Gal Gadot is everywhere these days, and rightly so, considering her movie “Wonder Woman” is about to come out on June 2. The pre-release just came out today, meaning that some very lucky people were able to see the film before its released to larger audiences (and so far, it’s been received positively).
This is a big deal for women (because female-led superhero movies aren’t exactly super common), and Gadot, a charming rising star.
Because of all the hype, Gadot was a guest on Jimmy Fallon’s show, where she mentioned that her pregnant belly was green-screened out of the film. It’s kind of cute to know that her daughter was kind of a star in “Wonder Woman” as well. In a previous interview with W, she mentioned that she didn’t actually know much about the female superhero growing up:
“Growing up in Israel, I didn’t know much about Wonder Woman. But it’s like Superman—a household name.”
Even more ironically, Gadot didn’t plan on becoming an actress either. She described how she was hesistant to audition for the role of the Bond girl in “Quantum of Solace,” stating in W:
“I said, ‘No way.’ I said, ‘I’m studying law and international relations. I’m way too serious and smart to be an actress, and besides, the script is all in English.’ I spoke English, but I wasn’t comfortable with it.”
Gadot went on to explain what her “Wonder Woman” audition was like (and how Beyonce helped her out indirectly)–and how she found out she was pregnant on the set of “Justice League”:
“The director, Zack Snyder, asked me to do a camera test. That was torture. They were looking at six or seven girls, and we were all in separate trailers and were told to stay inside until they called us. Waiting is my enemy Number One, and I was losing my mind. So, I decided to put on Beyoncé. ‘Who runs the world? Girls!; I just started to dance, and I let my anxiety go. Thank you, Beyoncé!
I found out I was pregnant while shooting Justice League. I had terrible migraines. I would show up in dark glasses, and they all thought I was going Hollywood, but I was only pregnant.”
The Israeli mom echoed a similar sentiment about not wanting to be an actress in Glamour, sharing an adorable story from her childhood that foreshadowed her career as an actress long before she realized it:
“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. 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.”
But now Gadot is a mom herself, with a 5-year-old daughter named Alma and newborn Maya, who is beginning to realize her mom is Wonder Woman (and a self-identified feminist at that)–and how she deals with her “Jewish mom guilt”:
“If you ask her, “Where’s Mommy?” she’ll cross her wrists and say, “Wonder Woman!” And she’s seen the costume. She wanted to know why I wear a tiara and what it means for her: ‘Mommy, am I a princess?’
The Jewish guilt I feel about being a working mom is the hardest thing.
When Alma was around two, I was really anxious about how to travel with a child, moving her from one country to the other, all the different languages. It was my husband who told me: Gal, think about what kind of a role model you want to be. If you want to show Alma that she can follow her dreams, that’s what you should do, and we will figure out the logistics.'”
In Interview, she more deeply delved into how she’s raising Alma in Israel–and what she wants her to learn as she grows up:
“Alma is bilingual; she understands and speaks Hebrew and English. She’s very outgoing. Going through all of these experiences and meeting new people and going to different countries and cultures, you can only gain from it.
At the end of the day, I always tell myself that it is very, very important for me to be a good role model for Alma, my daughter. As long as she’s the first priority, which she is and always will be, it’s okay if Mommy goes to work and has a busy period, as long as I balance everything.
When I choose a role, I always think about whether my daughter can get something out of it when she watches the movie later after she’s grown up. Or even just show her that Mommy’s doing what Mommy loves to do. And therefore, she can do what she loves to do and have a family at the same time.”
Don’t forget to watch her interview with Jimmy Fallon below:
