Despite its 2½-hour-plus run time, Friday’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” might leave audiences wanting more. And we don’t mean more words in its title. The superhero flick is getting hammered by critics, but the one positive may just be the introduction of Wonder Woman. The sword-wielding Amazon doesn’t get many lines or all that much screen time, yet you might still leave the theater desperate to know more about her — as well as the actress who plays her. She is Gal Gadot, a tall, willowy former model who is about to become a household name. “BvS” marks the most high-profile role yet for the 30-year-old (whose name is pronounced “Gall Guh-duht”), and next year she’ll get her own “Wonder Woman” solo film, directed by Patty Jenkins of 2003’s “Monster.” Not bad for someone who didn’t plan on acting in the first place. Gadot grew up in Israel. Her father worked as an engineer, her mother a teacher. The family was religious. “I definitely have a strong sense of my Jewish and Israeli identity,” Gadot told totallyjewish.com in 2011. “I was brought up in a very Jewish, Israeli family environment, so of course my heritage is very important to me . . . I enjoy telling people about where I come from and my religion.” As a youth, she studied dance for more than a decade, and had originally planned to be a choreographer. Just out of high school, she entered the 2004 Miss Israel pageant, just so — she says — she’d have a good story to tell her grandchildren. She won, but failed to advance at Miss Universe. She did her mandatory two-year stint in the Israeli Defense Forces, serving as a combat trainer. While in the army, she posed for a Maxim article called “The Chosen Ones: Israeli Defense Forces,” which stirred up controversy for turning female soldiers into pinups. Upon completion of her military service, Gadot entered law school. While she was studying, a casting agent looking for the new Bond girl saw her photo on a board at a modeling agency and asked Gadot to audition for “Quantum of Solace.” Gadot declined at first, saying she had no interest in acting, until her agent demanded she show up. She didn’t win the role (it went to Olga Kurylenko), but the casting director liked what she saw and ultimately helped Gadot land a role in 2009’s “Fast & Furious.” “It was a very, very big thing for me,” she told Vanity Fair last year. “It was the first movie I’ve ever done and my second project as an actress.” She left law school to pursue acting full time and quickly began booking work, including “Knight & Day” with Tom Cruise and several Israeli TV series. In 2008, she married developer Yaron Varsano, and the couple once owned a five-star Tel Aviv el. They also have another project: a young daughter named Alma. Gadot says she’s now committed to acting. “I can work for three months and then I can have six months off,” she told Interview in 2015. “When I choose a role, I always think about whether my daughter [will] get something out of it when she watches the movie later after she’s grown up.” She might want to keep the “Batman v Superman” reviews on lockdown then.
family↧
