Gal Gadot: Israel’s ‘Ambassador’ to Hollywood?

Back in 2017, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin met actress Gal Gadot at the premiere of Justice League. His words were no throwaway remark; he praised the Wonder Woman star as a “true and beloved ambassador” for Israel.

His words were almost prophetic. Almost exactly three years later, Gadot came under attack for having the chutzpah to accept a role as Cleopatra in a remake of the Hollywood classic. In the eyes of the ‘woke’ activists attacking Gadot, an Arab actress should have been selected to play the notorious Queen of Egypt, not a Jewish-Israeli one of European heritage.

Very quickly, however, others pointed out the obvious fallacy in the argument: Cleopatra was not Egyptian by birth: she was apparently a white woman of Greek or Macedonian descent, and there is no historical evidence to suggest she had dark skin or Egyptian heritage at all. So, in some ways, a Jewish woman of Askenazi descent was far more appropriate a pick than a native-born Egyptian or Arab actress.

In many ways, Gadot’s story is that of Israel’s, with critics quick to jump on flaws – no matter whether they are real or only perceived.

From the IDF to Hollywood

So what’s behind this attempt to ‘cancel’ one of Hollywood’s brightest stars?

With the film industry put on hold for much of this past year, Israel’s most well-known ‘ambassador’ could be about to make a grand entrance.

Before she was ever Wonder Woman, Gadot was Gisele in “Fast & Furious” (2009), her first major film role which she secured due to her past military experience. She says the American director, Justin Lin, wanted to use her knowledge of weapons. Living up to Israel’s reputation for prowess in combat, at 24 years old, Gadot performed her own stunts while shooting the films.

The Petah-Tikva born beauty is renowned for showing off her impressive martial-artistry skills, made ever-more seductive with the knowledge that Gadot initially honed her physical craft when she served as a fitness/combat readiness instructor in the Israel Defence Forces during her compulsory conscription.

Gadot attributes much of her big break into Hollywood to her army training. In the same year that Gadot first appeared as Wonder Woman, in “Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice”, she upheld a similar image in the hilarious 2016 comedy “Keeping Up with the Joneses”. Alongside Mad Men’s Don Draper, Jon Hamm, she co-stars as a government spy – again expertly trained in firing a gun, driving fast cars and taking top secret business calls, scantily clad in lingerie.

Targeted by the BDS Movement

Before the most recent identity politics attack, her Gadot’s association with the Israeli army has largely been treated with a sense of allure by the international media. When the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel-Lebanon pushed to outlaw her first Wonder Woman (2017) film in Lebanon, world-famous publications like Vanity Fair were quick to pick up the story.

Middle East Eye, for example, published an op-ed by a self-titled “Diaspora Palestinian” political commentator, who posed the question whether a film in which a “Zionist Israeli”, whose character is anti-war, should be endorsed after Gadot publicly supported the IDF’s operation to halt Hamas rocket fire from Gaza in 2014.

But Gadot knows all too well that a sword has two edges. As one of Israel’s greatest exports, the former Miss Israel winner uses her global platform to wear that crown with pride in a bid to stave off the attempts of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement to infiltrate the culture sector.

It’s now a tug of war in the media between the BDS agenda and the continuous stream of successful Israeli content (Fauda, Shtisel, Unorthodox) making waves on international screens.

Israel’s ‘Ambassador’ to Hollywood

As an unofficial ambassador, Gadot is very deliberate when speaking with audiences overseas about Israel, focusing on the light and innovative creation coming out of the Jewish State.

In a 2019 red carpet interview with a journalist from Israeli tabloid site Walla, Gadot dismissed the suggestion that talking about Israel to American press was part of some Zionist strategy, saying that she is rather responding to the swathe of antisemitic messages she receives. She says she believes it is her duty as a public figure to speak out in support of Israel.

“Israel is very important to me,” she told the journalist in Hebrew. “I wish for our country to really be in a good place, and that there will be quiet, stability, peace, and tranquility,” adding that she empowers positive messages about Israel for that end.

“There are no people who want war, or for their children to go to the army, God forbid!” she said.

Gadot’s efforts bid to shift the default narrative that international media spouts, which leaves those who know little about the region and Israel with a skewed and inaccurate view of the country; one that is dominated by death and destruction.

From actress to producer

Despite a delay to her return as Wonder Woman, for which Gadot is also a producer, this real life superhero isn’t sitting idle.

Since opening her production company, Pilot Wave, in October 2019 with husband and real estate investor, Yaron Varsano, Gadot is carving out roles for herself to launch beyond the springboard that catapulted her to international fame.

From WW84’s gladiator-like stadiums which play host to the “Amazon Games”, art imitates life and Gadot is now carving out a mighty new position for herself in the global filmmaking arena. The intention of Pilot Wave is to use “cinematic creativity for growing a new sense of belief in the drama of mankind”, according to its mission statement.

That raison d’etre seems to reverberate with some profundity, when acknowledging the particular brand of “drama” Gadot has experienced, growing up in Israel within the heart of one of the world’s most entrenched conflicts.

“Our productions recharge people with respect towards their own role in life, and empower their personal narrative within the fabric of community”, the production company proclaims, this time with the echo of Gadot’s family history which she describes as “very Jewish, Israeli”. While her father is a sixth-generation Sabra, her mother was born in Israel. Her maternal grandfather survived the Holocaust after being imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Her grandmother escaped before the Nazi invasion.

War, conflict and Jewish history

One only has to draw a line from there to Pilot Wave’s first film ‘“Irena Sendler’”, in which Gadot will star in the titular role of a Polish woman who saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Holocaust.

Through Pilot Wave, it has been set up with Warner Bros and is being written by Australian TV veteran, Justine Juel Gillmer. Marc Platt, of “Lala Land”, “Bridge of Spies” and “Legally Blonde” fame, will also produce.

Gadot and her husband are also co-producing a limited series for Apple TV+ (it was originally being developed for Showtime) about late actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr. Gadot is again playing the lead role, but this time in an eight-part-series that will look at feminism during Hollywood’s golden age and World War II through Lamarr’s life and work.

Also in the pipeline for Pilot Wave is “My Dearest Fidel”, a potential star vehicle for Gadot. The movie is based on Peter Kornbluh’s Politico article “‘My Dearest Fidel’: An ABC Journalist’s Secret Liaison With Fidel Castro”.

Plus, in what’s seen by some as a controversial move, Gadot and her husband are co-producing with Keshet International, the feature film adaptation of Hebrew novel “Borderlife” by Israeli author Dorit Rabinyan. The love story between an Israeli woman and Palestinian man, was banned from mandatory high school reading lists in Israel in 2015 by then-Education Minister Naftali Bennett.

Dealing with criticism

While Gadot is viewed as a more effective ambassador for Israel than the many diplomats stationed around the world, the Israeli media doesn’t hold fire when it comes to highlighting the public’s quick finger pointing.

On social media, too, the public were quick to throw shade after Gadot rallied her celebrity friends in a video singalong of John Lennon’s “Imagine” in a bid to lift the spirits of a world strangled by the hands of COVID-19. Like many celebrities who have been cancelled by the public as being entitled to a voice during this time of crisis, Gadot’s attempt at solidarity was slammed as patronizing by those unconvinced that wealthy people isolating in their palatial homes are aware of the true struggle.

Gadot has remained undeterred by the smattering of bad press and all going well, will be proudly flying the Israeli flag once again when she graces the screens on October 23 in 20th Century Fox’s adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel “Death on the Nile”.

She will also star in “Red Notice,” alongside Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the biggest feature film ever made by Netflix.

The action thriller, set for release in late 2020, adds to the list of Israeli-rooted achievements in arts, health, tech and defense. From Israeli beauty queen to Israel’s unofficial ambassador to Hollywood, Gadot is sure to garner attention from international media, and that can only be a good thing.

(This piece was revised by Emanuel Miller on 19 November, 2020)

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons