Gal Gadot Almost Quit Acting Before Landing Her Wonder Woman Role

CBR

By Liam Nolan

Published May 25, 2017

Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot revealed that she almost quit acting before getting cast as the DC heroine.

When actress Gal Gadot first appeared as Wonder Woman in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Comic Book Resources highlighted her as one of the best parts of the film. Now, with some calling the upcoming Wonder Woman film DC's best outing since Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Gadot has revealed that, prior to getting the role, she almost quit acting.

Gadot dropped that revelation on Jimmy Fallon during an interview segment on The Tonight Show. What caused the actress to nearly leave behind a career that included three Fast and Furious films? A classic frustration -- how hard it can be to find an acting gig sometimes:

"This profession, the rejection... oh dude, it's tough. I had so many 'almosts,' and another camera test, and 'it's almost mine,' and another role, and another role, and I was telling my husband, 'I'm not sure how long I can take it, dragging my family to Los Angeles, doing this.' On that same trip when we were in Los Angeles, I got a phone call from Zack Snyder, who wanted to audition me for this secret role. I was like, 'OK, sure, I'll do that. The audition went great, I went back to Israel to shoot an Israeli movie, and I didn't know if I wanted to continue acting afterwards."

It's a good thing she did. Gadot's next role would end up being Wonder Woman, but she didn't know that then.

"Anyway, I'm in Israel, I get a phone call, they tell me that they want to do a camera test – I'm like, 'Again? Another camera test? Another almost, almost?' And I said, 'OK, whatever. What am I testing for? What's the part?' And my agent goes, 'They didn't tell you?' And I'm like, 'No.' So no one knows what I'm going to be."

Gadot went on to explain that Snyder called her two days later, at which point he revealed the nature of her secret role. Obviously, it was a shock.

"He was like, 'I don't know if you have this character in Israel, if she's big or not, but did you ever hear about Wonder Woman?' And I was like [mimes fainting]."

Wonder Woman tells the story of the Amazonian princess who, after discovering the body of American fighter pilot Steve Trevor washed ashore on Themyscira, sets out to bring an early end to World War I. The long-awaited film was recently deemed the summer's most anticipated, beating out the likes of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Opening in theaters on June 2, Wonder Woman stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Lucy Davis, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya, Ewen Bremner, Saïd Taghmaoui and David Thewlis.

(via Slash Film)