Gadot was constantly flying between LA and Tel Aviv. Everyone told her she need to take advantage of the momentum she was in, the publicity, she need to strike while the iron is hot, work on her accent and meet producers for lunch. Gadot listed to everyone and like a disciplined soldier was living the Hollywood dream even if inside it felt like a little nightmare. In fact, her audition for WW was a few days after she decided to book a ticket back to Israel, maybe forever.
Gal: "It was a time with a lot of 'almosts' and read throughs with lead actors and it just didn't happen. I told my husband, Yaron, ' I don't know how much more I can take.' I've had enough. I felt like I was dragging my family in the world and that it wasn't working out. I'm a Taurus. I need stability, for me, for my child, for my family. I felt like I was trying to hard – and the harder you try the more it slips away – I didn't have the energy anymore. We were in LA and I just got rejected for a part I was in eight meetings for. I told Yaron ' let's just give up and stop'. And Yaron, god bless him, said ' stop. What will happen will happen. We are enjoying the road and we get to see the world'. A week before we left LA I got a call to get to a secret audition at Warner Brothers. We already bought tickets and I wasn't sure when I'll be back in LA. I was in an energy-less state of mind. Then I did the audition and had a blast. It was so much fun. "
Interviewer: "Fun? That's what you have to say for an audition that every Hollywood actress probably tried out for?"
Gal: "I didn’t know what I was auditioning for. I did the audition and felt great. A few days later I was in Israel shooting a movie. I was glad to have a project here (in Israel). Here or there, it's important for me to work. When I am working, I'm healthy, I’m happy, I shine. At some point I got a call from my agent and she said they want me to come for a second audition.
Interviewer: "How did you react when you understood what it was?"
Gal: "I didn't at first, but I did 1+1 and realized what movie it was, but I didn't know which character – not until they released more movie details – and when the director said it was Wonder Woman my jaw dropped. All the blood went to my legs and back to my head. My pulse was racing. I was really excited but I tried to find a calm vice to say ' Ah. Cool.'."
Interviewer: " Cool, clearly, obviously. The coolest."
Gal: "You have to understand, inside I'm dancing samba but I'm trying to act like its 'business as usual'. I was really excited when I did the second audition."
Interviewer: "When did you consider panicking?"
Gal: "There was a very high stress level 'cause they flew me immediately. This was what I was working for. I really prepared for this and I was waiting for the part that will give me this big break. Deep inside you know that it's now or never."
Interviewer: "What, like to be or not to be?"
Gal: "No, Because I will be even if I will not be. But you put so much of your energy and planning and expectations to reach this moment. I don't look down on F&F but I felt like I didn't get my chance to shine and show my acting abilities. The tension and the stress is internal. When I met Ben Affleck It's weird to see him face to face after watching so many of his movies. He is a great actor and director but the nerves and tension wasn't about him it was about me. I had to find the right volume of voice and give a good performance."
Interviewer: "But how can you? It's almost impossible to be your best in an audition.
Gal: "When I got there they put me in a trailer and after all the hair and makeup I had to wait a few hours. Waiting is auditioners biggest enemy. I called Yaron and told him I didn't know what to do. I couldn't calm down. He told me ' Gal, put on Beyonce. Move around. Don't sit there frozen'. I put on 'Diva' and started dancing. Just when the song ended, I was all flushed, there was knock on the door calling me in.
Interviewer: "Nerve-racking."
Gal: "That's the thing with me, I don't get star struck over actors. On the other hand I just saw Shimon Peres in New York and I acted like a 12 year old girl. I think people like Peres or Hilary Clinton who are part of important decision making and part of historic moments impress me. Ben Affleck didn't make me nervous. When I was young I really liked Madonna. I ran into her a month ago and got really excited. I told her ' Madonna, my Queen.' Including a bow and everything. She looked at me like I was crazy but then we talked and she was really nice. Ben was really nice too. When we first met we talked about his movie 'Argo', the Middle East and our kids."
Interviewer: " What about the fact that before you and after you more actresses tried out for the part? More experienced actresses perhaps."
Gal: "I'm very competitive but mostly with myself. There is something paralyzing about thinking about other people, whether they did better than you or not. It's like playing 'Super Mario' and starting with full power and slowly fading out. I'm like a disciplined horse, only look at my road. I will give it the best I got and if it's good for them they will take me and if not then it wasn't meant to be. I will come back to Israel and shoot for Castro and so other stuff, perhaps send audition tapes and if something sticks I'll be happy. "
Interviewer: "You are an annoyingly healthy person."
Gal: "I agree with you. Crazy healthy. I'm a rationalist. I take things in perspective."
Interviewer: "Studies show it's harder to enjoy life if take things too much in perspective."
Gal: Maybe, but it helps you not to get a head of yourself. That’s the way I am. It's not the first time I hear I'm too healthy. My priorities are very clear. The most important thing to me is my home. Yaron and Alma are the most important to me. I will give up a thousand projects for them. That's not what defines me. What defines me is my home. My family. My mom always told me 'It's just a job' and she was right. My sister is the same. We are both very grounded. Even when I was a model I was never one for parties and drugs and stuff like that. "
Interviewer: " Did you ever feel out of you element in Hollywood? Foreign on the set surrounded by people with different cultures and mentalities? "
Gal:" I don't always look to be the center of the party. I look for a place I'm comfortable at. Besides, I think I'm very good at small talk. For the first seven years of my life I was an only child, and I think it gave me good social skills. I like interacting with people. I don't wait for people to say 'hello' I introduce myself right away and share information and show interest. I think a lot of times actors are so used to have a buffer zone between them and the world that they find it refreshing and pleasant when someone just approaches them and talks to them like they are regular people. When I met Kate Winslet on the 'Triple Nine' Set I felt like I finally met a woman that wasn't just an insanely gifted actress but also a mother. I didn't have that on F&F. We had amazing talks about career and motherhood. There is something really nice about meeting an actor you admire and realize he is a lot like you. It's crazy working with these actors and actresses. In the end you get that we are all the same."
The Amazon
When she got the official notice she got Wonder Woman she was in the clouds. Literarily. She was on her way to a job in New York waiting for the answer.
Gal: "I never had to wait so long for a reply. It was a month and a half of torture. It was a crazy roller-coaster. I couldn't talk about it to anyone. On the day they promised a reply I was flying to NY for another gig. When the plane landed I saw I had a lot of missed calls. I called my agent still sitting in the plane with the belt on. She told me ' Congratulations! You got the part.' During the flight I set next to a really nice man. A scientist from The Weizmann Institute of Science. He talked the entire flight about quantum physics. Now, imagine me, sitting on the plane, looking for a little piece of privacy, burring my head between my legs and starting to scream 'Oh my god!' again and again, because I just can't believe it. Then I hang up the phone and he looks at me like 'what just happened?' and asks if everything is alright. I tell him ' I can't really say anything but you will probably read about it tomorrow in the paper.'"
Preparations for the role took many months during which she worked with a personal trainer that taught her everything a super heroin needs to know in order to take down villains.
Gal: "It was very intensive. When I was young I was a real tomboy so I really enjoyed the experience. I see Alma wanting to dress like a princess and put on lipstick and it surprises me. I asked my mom if I was like that too but she said all I wanted back then was to play ball, sweat, and scrap my knees.
Interviewer: "When your casting was announced a lot of comic book nerd said that your body didn't match Wonder Woman's."
Gal: "Don't be shy. They said that I was too skinny and my boobs were too small."
She laughs.
Interviewer: "Were you offended?"
Gal: "I'm really lucky nothing in my life was instantaneous. When I was younger I would take criticism really hard. But now it mostly amused me. The true amazons had one boob so it won't bother them in their archery. So it's not going to be like real amazons. We always try to make everyone happy but we can't.
Interviewer: "But isn't it embarrassing that your breast size became a topic of international discussion?"
Gal: "No. After they asked me here, In Israel, if I have eating disorders and why am I so skinny, they said my head was too big and my body was like a broomstick I can take anything. It's just empty talk. I understand that part of what I'm doing means being exposed. And part of being exposed is being under fire (criticism). "
Interviewer: "And being the source of envy for every Israeli actress?"
Gal: "I surround myself with people that I truly love and that love me. I don't feel the jealousy at all. If it exists it's their and not mine. Maybe when I was younger it could have bother me but now I don't let it. I love women. I have a lot of female friends I will do everything for. If someone isn't close to me it has no effect on me.
Now there is a part that she talks about how she almost became a lawyer. How her she met her husband when she was 23 at a festival in Israel. On the second date he told her he won't be able to hold on on proposing to her and by the end of the date after too much alcohol she threw up on his shoes. They got married two years later. Her daughter is 3 years and 4 months old. She talks about the support she gets from her family. How her husband supports her and he isn't insecure about the money she makes or the men she works with on the set. She is worried about her daughter not having a stable environment but she knows that she is setting an example for her daughter how important it is for a woman to be independent and fulfil your dreams.
Once in a lifetime.
This year is just the rehearsal for the great carousel Gal is about to board. When all the movies she stars in will hit theaters she will no longer be able to be surprised when fans greet her at the airport or ask for her autograph. And like another superhero she already understands that with great power comes great responsibility. Especially not to lose herself.
Gal: "Before I do an audition I'm really excited and it feels like the most important thing in the world. The moment you finish and leave the micro to the macro you remember that it's all ********. I'm lucky. I get to have fun and work doing what I love. When people in this profession get paranoia it impacts their soul. I didn't find the cure for cancer. I'm an actress but most of all I want to be happy. "
Interviewer: "Between all this you have a career to run. You are on the fast track to be a comic and action start. How important is it for you not to be taken as just an action star?"
Gal: "I will never take for granted the job I have right now. (she actually said 'I will never spit into the well from which I drink from'. It's a phrase in Hebrew that means she won't make fun or look poorly on what she is doing right now. I forgot the equivalent in English ). Playing Wonder Women is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can't describe to you how much I wanted to play this character without even knowing I wanted to play her. I met a lot of people from the industry in LA for meetings. They always asked me 'what's your dream role?', and I never could define it. I always answered that I wanted to play a women that is strong and will be a source for women empowerment. I don't want to play a damsel in distress that needs to be saved. I don't like it when women in the movies are shown as the victims. I always thought that if I could send out a massage I want to show the strong side of a woman and how she can handle tough situations."
Interviewer: "Someone heard your prayers."
Gal: "Yes, I get to play the strongest most empowering woman ever – Wonder Woman. I'm so grateful and I thank god every day. I want to devour it and enjoy every bite. "
Interviewer: "By the way, what are Wonder Woman's powers?"
Gal: "She has unbelievable endurance. She is exceptionally strong. She can jump really high and practically fly. She know tons of martial arts styles. She is a strong and serious Woman."
Interviewer: "If, god forbid, you're in a fight will you be able to defend yourself?"
Gal: "Why will I be in a fight?"
Interviewer: "Let me ask it differently. If you and I fight…"
Gal: "I will kick your ass. I'm really strong."
Interviewer: "You will kick my ass?"
Gal: "Yes. And if they give me a sword it won't even be a challenge. When I was in 9th grade we were on a field trip and we played a game on the bus that you hit each other on the back of the neck really hard. Someone hit me so I hit him back so hard he cried. It's been a few years but i'm still a worthy opponent.
Interviewer: "I don't know if I'm more stunned that you are so sure you will beat me in a fight or scared."
Gal: "So close your recorder and let's check it out."
