We've Been Waiting For You, Wonder Woman

Spider-Man, Batman, Iron Man, Superman it was all getting a little too monotonous until Gal Gadot broke box-office records, glass ceilings and everyones expectations as Wonder Woman. She tells Sara Vilkomerson how she broke through.

- Sara Vilkomerson

Wonder Woman was a career-making role for actor Gal Gadot (that’s “Gah-dote”), 33, a move she had never imagined for herself as a kid from small-town Israel. She first dreamed of being a choreographer, then of studying law. Life took an unexpected turn when a pageant scout convinced her to compete in the 2004 Miss Israel contest, which she won and which launched a modelling career. But she slowed down on that in order to serve her two years in the Israeli army, earning a spot as a combat trainer after excelling in a gruelling three-month boot camp. That physical prowess helped her portray the badass Gisele in Fast & Furious, her first Hollywood gig; she even did some of her own stunts in Furious 6. She relied on the same strength as Wonder Woman, a part she will inhabit for the foreseeable future—Wonder Woman 1984 is scheduled for a 2019 release. All right, Gal, let’s start from the very beginning.

What kind of kid were you?

I really liked to perform. My mother always tells this story: I was five. They had a party, and they’d put me to bed. I heard everyone on the rooftop, and I went upstairs. No one paid any attention to me, so I took a hose and sprayed everyone. [Laughs.] Very elegant, right? “It’s meeeee! Look at me!” I loved the attention. But I never connected all the dots that maybe I should be an actress.

And yet here we are.