Before signing on as Wonder Woman in the DCEU and starring in the Amazon's first solo cinematic outing, Gal Gadot was Miss Israel, a competitor for Miss Universe, a soldier, and a model. Though she would eventually have a recurring role in the Fast and the Furious franchise, Gadot's Hollywood career included what the 32-year-old actress describes as, "so many almosts for big, great things." Gadot, however, says he name just wasn't recongizable enough compared to the competition.
In the lastest episode of The Hollywood Repoter's podcast "Awards Chatter," Gadot describes her life of almosts before Diana of Themyscira, including barely missing out on playing Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road. The role, of course, went to Charlize Theron.
Gadot goes on to explain her frustration with acting and that she nearly quit due to the impact on her family:
"It just came to a point where I was like, 'I don't want to do this to my family. If it's not going to work, why push it?'" she recalls. "I was on the verge of quitting everyhting and just going back to Israel." But a week before the date listed on what she expected to be her final return ticket from Hollywood, Warner Bros. asked her to audition for a secret project. She showed up, read for director Zack Snyder, and then flew back to Israel. A few weeks later, she received a call, was told she was being considered for a role in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and was asked to come back to town to do a camera test opposite Ben Affleck.
Check out the rest of the interview
here, in which Gadot dishes on her life after the
Wonder Woman casting.