Next year’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, a follow-up to 2013’s Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill as Superman, features Ben Affleck (sigh) as Batman, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luther, and Amy Adams as Lois Lane. But it’s the role of Wonder Woman, which is played Israeli model and actress Gal Gadot, that has us excited.
Gadot, who grew up in Rosh HaAyin, near Petah Tikva, is featured in the August issue of Vanity Fair in what has recently been a non-stop PR offensive for the Warner Bros. action vehicle.
“I don’t remember this, but my mom told me that when I was three they threw a party on the rooftop of the house,” Gadot, 30, told the magazine. “They put me to bed, and I heard people coming into the house and no one came to me. I went to the rooftop and took a hose and I started to spray water on everyone, just to get attention.”
When Gadot was 12, she thought she desired a career in the performing arts, but it was dance that attracted her, not acting. “I was a dancer for 12 years—ballet, hip-hop, modern, jazz,” she said. “I thought that I wanted to be a choreographer.”
After she graduated from high school, during the time before she was to start her two years in the Israel Defense Forces, Gadot was asked to enter the competition for Miss Israel. Thinking it would be an experience she could tell her grandchildren about, she said yes, and then, “extremely surprised,” won (in 2004). After the service Gadot started law school, but a few months later she was invited to audition for a James Bond film. She didn’t get the part, but she did land the role of the rather Bond Girl-ish Gisele in Fast & Furious, the fourth film in the Vin Diesel series. “It was a very, very big thing for me,” she says. “It was the first movie I’ve ever done and my second project as an actress.”
The trailer for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, which feels overwrought, debuted at Comic-Con on Saturday.
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Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.
