This week, “Wonder Woman” and “Snow White” star Gal Gadot made history when she became the first Israeli actor to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Gadot peppered her speech on the special occasion with Hebrew sentences and told the crowd that if a girl from Rosh HaAyin, the Israeli city where she grew up, can make it to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, then anyone can achieve anything.
The event was flocked by both anti-Israel and pro-Israel protesters, the latter there to support the most prominent Israeli star in Hollywood about to become a permanent fixture of its scenery. Gadot was there with her four daughters, Alma, Maya (who also celebrated her birthday that day! Mazel tov!), Daniella and Ori, her husband Jaron Varsano and many friends and fans. Discerning viewers can see Israeli Golden Globe and Emmy nominee Shira Haas, who recently played Sabra in “Captain America: Brave New World,” sitting behind Gadot during the ceremony. a
Two of the people who helped make Gadot’s career what it is today paid tribute to the star for the special occasion — “Fast & Furious” star Vin Diesel, who gave Gadot her first big Hollywood break when he cast her as Gisele Yashar, a former Mossad agent, in the franchise’s fourth movie, and Patti Jenkins, the director of the “Wonder Woman” movies.
Both Diesel and Jenkins gushed about their former co-worker, praising not only the 39-year-old’s star quality, but also her kindness. Diesel called her an “angel” and talked about how he knew Gal was his Gisele from the first screen test. He added that his own mother fell in love with Gadot when she watched the film, saying her favorite thing about “Fast & Furious” was his chemistry with her. He talked about how Gal was there for the birth of Diesel’s son and daughter, and how he and Jaron spent time together talking about life in Diesel’s trailer and how excited he was to see them start their own family. Gal, he shared, was also the first person there to wipe his tears when co-star Paul Walker passed away in 2013. “I just love her so much,” Diesel said emotionally. “Thank you, Gal.”
Jenkins, the director of “Monster” and the “Wonder Woman” movies, was even more effusive. Jenkins and Gadot became so close that they even lived together for a bit during the pandemic. Jenkins called Gadot one of the few “movie stars,” people who can be your hero, your lover, your villain on screen. She recalled moments when she was watching Gal work on “Wonder Woman” where she and the rest of the crew behind the scenes were just blown away by that star quality — especially given the difficult conditions she had to perform her scenes in, in tight bathing suits, in the biting cold, held up by crazy contraptions. Gadot, she said, always was the “happiest, kindest, most loving, most heroic person on the set,” with Jenkins just waiting for her to complain and Gal only staying positive.
Yet the thing that means the most to Jenkins is how Gadot embodied an iconic character both on and off set. Jenkins has spoken about what Superman meant to her, and how she wanted the “Wonder Woman” franchise to change young people’s lives in the same way. “The most special thing for me, truly, was watching when a kid would reach up and Gal would kneel down.” Those kids, Jenkins said, were not “being met by an actor — she is Wonder Woman, she is the most wonderful, kind, gracious person. What a gift to have someone like that embody a hero that I care so much about… Someone who wants to make this world a better place, and it’s a much better place for having you in it.”
By the time Gadot took the stage, she had cried a lot of tears that were wiped away by her little girls, all four of whom presented for their mom’s special day. She tried to keep it together for her own speech, half improvised and half read from a sheet of paper. Her voice cracked with emotion when she reminisced about her and Jaron driving by Hollywood Boulevard 15 years ago. “Who would’ve thought that we would ever get such an honor?” she wondered.
“I’m just a girl from a town in Israel,” she said to cheers, “and I could never imagine such [a] moment, I never dreamt of becoming an actress… this is gonna last long after I’m out of here. It’s even more than any award, because we can share it with the world. This is for everybody. I am surrounded by such iconic names.” She thanked Diesel for “taking a chance on a complete unknown…. your faith in me completely changed the course of my life… I love you and we’re always family.”
She called Jenkins her Wonder Woman behind the camera, saying she is so “grateful the world has brought us together,” calling the director a “beacon of light” who “always guided me with so much love, so much compassion.” She expressed her gratitude to the filmmaker for being her friend from the beginning, and for giving her the confidence to finally call herself an actress.
She then went on to thank her immediate family, starting with her husband Jaron, who she called her rock, her compass, her best friend. “Whenever my success grew, I always got pregnant,” she joked, saying she always tells the people around her that “it’s either making babies or I’m making movies.”
She addressed some Hebrew lines to her friends and family in Israel — “I love you,” she said in her native tongue. “Ani ohevet etchem,” and added, “afilu she’atem rechokim atem tamid krovim balev,” meaning, “Even though you are far, you are always near in my heart.”
She then thanked her four daughters. “Being your ima [Hebrew for mom] is my greatest privilege and the most meaningful thing I’ve ever done. Thank you for being part of the circus… You allow me to fulfill my dreams and I hope you know that you can be the same. You inspire me every day to be a better person.” She told the girls that she hopes they know that this isn’t about fortune or fame — “this is about going for your passion and working hard, and if you do that, you can achieve anything, my sweet girls.”
“This star will remind me that with hard work and passion and some faith, anything is possible,” the actress, who was recently honored with a special award from the ADL, said during the speech.
“To all the young women out there, the young people, especially young girls watching, if a girl from Rosh HaAyin can get a star at the Hollywood Boulevard, anything is possible,” she said to cheers. She later took the most incredible pictures with her four girls and her husband Jaron by the star.
Ahead of the event, Gadot talked to Variety about what has made her one of the most high profile advocates for the Israeli hostages. “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 shared. “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.”
