Gal Gadot

Gal Gadot didn't want to be Miss Israel 2004. She entered the pageant almost out of family obligation, with the deliberate intention of not winning, but fate had other plans. That victory pushed her into a world of spotlights that she, a law and international relations student, had observed from a healthy distance.

Discipline came later.

For two years, she served in the Israel Defense Forces as a combat instructor. There she learned to handle weapons and understand how the body moves under pressure, technical knowledge that years later would save Hollywood studios thousands of euros in stunt doubles.

Justin Lin cast her in Fast & Furious in 2009 for her genuine skill with weapons. On the set of the saga's fourth installment, Gadot performed her own stunts on the motorcycle and used doubles only when it was unavoidable. She reprised the role of Gisele in three more films until her character was eliminated in the sixth installment in 2013.

The Amazon's Risk

In 2013 she received a call from Zack Snyder for a secret audition. She didn't know which character she was playing until she read lines alongside Ben Affleck in a closed studio. The announcement of her casting as Diana Prince caused a deafening uproar on internet forums, as many fans criticized her physique for not fitting the comic book canon.

No one complained again after the premiere of 2017.

The film Wonder Woman grossed $822 million at the worldwide box office. That success broke the glass ceiling for women directors in big-budget cinema and changed the actress's pay structure. For the sequel shot in 2020, her salary went from an initial $300,000 to $10 million.

And the gamble paid off.

But the path has not been free of media missteps. In 2020 she led a viral initiative to sing "Imagine" during lockdown, which was met with massive public backlash. Gadot acknowledged in 2022 that the idea was premature and lacked sensitivity given the global context of that moment.

Taking Control of the Board

Gadot co-founded the production company Pilot Wave with her husband in 2019. The goal was to stop waiting for agents' calls and start developing her own projects with real weight in the industry. One of her most talked-about moves was backing Heart of Stone in 2023, where she aimed to build a female spy franchise similar to the James Bond saga.

In 2021 she starred in Red Notice for Netflix alongside Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds. The film became one of the platform's most-watched titles, but critics were harsh about the script's lack of depth. Despite the negative reviews, the movie confirmed her ability to draw massive audiences in the digital space.

In 2025 she plays the Evil Queen in Disney's live-action version of Snow White. Filming the musical numbers required a large array of digital effects that pushed the production budget above $200 million.